Motorsport News

SHP TO RUN THREE CLASSES

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- By Stephen Lickorish Additional reporting by Brian Phillips

The organisers of the Pickup Truck Racing Championsh­ip are planning to create a mini-package of three series to run at the popular British Truck meetings next year.

In addition to its successful Pickup series, SHP Engineerin­g will also run a Super Silhouette­s championsh­ip and a series for American-style sprint cars at truck meetings, with the focus on providing entertaini­ng racing for spectators.

SHP will take over organising the British Automobile Racing Club-run Intermarqu­e series and will rename it to reflect the category’s original title – although the existing Intermarqu­e organisers still intend to have their own separate series too.

“We had a meeting with the Intermarqu­e drivers and they seemed on board for it,” explained SHP founder Sonny Howard. “Carl Boardley had a new Ginetta out at Brands Hatch [built to the new series’ regulation­s] and he’s got two or three others on order and Ricky Hunn had a new Mazda RX-8.

“We have rewritten the rules so it will be for spaceframe chassis, frontengin­ed, rear-wheel drive cars. I think it relates it back to what it was in the first place [when the series was founded off the back of short oval racing]. We’ve also changed the name to Super Silhouette­s and it’s now what it says on the tin. By rewriting the regulation­s, we’ve ended up bringing them in line and they will use the same points system and qualifying [format] as the trucks.”

Richard Smith, a long-standing Intermarqu­e racer, along with his brother Simon and sons Lewis and Daniel, welcomed the change. He believes it will help attract new entries and added: “We want it to be run profession­ally and to race at some bigger meetings so we have to be prepared to travel a bit more.”

Super Silhouette­s won’t join the Pickups at Thruxton, with Howard describing the Hampshire circuit as “not really suitable for them”, but will appear at the other rounds.

Howard is also launching a third series for American-style sprint racers – and cars from all three categories will be at Autosport Internatio­nal in January.

“It’s a new concept with entertainm­ent value and it’s something different,” said Howard. “It will be quirky. But they don’t run big engines so haven’t got the big top [section]. We’ve got six in build and they will also be at the Autosport show.

“There’s lots of kids and families that go to the big truck events and I think these cars will appeal to these people.”

Howard also plans to create a special event for the classes at Croft in September.

“We are hoping to go into Darlington shopping mall and end up putting the trucks and Super Silhouette­s on show,” he said.

 ??  ?? New package to focus on entertaini­ng racing
New package to focus on entertaini­ng racing
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? Intermarqu­e to be renamed
Intermarqu­e to be renamed
 ??  ?? New Ginetta has been built
New Ginetta has been built

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