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Gelles
Racing teaming up for Valencia
Front
Royal, Virginia, October 15th, 2006
Gelles
Racing should be the only American racing team to travel abroad to
the Formula BMW World Final in Valencia next month. Team owner Bob
Gelles announced today at least five drivers of international
calibre will be among the 36 entries in the four-day BMW race fest
in Spain. Three regular 2006 Gelles drivers, Adrien Herberts,
Maxime Pelletier and Sebastian Saavedra, will head to Europe while
American Ryan Phinny and Formula BMW UK front runner Ross Curnow
will join them. The fourth BMW World Finals are set to take place
from November 23 to 26 at the facility that has become the Formula
BMW headquarters.
‘This will
be our first time at the World Final’, claimed team owner Bob
Gelles, ‘and we will bring a whole six-car team over there. Three
of our 2006 regulars will return to the track where they tested a
BMW for the first time. French Canadian Maxime Pelletier and
Colombian Sebastian Saavedra will vie to be the Top Rookie in this
year’s contest. Adrien Herberts from British Columbia is a 2-year
veteran that anticipates a strong weekend.’
‘We will
also have Californian Ryan Phinny: he raced with us last year at
Laguna Seca in the first rounds of the 2005 season and finished in
tenth place in the 2006 standings. I am also very happy to have
Ross Curnow from the United Kingdom join us. 18 year-old Curnow
has been one of the stars of the BMW UK series for the last three
years and has won rounds in every one of them: he was a Junior
Scholar and Best Rookie in 2004 and just missed vice-champion this
year by a mere 4 points. Ross could possibly compete in America
next year and this will be his first experience with a U.S. team.’
Completely
revised cars
Since the end of the season in September, all six Gelles FB02
armada were completely stripped for a major revision. ‘We will be
sending almost brand new cars to Europe,’ added Gelles. ‘We didn’t
leave any component from a complete overhaul and we know our cars
will be in top shape. We will also have our best engineers and
staff available and we look forward to putting on a good show. We
still have ONE seat available since we are entering all six
cars and we are waiting for a confirmation for the last one.”
In 2007,
Gelles Racing enters the Champ Car Atlantic Championship with a
four-car effort and the Formula BMW USA Championship with six
cars. Western Union, BMW of Sterling, Pure and Simple, Inc.,
Hebert & LeBleu sponsors the team. Gelles Racing announced it will
campaign in the Champ Car series in 2007 with the next generation
Panoz DP-01.
For more information, Bob Gelles may be contacted at (703)
926-2474 or by email
bob@gellesracing.com.
Formula BMW UK
2006 Front Runner Ross Curnow will join Gelles Racing in Valencia
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