Lotto Racing: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 09:42, 20 November 2015

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 the Indy Academy, take care of the Portuguese entry for the Nations Champioship, and have a japanese division of the team, that races in SANDWICH.

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 Indy Academy (2017-)

Rocha announced the Lotto Youth Programme, which goal was to promote young drivers trough the ranks, with the goals of making them compete in F1RWRS in the future.

The team announced that the seat was going to be shared between Sandra Cessler and Rafael Martins.

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.

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.

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
Flag of Cameroon svg.png 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
Flag of Cameroon svg.png Cameron Maroon 70 Ret Ret 17† INJ INJ INJ INJ INJ INJ INJ 35th 0
Template:BEL Dennis Mignolet Ret 38th 0
Flag of Micronesia svg.png 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
Flag of Japan svg.png Daisuke Yanagawa 35 5 11 Ret Ret 9 13 Ret 10 6 14 8 6 9 Ret 13 9 Ret Ret 12th 65
Flag of Norway svg.png 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 Flag of Portugal svg.png Portugal Flag of Portugal svg.png Daniel Martins 11 20 9 22nd* 7*
Flag of Portugal svg.png Diego Pereira 24 17
Flag of Portugal svg.png Rafael Martins 18

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 Flag of Portugal svg.png Miguel Rocha 8
Flag of the Republic of the Congo.svg.png Wulfric Wombesi 12 49th* 16*
Flag of Panama svg.png 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 Flag of Portugal svg.png Miguel Rocha 8 18 13 29 24 34 20 23 37 18 35 41st* 23*
Flag of the Republic of the Congo.svg.png Wulfric Wombesi 5 32nd* 34*
Flag of Panama svg.png Carlos Torres 9 3 1 26 6 15 18 11 39 7 20 34 8th* 182*