FIA GT Championship

Sangari Team Brazil joins FIA GT Championship

Starting at the Total 24 Hours of Spa next month the FIA GT Championship will have another GT1 Corvette C6.R in its races this season. Today it was confirmed that Sangari Team Brazil will join the GT1 class for the remainder of the 2009 championship.

The Corvette C6.R will be entered by DKR Engineering, in partnership with Brazilian company Sangari. Under the banner of Sangari Team Brazil the C6.R will have an all-Brazilian line up. Whilst the complete crew for the 24 Hours at Spa-Francorchamps has not yet been announced it was confirmed that former Arrows F1 driver Enrique Bernoldi will be sharing the car with former Formula 3 and Formula Nippon driver Roberto Streit.

Stephane Ratel was very happy with the addition of Sangari Team Brazil to the FIA GT Championship: “Attracting drivers from overseas is one of our prime objectives, in order to build up interest for GT racing in their countries. We hope that having a Brazilian car in the FIA GT Championship in 2009 will prove to be a first step towards having a round of the future FIA GT1 World Championship in Brazil in 2010 or 2011.”

Enrique Bernoldi is looking forward to this new challenge: “I am delighted with this great opportunity. And I think Roberto and I will form a strong lineup straight away. I am very motivated to work hard, and I know the team and Streit are also fired up. As a racing driver, I am looking forward to driving the Corvette as soon as possible.”

Streit, who has some Super GT experience from his time in Japan, is also very excited: “Everything will be new to me, so it is a new challenge altogether. I already know Enrique but I have never worked with him. For sure he is quick and professional, so I have great expectations about what we can achieve with DKR. I am still only 25 years old. Thus a career in GT1 is a very interesting prospect.”

The two Brazilians will have their first outing in the Corvette next week during a test at the Val de Vienne circuit in France.