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The Events
Held at prime UK circuits, including famous names like Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Donington Park, Silverstone, Snetterton, Rockingham and Croft… we have already raced at them all. You will also be allocated a pit garage at all events, prime parking and top billing. Normally, they are 2 day events with exclusive testing on Friday and the race on the Saturday.
We offer hospitality to all of our teams in our Fun Cup awning, where you will find tea, coffee, juice and even beer and wine on offer, for the entire event. Lunch is also served on race day and you can purchase extra hospitality bands if you have any family, friends, guests, or sponsors, attending.
Fun Cup UK usually hosts 7 or 8 events, spread throughout the year. Also, UK drivers are invited to race in other Fun Cup series across Europe at many famous circuits, such as Zolder, Jarama, Dijon, Magny-Cours, Nurburgring and Spa Francorchamps to name but a few. So, your season can be as small or as large as you wish. If you compete in the European series too, you could easily race every weekend! Help is provided for those drivers tackling overseas events, to make arrangements easier.
At all events, special steps are taken to keep you out there racing. So, should you have an accident or breakdown, then we will deploy a safety car, allowing your car to be recovered back to the pits. That's when the real hard work begins! Since the Fun Cup’s inception into the UK in 2002, not one race has ever been red flagged due to an accident. Cars are always recovered as quickly as possible and 99 % of the time, they are repaired and sent back out to race!
Spa 25 Hours
In mid-July, the phenomenal Spa 25 hour race is held at the famous Spa Francorchamps circuit in the beautiful Ardennes Forest. Over 160 Fun Cup teams from all over Europe compete in the world’s longest race. Over 900 Fun Cup drivers take part and more than 30,000 fans travel from near and far to watch the spectacle. For those who compete in the 25 hour race, they will never experience anything quite like this awesome event.
Many believe that the circuit demonstrates the importance of driver skill, more than any other in the world and so, it is no surprise, that many Fun Cup teams from across Europe, flock to the event to battle for their country's honour. With twists and turns such as the famous Eau Rouge, which launches drivers steeply uphill, combined with the high speed left hand turn of Blanchimont and not forgetting the epic Raidillon, Les Combes, Stavelot and La Source, it is no surprise that there is always a staggering amount of Fun Cup teams competing.
The Organisation
Fun Cup UK has its own organisation team making every race weekend as efficient and enjoyable as possible. We have a fully staffed office, dedicated to answering your questions and tackling many of the detailed arrangements, where other race series leave you scratching your head. Our website provides you with a great deal of information on the Fun Cup, the cars, the team line up for each event, rental drives available and much more.
Paul Rose
Roxie Marandi
Racing since the age of 12, Series Director Paul Rose has more than 30 years experience as a competitor, winning many championships along the way. Race Co-Ordiantor, Roxie Marandi, has a degree in Public Relations and focuses on the promotion of the series. 2009 will be her 2nd year as Race Co-ordinator and she is probably the youngest female in the country to do such a job! Clerk of the Course, Julian Floyd, is one of the most experienced officials in the UK and is backed by top class scrutineers from the BRSCC. His presence at all UK events, ensures consistent and fair decisions.
The Regulations
The regulations for the UK series are in line with those used throughout Europe, so you can race anywhere on the same basis. Strict controls are used on the cars, to rule out expensive modifications.
The engine and gearbox are sealed, so any major repairs must be carried out by an authorised company such as JPR Motorsport Ltd, the UK distributors, or Dubois Racing, of Belgium, who make the cars.
Most parts on the cars are carefully governed and specified. All parts can be obtained from JPR, who have a parts truck at all events. The suspension allows for a choice of three spring rates. The suspension settings for items such as camber and toe etc, are left for the team to decide, but we will provide you with a detailed base set-up to get you started.
The aim of the regulations, is to keep the racing close, fair and at sensible costs. The regulations are firmly applied with a series eligibility scrutineer regularly checking cars at each event, to iron out any irregularities.
The Cars
These are race-designed cars using a unique and extremely strong space frame chassis, with a Beetle silhouette GRP bodywork. The suspension is a combination of special race and some production-modified units, with Bilstein dampers and powerful brakes.
Even what may look like a serious accident to one corner of the car, can usually be quickly and inexpensively repaired with only external items, like the suspension arms being bent and not the chassis. That’s important for keeping down the costs and getting you back on the track quickly.
Most Fun Cup cars are powered by ultra-reliable, mid-mounted VW/Audi petrol engines, which are 1800cc, 130 bhp and matched to an Audi 5 speed gearbox at the rear. They are ultra-tough and will withstand a huge amount of racing, with little work and they are simple, easy to work on and straight-forward to repair.
However, new and exciting news for the 2009 Fun Cup series and beyond is the introduction of the 1900cc TDI, 160 bhp VW diesel engine. This new initiative is environmentally friendly and more economical with fuel. It is truly a step forward in motorsport worldwide and Fun Cup is proud to be the first series to be actively promoting TDi diesel engines.
The Fun Cup series also has a fleet of twin-seater Fun Cup cars. Passengers can experience the thrill of being driven round a circuit first-hand, by experienced Fun Cup racers, at track days all over the UK. What’s more, in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Ireland, passengers can be experience the adrenaline rush of being taken round the track during an actual race.
The Costs
The series offers superbly cost-effective racing. If you were to buy a car (around £29,542 plus VAT for a new one, which is dependent on the exchange rate at the time of the order) the actual running costs are remarkably low.
One club racer, who switched from what seemed like low cost sprint racing to Fun Cup endurance racing, found that his carefully monitored costs plummeted from £50 a minute to more like £7. He got more racing in one year than many drivers do in a lifetime!
The cost of replacing routine items like tyres and brake pads is low. There’s little else you will need on the cars apart from some effort in getting it ready for events. That means real low cost motorsport – and remember, you share all the costs with a team of drivers! Real value.
What’s more, because of the stable nature of the specification, the second hand value of the cars is superb. In fact some owners who bought used cars a couple of years ago will find they are actually worth more now!
Sales-Service-Support
JPR Motorsport Ltd is based Staffordshire and provides a full range of services, from selling new, second-hand and refurbished Fun Cup cars, through to stocking all of the spare parts and preparing cars
JPR take a spare parts truck and a tyre truck to every event, ensuring that each team needs to carry only a basic level of spare parts. This keeps down a hidden cost of motorsport and means you have the back-up of real experts at every event.
Also, if you want to buy and race a car but not get your hands dirty, then the JPR team can
prepare and look after it for you, between events.
Also, if you want to buy and race a car, but not get your hands dirty, then the JPR team can prepare and look after it for you, between events.
Dynamometer Service
JPR Motorsport Ltd offer a full dyno service, using the latest technology single axle 2WD 450DS dynamometer, which is an extremely sensitive, technically advanced dyno machine.
The JPR head mechanic is an extremely technical, innovative member of staff, who is highly trained, to achieve the maximum power output from the Fun Cup cars, when they are placed on the dyno.
JPR pride themselves on offering this state of the art, professionally engineered, high quality service. Once your Fun Cup car has been placed on the dyno, you will receive a full de-brief and power graphs to illustrate the engines torque and brake horsepower.
Car/Seat Hire
In addition to selling cars, JPR Motorsport Ltd also offer cars for hire. So, without the need to buy, you can rent a one-off drive, a seat for a complete season, or a car for the season. Tell them what you want and they will do their best to make it happen. All of this makes it easy to try out the series and to enter the world of endurance racing and effortlessly enjoy real, cost-effective motorsport.
Promotion
Fun Cup receives widespread promotion, across a whole range of prime media from motorsport magazines through to daily newspapers, general interest magazines and TV coverage. The series is filmed at each UK event and Spa 25 hours for Sky Sports “Raceworld” programme and Motors TV. Each season, we have over 30 hours of TV coverage and an end of year season review DVD.
Cameras are mounted in, or on, several cars, to capture on-track action during the race, which is brilliant for driver enjoyment and for the sponsors.
Every car must carry specified series sponsors stickers, but that still leaves plenty of room for the inclusion of your own sponsor’s decals. Apart from a small badge on every race suit, the remainder the space is also free for your promotional use.
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