Lotto Racing

Lotto Racing, also known as Lotto, is a Belgian racing team currently owned by Portuguese entrepreneur and racing driver Miguel Rocha. The team was formed in 1994 as a joint effort between Lotto president, Jean Luc Van Rossem, and Miguel's father, Carlos. The team first entered the 2nd season of the Rejects-1 World Championship, running in the series between 1995 and 1996, before leaving it all together, and we're due to enter the Le Mans Cup, before it collapsed.

Currently, they race in IPC, the FIA Prototype Challenge and F5000.

History

At the end of 1993, with the demise of the Life Grand Prix Series, Jean Luc Van Rossem, wanted to create a racing team to compete in the newly formed Rejects-1 World Champioship. However, due to a breakdown in communication between van Rossem and the series organisers, Lotto Racing were not entered for the 1994 season. After being told that the entry would be postponed, van Rossem decided to focus the team's efforts on a 1995 entry. Initially, there was trouble attracting personnel to manage the team, but eventually a Team Principle was secured in the shape of Carlos Rocha - a business partner of van Rossem with a passion for motorsport.

Rejects-1 World Championship (1995-1996)

Lotto were granted an entry into the 1995 Rejects-1 World Championship season. The team secured a single Osella FA1ME chassis for the season, along with Cameroonian Cameron 'Cam' Maroon, who brought much-needed previous experience to the team. During they're first season in the series, Maroon grabbed two podiums, in Belgium and Norway, and a fourth place in Ireland. He eventually finished 10th in the standings, on 44 points, 56 adrift from champion, Julio Vaca.

For 1996, the team kept Maroon as they're driver, keeping as a one car team. The Osella FA1ME chassis was still the one that was used. After two races, where Maroon didn't finish a single race , Maroon got injured in the Argentinean round of the champioship, with the doctor telling the team that he would be out until the German round. Maroon imediatelly left the series, thanking the team for the year there, claiming the series to be too unsafe for the drivers. Dennis Mignolet was brought in to replace Cam for the New Zealand round, but he also retired. For the remaining rounds of the season, the team hired Micronesian ace Alik Mori. Mori didn't performance as expected, qualifying always at the back rows of the grid, which led the team's principal, Carlos Rocha, to believe that the team was beeing sabotage, in order for Mori not to win every race he entered. Mori's best result was a 5th place in France, while also adding points at Belgium and Austria. After the South African round of the calendar, where Mori had failed to finish, Carlos Rocha announced a press coverage, where he and Van Rossem announced that they we're leaving R-1, not entering the last two rounds of the champioships, citing that the bad results across the season, together with Maroon's injury and the suspition that they're team was beeing sabotaged, played a major role in they're decision. After that, Lotto went back to race in minor belgian racing series.

Le Mans Cup (2017)

Lotto Racing had ceased operations by the early 2000's, a poor run of form leading to the evaporation of funding. However, in the mid 2010's, the son of original team founder Carlos Rocha, Miguel Rocha, ressurected the team. Rocha followed in his father's footsteps in becoming an entrepreneur, eventually finding his fortune in the IT industry. He also shared his father's passion for motorsport, and had previously used his fortune to buy his way into several GT events in the late 2000's and early 2010's. When the possibility of an entry into the 2017 Le Mans Cup became apparent, Rocha thought it apt to revive the old Lotto Racing name previously used by his father 20 years ago.

Driving alongside Rocha for 2017 in the team's Porsche 991 will be Italian Kevin Giovesi and North Korean Kim Sung Ri.

Sadly, the series collapsed before a race was run, and Rocha decided to focus on the Lotto Youth Program in the USA.

AutoReject Nations Champioship (2017-2018)

Miguel Rocha announced that the team was going to be taking care of the Portuguese entry for the upcoming Nations Champioship.

Three drivers drove the Portuguese entry: Daniel Martins, Diego Pereira and Rafael Martins. Daniel Martins ran competitive in the first race of the series, qualifying in the top 10 and running as high as 2nd, but a slow stop dropped him to 20th where he finished. Pereira's races we're less competitive than Daniel's outings, as he finished 24th and 17th, while Rafael Martins finished 18th in his first outing, before retiring in his second race. Martins made a impressive showing in the final race of the year, finishing in 4th place and scoring fastest lap.

Portugal were classified in 17th overall, on 23 points.

SANDWICH (2017-2018)

Beeing one of the teams waiting an entry for ARWS, Lotto Racing was invited to race in the 2018 SANDWICH. The team accepted the entrance, and signed japanese Daisuke Yanagawa and norwegian talent Sølvy Ødegård. Even though the series started promising for the team, with Yanagawa finishing in 5th place in the first race, the team performances then went a bit down, and the team would score points 5 more times across the season, with Yanagawa grabbing 2 6th places and an 8th place, while Ødegård grabbed two 8th places at Motegi, his best results of the season. The team eventually finished 12th in the team's champioship, with 65 points.

International Procar Championship (2018)

Lotto Racing entered a two car team in the B-Class, in IPC, starting from 2018. The team used a Alfa Romeo 155, and it was driven across the season by team owner Miguel Rocha, the first time driving a season full time since 2013, Wulfric Wombesi and panamian ace Carlos Torres.

The first race of the team went very good. Carlos Torres finished 3rd, and Rocha was running in 4th until the late stages of the races, when Komarek spinned him off, and the portuguese driver crashed hard into the wall, suffering damage that ruined his race. In Bathurst, Torres went one better, and dominated the B-Class race, taking the team's first win. Since then, Carlos performances have dropped a bit, securing a best result of 6th in France midway through the season. Rocha's performances didn't meet his debut in the series, and his best result was 13th in Bathurst. Rocha decided not to race in Canada in order to help Alfa Romeo develop the 155 for the latter stages of the season, and Wombesi took his place for the canadian round at least. Wombesi went on to finish 5th in the B-Class race, scoring the team's best result since Torres' win in Bathurst, and finished 12th in the A-Class race. Torres finished 34th after getting caught in a first lap incident. Rocha announced after the race he extended Wombesi's contract to drive in the remaining non-european rounds of the season. In a surprising twist of events, the series collapsed after the South African round, and Lotto were left wondering if they could have gotten a promotion into A Class.

Complete Motorsport Results

Complete Rejects-1 World Champioship Results

Year	Chassis	Driver	#	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	POS	Points
1995	Osella FA1ME			USE	USW	CAN	BRA	NZL	AUS	JAP	ITA	GBR	IRE	FRA	GER	BEL	NOR	POR	MAL	INA
		Cameron Maroon	70	15	6	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	4	7	Ret	3	3	Ret	Ret	Ret	11th	44
1996	Osella FA1ME			USA	BRA	ARG	NZL	AUS	JPN	ITA	FRAS	FRA	GBR	GER	NOR	BEL	AUT	RSA	INA	CAN	POS	Pts
		Cameron Maroon	70	Ret	Ret	17†	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ								35th	0
		Dennis Mignolet					Ret														38th	0
		Alik Mori						Ret	Ret	Ret	15	5	Ret	7	Ret	9	7	Ret			23rd	28

Complete SANDWICH results

Year	Entry	Chassis	Engine	Driver	#	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Points
2018	Lotto Racing Japan	Swift	Toyota			FUJ		SUG		MOT		MOT		YEO		OKY		SEN		AUO		SUZ
				Daisuke Yanagawa	35	5	11	Ret	Ret	9	13	Ret	10	6	14	8	6	9	Ret	13	9	Ret	Ret	12th	65
				Sølvy Ødegård	36	19	21	Ret	10	Ret	18	8	8	Ret	14	Ret	12	19	14	15	22	17	15

Complete AutoReject Nations Cup Results

Year	Nation	Driver	#	OCE	ASI	AFR	EUR	NAM	SAM	FNL	Pos	Points
2017-18	Portugal	Daniel Martins	11	20		9				4	17th	23
		Diego Pereira			24		17
		Rafael Martins						18	Ret

Complete International Procar Championship Results

Year	Chassis	Driver	#	AUS		BAT	ITA	FRA	SPA	GBR	EUR		ILL	WIS	NY		CAN	RSA		FIN	GER	PAR		HUN		CZE	PAC	JPN	HKG		Pos	Points
2018	Alfa Romeo 155	Miguel Rocha	8
		Wulfric Wombesi															12														49th*	16*
		Carlos Torres	9	7	26	31		24						14																	36th*	40*

Year	Chassis	Driver	#	AUS	BAT	ITA	FRA	SPA	GBR	EUR	ILL	WIS	NY	CAN	RSA	FIN	GER	PAR	HUN	CZE	PAC	JPN	HKG	Pos	Points
2018	Alfa Romeo 155	Miguel Rocha	8	18	13	29	24	34	20	23	37	18	35											41st*	23*
		Wulfric Wombesi												5	39									32nd*	34*
		Carlos Torres	9	3	1	26	6	15	18	11	39	7	20	34	14									10th*	194*

Complete Prototype Challenge Results

Year	Chassis	Engine	#	Driver	DAY	BAH	CYP	ITA	NOR	BEL	FIN	FRA	JPN	CAL	Pos	Points
2018	Gibson 015S	NISMO VK48DE V8	41	Stefan Kuntz	9	11	8	5	10	6	Ret	3	14	4	6th	2630
			68	Rui Onorio	8	10	Ret	Ret	Ret
				Miguel Rocha						17
				Wulfric Wombesi							8	4	15	6