BOSS GP
The BOSS GP Series is a motor racing series in Europe. The category evolved into the EuroBOSS Series. BOSS is an acronym; the BOSS series was founded in 1995 under the regulations of the RAC Motor Sports Association and raced in Great Britain. It was renamed to European BOSS following the involvement of Paul Stoddart's European Aviation and their expansion into European circuits, it saw grids of around 12–15 cars but on occasions dropped as few as five cars have competed. Common EuroBOSS entries include Formula One machines from Benetton, Tyrrell, Minardi and on occasions a V12 Ferrari has appeared. Other frequent entrants are Lola and Reynard CART chassis, the 1997-2002 Panoz and Dallara IndyCar chassis, from 2012, the 2003-2011 Dallara and Panoz Champ Car chassis after the new IndyCar formula began; the Panoz Champ Car DP01 chassis from 2007 is now legal. After the 2009 season, drivers Marijn van Kalmthout, Klaas Zwart, Henk de Boer and Frits van Eerd decided to split off and organize their own race series.
For 2010 EuroBOSS and BOSS GP both existed. EuroBOSS decided to cancel the last 3 rounds. BOSS GP, on the other hand, flourished with many drivers making the switch to the new series. Subsequently most of the entries have been recent secondary level single seaters such as GP2 cars and Renault World Series cars with a small number of Formula 1 cars; as of 2013 two rounds of the BOSS GP series form an official German championship sanctioned by the DMSB. In the 2018 season, BOSS GP drove for the first time at the Grand Prix Germany in July as a support series of the Formula 1 and in September at the Red Bull Ring in Austria as part of the DTM-Weekend. EuroBOSS is the European equivalent of USBOSS and OZBOSS. EuroBOSS tends to have F1 Cars, while USBOSS comprises Indy and Champ Cars and OZBOSS tends to have Formula 4000 or equivalent. Over the years the classes have been updated. Nowadays relative new cars like the Dallara GP2/08, Dallara T08 and Lola B05/52 are allowed in the series. For 2010 EuroBOSS allowed the Tatuus N.
T07 International Formula Master car to race in the series. The car was never allowed in the BOSS GP series. Actual classes and cars in the BOSS GP Series: Official websiteThe FIA-approved international BOSS GP Series is for 25 years the fastest race series in Europe and one of the most spectacular series in the international motorsport world
Mugello
The Mugello is a historic region and valley in northern Tuscany, in Italy, corresponding to the course of the River Sieve. It is located to the north of the city of Florence and includes the northernmost portion of the Metropolitan City of Florence; the Futa Pass connects the Mugello valley to the separate Santerno river valley. The Mugello valley was settled by a Ligurian tribe known as the Magelli, hence the name; the region was occupied by the Etruscans who have left many archeological traces and who built the first road network of the Mugello. The subsequent Ancient Roman conquest and colonization of the Mugello region dates back to the 4th century BCE, it is not only testified by several finds such as tombs and walls, but through toponymy, e.g. names of places ending with the praedial suffix -ano or -ana: Cerliano, Marcoiano, Lucignano, etc. In the Middle Ages the Mugello was home to numerous castles; the Mugello region was acquired by the Republic of Florence. Several patrician families of the area built villas here, such as those of the Medici including Villa Medicea di Cafaggiolo and Villa Medicea del Trebbio.
In 1999 a dam was constructed across the Sieve river, forming the reservoir of Lake Bilancino in the Mugello valley. The Mugello gives its name to the Mugello Circuit, an automobile race track that hosts an annual Moto GP event and to the Mugellese chicken a Bantam breed. Borgo San Lorenzo Scarperia Barberino di Mugello San Piero a Sieve Vicchio Dicomano San Godenzo Firenzuola
Gerhard Mitter
Gerhard Karl Mitter was a German Formula One and sportscar driver. Mitter was born in Schönlinde in Czechoslovakia, but his family was expelled from there, to Leonberg near Stuttgart. After racing motorbikes, he switched to Formula Junior, becoming the best German driver with 40 victories. In addition, he sold two-stroke engines for FJ. In 1963, Mitter won the Formula Junior Eifelrennen at the Nürburgring. Mitter participated in seven Grands Prix, debuting on 23 June 1963, he scored a total of three championship points in his home 1963 German Grand Prix with an old Porsche 718 from 1961. Impressed by this, Team Lotus gave him a chance in the following years. In sportscar racing and hillclimbing for Porsche, he scored many wins, e.g. the 1966-1968 European Hillclimb Championships against Ferrari, the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona and the 1969 Targa Florio as his final major win. Due to the long Nürburgring track, it was possible to take part in the German Grand Prix with Formula 2 cars that were classified in their own contest.
Mitter was killed there at Schwedenkreuz while practising for the 1969 German Grand Prix with BMW's 269 F2 project. As a suspension or steering failure was suspected, the BMW team with Hubert Hahne and Dieter Quester withdrew from the race, as did Mitter's teammate at Porsche, Hans Herrmann. Udo Schütz, his driving partner at Porsche in the 1969 World Sportscar Championship season with whom he had won the Targa three months earlier, had survived a bad crash at the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans, retired
Emilio Materassi
Emilio Materassi was an Italian Grand Prix motor racing driver. Born in Borgo San Lorenzo, near Florence, Emilio began working in a bicycle shop, learning the basics of applied mechanics, he went to work in a car garage, where he developed a strong love for engines and cars. When he was in his twenties Materassi took over the administration of his family business, selling wine and twine. Poor economic condition forced him to work as a bus driver for local services; the racing debut came at the Gentlemen Grand Prix at Brescia, September 11, 1921, driving an aged car from the Turin automaker Itala. The car broke down after three laps. Materassi had better fortune the following June when he finished 8th overall at the Mugello CircuitIn 1923 Materassi, with the help of some wealthy friends, opened his own workshop in Via dei Poggi 12, in Florence, he called it "L’Autogarage Nazionale", signed a dealership contract with Itala. During World War I Itala had built Hispano-Suiza aircraft engines under license.
After the war the company had a surplus of spare engines, Materassi succeeded in buying one of those at a low price. Materassi modified the engine, built a car based on an Itala chassis around it, calling his construction "Italona"; the car was quite heavy. The 3 liters aviation engine was powerful enough to allow good performances in hill climbing races. With the Italona, Materassi won a lot of important, but local, races from 1924 to 1926, including two Mugello Grand Prix and three hillclimbs at the Pistoian Hills. In 1926 he managed to get a fourth place in the prestigious Targa Florio, he won the Coppa Montenero at the difficult Montenero Circuit in 1925 and 1926, earning the nickname "King of Montenero”. Materassi had become close friends with Alfieri Maserati and was given the opportunity to race with the Maserati team on a number of occasions, among them the 1925 and 1926 Italian Grand Prix. Sadly, he had to retire from all of most of the time due to mechanical failures. Impressed by the skills of the young pilot the team manager of the Bugatti racing team asked Materassi to join them in 1927.
In his first race with the brand new Bugatti T35C, he won the Tripoli Grand Prix, with an average speed of 132 km/h, in April the same year he won the Targa Florio. He won another Coppa Montenero; those victories, along with others, gained him the title "Absolute Champion of Italy". In 1928 Materassi founded his own racing team, buying cars and material from the bankrupt Talbot team. Materassi worked on the engines and the chassis himself, modifying the old cars to make them 30 kilograms lighter. Apart from himself, Luigi Arcangeli, Antonio Brivio, Gastone Brilli-Peri and Gianfranco Comotti became drivers for Scuderia Materassi. In June 1928 he won the Grand Prix of Mugello driving a Talbot and finished second in the Coppa Acerbo in August that same month he won his fourth Coppa Montenero, beating both Tazio Nuvolari and Giuseppe Campari. On the 17th lap of the 1928 Italian Grand Prix held at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Materassi lost control of his Talbot 700 when he tried to overtake Giulio Foresti’s Bugatti T35C on the main straight at over 200 km/h.
The Talbot swerved to the left, jumped over a three-meter deep and four-meter wide protection ditch and a fence and crashed into the grandstand. Materassi was killed along with twenty spectators and a large number of people were injured; the other drivers of the Scuderia Materassi withdrew from the race after the accident, but the event continued and it was won by Louis Chiron. Three days one of the injured spectators died in hospital, making the total death toll 22. Other sources state. By either estimation this is the worst accident, with respect to the number of lives lost, to occur at a Grand Prix and it is only surpassed by the 1955 Le Mans disaster in the history of motor racing; as a result the Italian Grand Prix was cancelled in 1929 and 1930. Coppa della Consuma: 1924 Coppa della Collina Pistoiese: 1924, 1925, 1926 Coppa Perugina: 1924, 1926, 1927 Circuito del Savio: 1925 Grand Prix of Mugello: 1925, 1926, 1928 Coppa Montenero: 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928 Tripoli Grand Prix: 1927 Targa Florio: 1927 Bologna Grand Prix: 1927 San Sebastian Grand Prix: 1927
Ricardo Zonta
Ricardo Luiz Zonta is a Brazilian professional racing driver. Born in Curitiba, Zonta began karting in 1987, winning his first race shortly thereafter; the following year, he was runner-up for the Curitiba Karting Championship, in 1991, he won the title. He continued karting until 1992, finishing fourth in the São Paulo Karting Championship before progressing to single-seaters for 1993, he finished 6th in the Brazilian Formula Chevrolet Championship, in 1994, came fifth in the Brazilian Formula Three Championship. A year Zonta won both the Brazilian and South American Formula Three Championships. Moving to Europe in 1996, Zonta competed in the International Formula 3000 Championship for Draco Racing, winning two races and finishing fourth overall. In the same year, he became the first Brazilian to compete in International Touring Cars, with Mercedes. In 1997, he won the Formula 3000 championship, he took home the "Golden Helmet" award for best international driver for his efforts. The Jordan Formula One team signed him as their official test driver following his championship, in 1998, he was signed by McLaren boss Ron Dennis.
Zonta tested with the McLaren Formula One team in 1998, concurrently won the FIA GT Championship and the "Golden Helmet" award in the "world prominence" category. In October 1998 after winning the FIA GT championship, Zonta signed up with the B. A. R. Formula One racing team as one of its race drivers for the 1999 season, after rejecting offers from Jordan and Sauber. In 1999, Zonta started as a Formula One racing driver alongside 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve at new team B. A. R. Zonta injured his foot in an accident during practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix, was forced to miss three races, he had a large accident at Spa-Francorchamps, finished the season with no championship points. Zonta remained with B. A. R for the 2000 season, scoring his first world championship point with a sixth place in the opening race, he had another large accident when his front suspension broke during testing at Silverstone, but continued the season, scoring points in both the Italian and United States Grands Prix, to finish 14th in the championship.
Replaced by Olivier Panis for the 2001 season, Zonta became the third driver for the Jordan team, replacing the injured Heinz-Harald Frentzen for one race, again when Frentzen was sacked, but was overlooked to replace him for the remainder of the season. In 2002, he decided to focus on the Telefónica World Series. Zonta was hired as test driver for the Toyota F1 team in 2003, retaining the position in 2004. Toward the end of the season, the team sacked Cristiano da Matta from a race seat, Zonta drove in four Grands Prix. In Belgium a brilliant fourth place went beckoning when engine failure struck three laps from the finish. In Suzuka the team hired Jarno Trulli and Zonta had to sit the event out, however the team allowed him to compete in his home race, the Brazilian Grand Prix, which he finished in 13th, he continued as a test driver for Toyota alongside veteran French pilot Olivier Panis. At the US Grand Prix that year, he stood in for an injured Ralf Schumacher and took his place on the grid, only for Toyota, like the other six Michelin-shod teams, to withdraw from the race due to safety concerns.
2006 saw. Ricardo Zonta was confirmed as test driver for the Renault Formula One team for the 2007 season on 6 September 2006. In 2007, Zonta entered the Stock Car Brasil series in parallel with the work for the Renault team. In 2008, Zonta kicked off his sportscar career by contesting the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Peugeot Sport, driving the #9 car alongside Franck Montagny and Formula One tester Christian Klien, he is driving in the Grand Am Championship in America with Krohn Racing, while being the team owner and driver of Panasonic Racing in Stock Car Brasil. † Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they had completed over 90% of the race distance. † Driver was classified as he completed over 90 % of the race distance. Official website Ricardo Zonta career summary at DriverDB.com
Lola Cars
Lola Cars International Ltd. was a racing car engineering company founded in 1958 by Eric Broadley and based in Huntingdon, England. Enduring more than fifty years, it was one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of racing cars in the world. Lola Cars started by building small front-engined sports cars, branched out into Formula Junior cars before diversifying into a wider range of sporting vehicles. Lola was acquired by Martin Birrane in 1998 after the unsuccessful MasterCard Lola attempt at Formula One. Lola Cars was a brand of the Lola Group, which combined former rowing boat manufacturer Lola Aylings and Lola Composites, that specialized in carbon fibre production. After a period in bankruptcy administration, Lola Cars International ceased trading on 5 October 2012. Many of Lola's assets were subsequently purchased by a partnership composed of Multimatic Engineering and the Carl A. Haas Automotive company. Lola was one of the top chassis suppliers in the 1960s. After its small front-engined sports cars came various single-seaters including Formula Junior, Formula 3, Formula 2 and Formula 1 cars.
Broadley designed Lola Mk.6 coupe fitted with the Ford V8 engine. Ford took a keen interest in this and paid Broadley to put the company on hold for two years and merge his ideas with Roy Lunn's work, giving rise to the Ford GT40. Broadley managed to release himself from this contract after a year and started developing his own cars again, starting off in sports cars with the Lola T70 and its successors which were used all over the world from the World Championship for Makes to the CanAm series, until 1973. In 2005, Lola announced that a new batch of T70 coupés, to the original specifications, would be released; these were to be homologated for historic racing and there was talk of a one-make series for the cars. Various Group 5 and Group 6 sports cars including the T212 and T28x/29x/38x/39x series were built, competing with Chevron and others. Alain de Cadenet's Le Mans'specials' tended to be based on Lola technology. Lola dominated the CanAm sports car series when it was revived in the late 1970s, but many motorsport fans do not consider the single-seater Formula 5000-based cars from this era to be true sports cars, despite their full bodywork and enclosed wheel-wells.
Lola introduced the T600/T610 range for IMSA GTP racing in the early 1980s – these were fitted with a range of engines including Cosworth and Chevrolet, as well as the novel Polimotor engine built using composite materials. Derivatives of this car were successful for Group C racing. Lola Group C and GTP cars tended to be built for manufacturer programmes the Nissan Group C entries and the Chevrolet Corvette GTP program. Lola built a car for the 3.5 L Group C formula, the T92/10, but the championship collapsed before this could be developed. More Lola has produced a range of sports cars for Le Mans-style racing starting with the B98/10, successful in the European market but less so in the USA; the B2K/10, with its additional central headlight reminiscent of a cyclops or a locomotive was more notable for its looks than its performance. While Lola has had limited success in the top class of the sport versus factory cars like the BMW V12 LMR and Audi R8, Lola has enjoyed periods of dominance in the second class, including championship class victories in the American Le Mans Series, although this has been threatened in the ALMS LMP2 by works-supported entries from Acura and Porsche.
A dedicated LMP675 car was built for MG in 2001, powered by a two-litre four-cylinder AER turbocharged engine. This was entered at Le Mans by the works team as the MG-Lola EX257, was run as the Lola B01/60 by private entrants. Developments of this car have been fitted with assorted small V8s and the chassis was developed into recent customer LMP1 and LMP2 chassis. An updated version of the Lola LMP2 came in 2005 with the introduction of the Lola B05/40, it became a contender in LMP2 by taking class honours in 2005 and 2006 at Le Mans with Ray Mallock Limited. It earned several class wins in the American Le Mans Series in 2005 and 2006 with Intersport Racing, including a second-place overall finish in the 2006 12 Hours of Sebring. In 2007, extensive updates were made to the chassis, to accommodate the all-new Acura powerplant run by Fernandez Racing. In addition, an brand new LMP2 prototype, the B07/40, was built to house the new AER-based Mazda engine; this new version is being run in the U. S. by B-K Motorsports.
Lola updated its LMP1 challenger in 2006 with the introduction of the B06/10. The car was run in the American Le Mans Series by Dyson Racing and in the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans by UK-based Chamberlain-Synergy Racing. Chamberlain continued to run the machine in 2007 and 2008, while the former Dyson cars have been run off and on in the ALMS by Cytosport Racing and Intersport Racing; as with its LMP2 program, the 2007 calendar year saw Lola introduce further upgrades with the debut of the B07/10, which saw action in the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Charouz Racing and the Swiss Spirit team. Lola took over the Multimatic franchise in Grand-Am's Daytona Prototype category in 2007. Krohn used his Riley cars at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2008 but switched to the new cars in the season. Lola introduced a pair of closed-cockpit Le Mans prototypes in 2008, the first of, the B08/60 running in the P1 category; the first B08/60 was raced by the Charouz team and featured an Aston Martin V12 engine to GT
Udo Schütz
Udo Schütz is a German entrepreneur, competing with racing cars in the 1960s, with yachts in the 1990s. His career began in the early 1960s. With Anton Fischhaber and his #72 Porsche 904 he in 1965 won the GT 2.0 class at the 1000 km Nürburgring, finishing 11th overall, soon was hired by the factory to represent Porsche in motorsport. The 1967 World Sportscar Championship season began with two DNF in the USA, followed by an 8th at Monza, he did not start at Spa with his Porsche 906 being entered by a Portuguese team while other factory drivers had the improved Porsche 910. Rather heavy and tall, dubbed the „Bull from Selters“, Schütz was not well suited for the low race cars when fitted with closed tops. For other tall drivers like Dan Gurney and Mike Parkes, special bubble roof extensions were added to Ford and Ferrari cars. Driving around Sicily for the 1967 Targa in regular traffic, with the street-legal 910 #184 and without a helmet, Schütz' head did not fit behind the wind screen. Paired with former Targa winner Umberto Maglioli, Schütz suffered yet another DNF, but two weeks in Germany, Schütz won the 1000 km Nürburgring outright in 1967, paired with Joe Buzzetta on the #17 Porsche 910.
Le Mans was yet another DNF, followed by his second world championship win, paired with Gerhard Mitter in a 910 at Mugello a Targa-like road race in Italy with eight laps of 66 km each. In Brands Hatch, he shared a 910 with Jochen Rindt. Zeltweg was another DNF, in a 906 entered by Scuderia Lufthansa, the penultimate round in Switzerland, the Hill Climb at Ollon-Villars, saw him finishing with a tiny Fiat-Abarth 1000cc at the lower end of the field. For the 1968 World Sportscar Championship season, Schütz joined the Italian Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 factory team, scoring 5th place at the 24 Hours of Daytona, with the rest of the season being rather disappointing. Schütz returned to Porsche for the 1969 World Sportscar Championship season and was paired there with Gerhard Mitter on a Porsche 908/02, fitted with spyder or long tail body; the season began at Daytona with a 24th place following camshaft trouble, a 5th place at Sebring. In the third round at Brands Hatch they scored their first podium finish, beaten by two sister cars.
The first Italian race, the 1000km Monza, ended with an engine failure, but the second one, in Sicily, with a triumph. They won the Targa Florio on the Porsche 908/2 #266 ahead of three sister cars. For the 1969 1000km Spa, a fast track like Monza and Le Mans, they opted to drive the powerful new Porsche 917 for the first time in a race though they had qualified it only at 8th, slower than their 908; the flat-12-cylinder engine failed in lap 1. At the Ring, Mitter/Schütz qualified 3rd in their 908/02, but due to suspension problems ended up 31st while the other 908s occupied the first five places. At the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans and Schütz were back in the 908. After 14 hours, in lap 199, Schütz at high speed crashed his #23 Langheck badly after a collision with the #64 sister car driven by Gérard Larrousse, getting ejected from the car when it rolled, surviving without severe injuries. Having secured the championship, the Porsche System Engineering factory team did not participate in the penultimate round at Watkins Glen in mid July.
Only three 908/02 cars were shipped overseas and entered by other teams, Schütz was not among the drivers. After his driving partner Gerhard Mitter died two weeks in practice for the 1969 German Grand Prix, Schütz skipped the ultimate round in Zeltweg and retired, sticking to his decision when Ferrari looked for experienced drivers for their Ferrari 512S multi-car effort in 1970. In total he won three of them counting towards the world championship, he has won the German Sports car championship in 1966, scored 2nd with and for Porsche in the 1967 World Sportscar Championship season, finished 3rd with Alfa in 1968, helped Porsche to secure the World Sportscar Championship in 1969. He focused on his company Schütz Werke in his home town of Selters, which offers containers. Thus, „Container“ was the name of his yacht with which he in 1993, together with Pinta and Rubin XII, won the Admiral's Cup for Germany. In 2008, Schütz had a new „Container“ built, with modern materials. Schuetz.de Der Stier von Selters: article in Swiss magazine Motorsport aktuell 37/2000 Solitude Revival 2008, with photos of Udo Schütz Porsche 908 races with U.
Schütz U. Schütz next to Ferry Porsche, with Gerhard Mitter and Rico Steinemann Photo
Ricardo Sperafico
Alessandro Zanardi
Mike Thackwell
Jonathan Palmer
Derek Daly
Jean-Pierre Jabouille
Lucien Bianchi
Gerhard Mitter
Gastone Brilli-Peri