Ten Weeks to Go:
Ø Rally hero Colin McRae and F1 star David Coulthard commit toAutosport Team GB.Ø DTM Champion Mattias Ekstrom confirmed for Sweden.Ø Michèle Mouton test drives the Stade de France track.
Weeks after newly crowned F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher and NASCAR greats Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson confirmed their participation at The 17th Race of Champions – Nations Cup, two of Britain’s greatest motor sport drivers have added their names to the who’s-who of motorsport who will go head-to-head in the 70,000 seat Stade de France on December 4th. 1995 World Rally Champion Colin McRae and 13-time Grand Prix winner David Coulthard are the latest superstars to have agreed to race. McRae is a former Champion of Champions at the event, which has previously been held in Paris, Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands. Coulthard is a rookie but is enthusiastic about making his debut alongside McRae. Together they will form Autosport Team GB, backed by Britain’s top motor sport magazine.
“Having watched the event with interest for many years, I am very much looking forward to competing against the entry of World class contenders,” said Coulthard speaking from Asia, where he is contesting the Chinese and Japanese Grands Prix. Coulthard, like Schumacher and all the drivers, will be racing to help the organisers IMP raise money for ICM, the Paris-based Institute for Brain and Spinal cord Disorders.
Scots McRae and Coulthard will form the backbone of the British team entered in the Nations Cup – where national teams do battle in a mix of cars on a specially designed parallel track with a crossover bridge constructed of slippery asphalt. The track will be laid above the hallowed ground normally reserved for football and rugby internationals. McRae is confident of the Brits’ abilities to fight the best motor sport nations in the world.
“This is going to be a even more competitive year than usual for the Race of Champions,” he said. “The Stade de France should be amazing. This year will be quite different so that will make it a more level playing field than before. It is not really racing and not really rallying. So, unlike previously, the WRC drivers won't necessarily be at an advantage.”
“There’s a lot of high-profile drivers, the new venue and a new surface. Luckily, being a rally driver, I am used to adapting to changing conditions. DC is great driver, so I am hoping we will be up there. Personally I am hoping to be one of the few drivers to beat Michael this year and certainly the first from outside F1!”
The announcement of the British squad has bolstered an already formidable line-up of other nationalities. The French team will be captained by World Rally Championship leader Sébastien Loeb. Alongside Michael Schumacher in the German team will be WRC stalwart Armin Schwarz. And Sweden will boast multi-skilled racer and rally driver Mattias Ekstrom, who won the Group N class in this year’s Swedish Rally and recently clinched the DTM German Touring Car Championship title in his Audi. Ekstrom is hopeful of being joined by Sweden’s Indianapolis 500 winner Kenny Brack.
“If I have Kenny with me I am confident Sweden will have a chance of winning the Nations Cup,” said Ekstrom. “But the competition will be fierce. I am looking forward to competing against the likes of Colin McRae and Sébastien Loeb. This is going to be an amazing year for the Race of Champions. I am so excited to be part of it.”As more and more big name drivers commit to The 17th Race of Champions – Nations Cup, so ticket sales continue to boom. The capacity for December 4th will be slightly less than for a football or rugby game - some seats have had to be removed for the racing, to accommodate the track and to augment safety.
“I will be testing the track this Friday in one of the Ferrari 360 Modenas the racing drivers will be using on the day,” revealed former world rally star Michele Mouton, joint event organiser with Fredrik Johnsson. “It is going to be a very challenging track with little scope for mistakes. My aim is to make it fair for the drivers and exciting for the fans.”
For ticket information to the 2004 Race of Champions, please visit: www.stadefrance.comThe 2004 Race of Champions–Nations Cup supports ICM (The institute for Brain and Spinal cord Disorders) andADREC (The Association for the Development of Research on the Brain and Spinal cord Disorders)
