International lineup for Italian Grand Prix Support Race
9th September 2021
On September 10-12, the Sports Prototype Cup heads to Monza for the official support races to the Formula 1 Heineken Italian Grand Prix. This prestigious event has attracted teams from the UK, Germany, Switzerland and Romania to compete in the two 35 minute races. These will take place in front of a full crowd of Tifosi at the historic Monza circuit.
This is the Cup's second official F1 support race event after a successful debut at the Portuguese Grand Prix last year. It shares the support race bill with the FIA Formula 2 Championship and the Porsche Supercup, underlining the growing profile of the Cup
Revolution A-One Trophy
Previous race winners James Abbott, Michel Frey and British Olympian Sir Chris Hoy head the line up in the advanced carbon-fibre Revolution A-One prototypes that will be the top class at this premium event. Richard Wells, who finished on the podium at the Portuguese Grand Prix in his debut circuit racing year, is also sure to be a contender for victory heading a three-car Breakell Racing entry
Adding an international flavour is Race Performance, the successful Le Mans team entering Frey, Pierre Schroeder and Marcello Marateotto, and DD-Racing with experienced German driver Dominik Dierkes.
Another favourite for victory is Jesse Menczer. The San Diego domiciled Brit took a podium at Portimao last year and has extensive Monza experience from racing in the Italian Prototype Championship.
Radical SR3 racers Steven Lake and Chris Short make the jump to the A-One, picking the 530hp/tonne carbon fibre prototype after racing their SR3s last year.
The two races take place on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, running to a 35 minute sprint format with a rolling start.
Radical SR3 Trophy
The evergreen Radical SR3 has been a mainstay of sportscar racing grids for two decades, and this arguably is the highest profile race event for the SR3 yet. Breakell, 360 and Valour Racing have committed to the class and are joined by a three-driver team from Radical Romania.
Radical Challenge regulars Martin Verity and Charles Graham will make their Cup debut at Monza, Stefan Mihnea, Razvan Galan and Alexandru Mirea lead the impressive Romanian charge and Polish SR3 driver Jacek Zielonka joins the Valour Racing team for this event.
Drivers to watch
Sir Chris Hoy
European Le Mans Series 2015 LMP3 Champion and a winner in the Sports Prototype Cup at Silverstone this year, Sir Chris Hoy, MBE is best known as a six-time Olympic champion. With a total of seven Olympic medals, six gold and one silver, Hoy is the second most decorated Olympic cyclist of all time.
With his three gold medals in 2008 Summer Olympics, Hoy became Scotland's most successful Olympian.
James Abbott
Son of Revolution and Radical founder, Phil, James has won in GT Open, British Formula 4 and has done more development miles in the Revolution A-One than any other driver. He is now working on developing a 500hp Revolution that will be introduced in 2022 that promises to offer speeds faster than an LMP3 car for half the cost.
Marcello Marateotto
An experienced Gentleman driver, the Swiss lawyer has raced in the Road to Le Mans LMP3 Cup and is also an investor in Revolution Race Cars. His John Player Special inspired livery will stand out on track.
Michel Frey
One of the most experienced drivers on the grid, the Swiss is hugely experienced in LMP2 cars, racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and Le Mans 24 hours. He also races a Lola Aston Martin LMP1 in the Masters Endurance Legends Series.
Richard Wells
A driver who moved from rallying to circuit racing in 2020, taking his Revolution to podiums at Snetterton and Portimao. He’s knocking on the door of an overall win with his dazzling car control, transferring the talent nurtured on muddy British rallies to high downforce racing.
Jesse Menczer
The San Diego based, British born entrepreneur has several wins In Italian Prototype Racing so is sure to be a Monza front runner. He’s also three time Radical North America SR8 Champion
Matt Brookes
Winner of the 24h series at Portimao in 2017 in a Honda Civic type R and a front runner in the UK Radical SR3 series. Brookes made his Revolution debut in 2020 and took third place at Silverstone this year.
About the cars
Revolution A-One
A British car company, which built its first race car just two years ago, has now earned the accolade of being an official F1 support race at both Portugal 2020 and Italy 2021.
Revolution Race Cars was formed by the team who had decades of experience in customer sportscars and their A-One is designed to fill the gap between Radical type race cars and Le Mans Prototypes.
In the UK, the Revolution races as part of the Sports Prototype Cup. In a varied field of sportscars, the A-One won every race in 2020. Customers have been attracted by the Revolution’s carbon fibre chassis that complies with the latest FIA safety regulations and the advanced aerodynamics that have been honed to reward professional and amateur drivers alike. Faster than a GT3 car, the A-One offers near-LMP3 pace with low running costs, making it attractive to race-hire teams. The 3.7 V6 engine only needs to be serviced every 10,000km and the suspension and bodywork features innovative, easily replaceable, components.
Revolution was created by Phil Abbott, the founder of Radical 20 years ago and they share a grid with the Radical SR3 in the Cup.
Radical SR3
The most popular Radical model, over 1,000 SR3 have been built. The car is built on a carbon-steel spaceframe chassis, and uses an RPE-tuned Suzuki Generation 3 4-cylinder, 1500cc DOHC motorcycle engine.
