Intersport Racing Extends Operations To UK
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| Lola B06/10-AER |
| Photo: John Thawley |
Intersport Racing, the longest running privateer team in the American Le Mans Series, has retained the services of Martin Dixon. Dixon will serve as Sporting Director for Intersport Racing for the upcoming 2010 American Le Mans Series season. As one of the original and founding members of Intersport Racing, Dixon is no stranger to the team or the American Le Mans Series.
In conjunction with his responsibilities at Intersport, Dixon will partner with former A1 GP Technical Director, John Travis, to coordinate and operate Intersport Racing UK. Intersport Racing UK intends to run 2 cars in the single seater series “Super League." The Super League Series is supported by major soccer teams in the UK and Europe.
"I’m very excited to be returning to Intersport Racing with Jon and Clint Field, and the American Le Mans Series." Martin said. "Intersport Racing has seen fantastic growth as a team and have truly become a force to be reckoned with. Jon and Clint have become very close friends of mine. I have always admired both of them for what they have achieved and I'm confident that with their support the formulation of Intersport Racing UK with will benefit both programs."
"With John Travis in charge of the engineering and technical issues for Intersport Racing UK," expressed Dixon, "it will create an opportunity for the Intersport Racing brand to provide services to drivers on either side of the Atlantic. This has been a dream of ours for quite some time."
Travis is a highly experienced race car designer and race engineer. He has worked with notable teams such as Penske, Lola Cars and Epsilon. His role with Penske was that of Chief designer and race engineer. With both Martin and John at the helm, Intersport UK, will prove to be a formidable team.
Martin brings with him a wealth of knowledge and over 30 years of racing experience. After many years as part of the Intersport family, Martin was recruited by AER to run their Nissan World series engine program. More recently Dixon was Project Manager for A1 Grand Prix in charge of production for the new A1 Grand Prix car used in the 2009 season.
Through out his career in motorsports, Martin Dixon has headed up numerous race teams including; Onyx Race Engineering’s Formula One Team, Bettenhausen Motorsport and A1 GP Teams Lebanon and Canada.
One of the founding teams of the American Le Mans Series, Intersport Racing has established itself as a premier independent team in sports car racing. The Dublin, Ohio-based team has taken on mightiest of factory prototype teams in recent seasons and posted noteworthy class victories in that span including an LMP1 triumph at Detroit in 2008 and 2006 at Sebring.
Team owner Clint Field won 2005 P2 class championship, three years after father Jon accomplished the same feat. Clint also reigns as the youngest prototype champion in Series and IMSA history.
In 2008, became first prototype team in Series history to campaign on cellulosic E85, a pioneering effort in the Series’ Green Racing initiative and the first privateer team to start in 100 American Le Mans races.
The team campaigned the full-season in 2009 with a Lola B06/10-AER with the father-son combination serving as the primary drivers.
The American Le Mans Series will open its 12th season with America’s greatest sports car race, the 58th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida from March 17-20. The green flag will fall at 10:35 a.m. on Saturday, March 20 with live coverage on SPEED.
The annual American Le Mans Series Winter Test is scheduled for February 22-23, also at Sebring International Raceway.