How a flawed ‘throwback’ series gained acceptance

By:

James Newbold

Jul 17, 2021, 2:19 PM

Against all odds, the series for V12-powered Superleague Formula cars adorning the liveries of football clubs earned a place in the hearts of many. Even 10 years on from its last race, on this day in 2011, it is fondly remembered by those who were part of it.

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The Superleague Formula championship had lost its way by the summer of 2011.

It had been founded amid much optimism on the premise of connecting football with motorsport, shortly before the global financial crisis struck in 2008. And now it had begun a process of turning away from its USP, hoping to capitalise on A1GP’s collapse by welcoming nations onto the grid. But only two race weekends were staged that year, at Assen and Zolder, before the championship folded.

That was a bitter shame, because the series based around the formidable 750bhp Panoz-MCT was perhaps the closest thing we’ve had in the 21st century to an equivalent of the enormously popular Formula 5000 category (if we’re dismissing Australia’s S5000 series), albeit without the chassis variation.

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James Newbold

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James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.

In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.

After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award.

He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.

A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual, niche or random, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars as Autosport's British GT correspondent and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.

An expert in catching 40 winks on media centre floors, he lives with his wife and son in Plymouth, England.