1st March, 2013
The Avon Tyres British GT Championship welcomes a sixth new team to the series this year in Team Nigeria Racing Eagle, a new racing project from the African continent, fielding an Audi R8 LMS in the GT3 category.
The project is the mastermind of Ribi Adeshokan, who has a desire to engage African people into motorsport and develop motorsport into an industry for Africa. After initial plans to run a team in the A1GP single-seater championship were halted when the series folded, Adeshokan investigated alternative options for the Nigeria Racing Eagle project.
Based on a number of factors, including the popularity of super cars with Africa’s more affluent community, GT racing and in particular GT3 seemed an obvious choice. This year the team appointed Leeds-based United Autosports as their technical partner, but plan to eventually have a wholly African team engineering the R8 LMS, with a mid-season move to an R8 LMS ultra already in preparation.
Drivers for the season include 26 year-old South African, Adrian Zaugg, and 29 year-old Cameroonian, Christian Ebong. Both drivers are in preparation for the season start at Oulton Park in just over a month on the Easter Weekend (30 March – 1 April).
Adeshokan told British GT Championship website, www.britishgt.com that “Our vision is to use the British GT platform to engage with people of an African origin who are emotionally attached to Africa and have a sense of belonging and pride in their country. We want to introduce these people to motorsport and show the world that there is more to the sport than Formula 1.
“Ultimately we want them to take pride in our team and support us like they would an African sportsperson at the Olympics. We’re also working on bringing British GT to African television as we seek to attract corporate sponsors, including international brands with interest in Africa or those wanting to establish themselves further in Africa, helping them to promote and market their brands.”