Revival of The Escuderia Repsol
The principal and most prestigious sponsor of Spanish motorsport, the fuel company Repsol is to return to the world of Classic competition by sponsoring a new team.
More than a dozen cars, featuring marques such as Alpine Renault, Ferrari, Jaguar Alfa Romeo and Lancia will run in the livery of the Repsol Classic Team, the team that had so much success in the seventies.
Escuderia Repsol was the first professional racing team in Spain. It won many National Championships on race circuits and in rallies. The most famous names in Spanish motorsport such as Ruiz-Giménez, Doncel, Lencina, Munoz and Bueno were all part of the team.
The massive increase in the popularity Classic cars that is taking place in Europe has persuaded Repsol to create this important new project. Experienced current drivers with proven skills such as Ortega, Arias and Carlos de Miguel will share cars with famous names who drove for Repsol in the past. These will include Saldana, Zanini, Doncel, Lencina, Luis Sainz, Onoro Munez, Aguilera and many more.
The Repsol Classic Team will enter a series of National and International races and rallies as part of an ambitious programme. The cars will run in the Repsol team’s famous colours. The programme started with the Rally of Mallorca and the Eight Hours of Jarama. The year will see the Repsol liveried cars competing in Europe’s most important races and rallies including the Le Mans Classic, The Monaco Historique, Tour de France and Tour of Spain.
Repsol Classic Team was conceived with the concept of reviving the famous ‘R’, the logo from nearly forty years ago and bringing it once more into International motorsport. The aim of the project is to make the ‘R’ logo and the Repsol Classic Team as well known and as common a sight on the roads of Spain as it was when it was first running its rally programme that started in 1969. At that time Repsol was the first company in the country to use its logo in competition.
2008 is for Repsol an especially important year. Without doubt, this project will give the brand a new image and bring the logo from that past era of historic motorsport to the attention of young people who were not even born when the ‘R’ was the most important symbol in Spanish National Automobile competition.
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