Portuguese football club Sporting Lisbon has officially entered a car for the 2009 season of Superleague Formula.
The car was presented at half-time at Sporting’s final game of the season against National, at the José Alvalade Stadium on Sunday.
Sporting will field a V12-powered Formula One-style single-seater race car in the championship which also includes many high-profile football clubs across the world.
“Few fans are more passionate about both their football and motor sport than those in Portugal, so it’s great that we have the country’s two best clubs renewing their long-running sporting rivalries on the race track this year,” said Superleague Formula president Alex Andreu.
“With both Sporting and FC Porto to the fore, September’s Portuguese round at Estoril is sure to be one of this season’s major highlights. We had more than 25,000 spectators at last year’s race – now we can expect an even better and more passionate atmosphere in 2009.”
Sporting’s general manager Pedro Afra added: “We watched the first Superleague Formula season with great interest and we were very impressed with what we saw. We are always looking for new and exciting commercial opportunities that will appeal to our supporters. The speed and spectacular action delivered by Superleague Formula certainly ticks all the right boxes… even more so as one the 2009 events is staged close to Lisbon at Estoril. With the football season drawing to a close, we now have something new and enthralling to entertain our fans during the summer.”
Sporting lines up against FC Porto to become Portugal’s second major club in the 2009 championship. The 2009 line-up also includes FC Midtjylland from Denmark and French side Olympique Lyonnais. The season starts on 28 June at French circuit Magny-Cours.
