Photo: Chris Schotanus
Fortec have confirmed their entry into this year’s Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Championship, announcing a final lineup of eight cars.
The British outfit have confirmed the anticipated news that Seb Morris will step into continental competition with them, after finishing third in Formula Renault BARC last year and winning the championship’s Winter Series at the end of his rookie season in single-seaters. He had previously lifted the Ginetta Junior crown in 2011, and entered last year’s NEC finale at Spa with Fortec.
Fortec have split their armada into two, with Morris competing under the ‘Fortec Competition’ banner with Russian Roman Beregech, a 24-year-old who contested last year’s NEC with Van Amersfoort with a best result of 11th and has previously run with Fortec in 2010’s UK Winter Series, and the previously-announced American?Ryan Tveter and Mexican?Alfonso Celis.
Under the ‘Fortec Motorsports’ name will be the previously announced second-year driver Shahaan Engineer and Intersteps grdauates Matt Parry and Jack Aitken, joined by Indonesian Philo Armand who entered the final race of the BARC Winter Series with the team.
“With the UK single-seater scene in a state of flux, but demand from drivers still high, it made sense for us to expand our operations further into Europe,” explained team manager Jamie Dye. “Our European F3 team continues to grow and we want to feed it with European young blood. Back in the UK, Formula Renault BARC is also getting bigger every year and we hope this continues and will grow further to assist Formula 3 too. Our ultimate goal is to create a platform for drivers to grow and develop their career with us from the moment they step out of a kart. Today?s news shows we?ve got the structure in place to do just that.”
The expansion of Fortec’s NEC squad follows the collapse of the Intersteps series they were a part of last year. The team has already committed to running the quartet of Hong Wei Cao, Sam MacLeod, Caterham junior Weiron Tan and Wei Fung Thong in the renamed Protyre Formula Renault (BARC) series and are also set to field a three-car entry in the Eurocup for last year’s NEC champion Jake Dennis, Mikko Parkari and one other.