How a flawed ‘throwback’ series gained acceptance
Against all odds, the series for V12-powered Superleague Formula cars adorning the liveries of football clubs earned a place in the hearts of many. Even 10 years on from its last race, on this day in 2011, it is fondly remembered by those who were part of it.
The Superleague Formula championship had lost its way by the summer of 2011.
It had been founded amid much optimism on the premise of connecting football with motorsport, shortly before the global financial crisis struck in 2008. And now it had begun a process of turning away from its USP, hoping to capitalise on A1GP’s collapse by welcoming nations onto the grid. But only two race weekends were staged that year, at Assen and Zolder, before the championship folded.
That was a bitter shame, because the series based around the formidable 750bhp Panoz-MCT was perhaps the closest thing we’ve had in the 21st century to an equivalent of the enormously popular Formula 5000 category (if we’re dismissing Australia’s S5000 series), albeit without the chassis variation.
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