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EV Cup Postponed, First Race Moved to the US

Announced as the first ever racing series for electric vehicles, the highly anticipated EV Cup seems to have hit a brick wall. The director of the event, Sylvain Filippi, announced this weekend that the series will no longer kick off on the Old Continent this summer, but will start in November in the US.

Initially, the series was planned to kick off in the UK, at Silverstone, on August 6. After that, the EV Cup would have moved to Snetterton (August 20), Rockingham (September 10) and Brands Hatch (October 23), before heading over the border, to Portugal, Spain and the US.

For blurry reasons, which have to do with safety aspects and the delivery schedule, Filippi now says that the series will be a limited one this year, with only two races, kicking off at Laguna Seca in November and then heading to the Auto Club Speedway in December. Next year, promises Filippi, the series would run a complete schedule.

"The EV world is developing extremely quickly with technical advances happening almost on a daily basis. The requirements for safety aspects and the delivery schedule for race cars were not going to allow sufficient time for testing. We need to ensure that we are absolutely ready and have everything exactly right before we start,” Filippi said.

“We plan to begin the full series early in 2012 and expect to start with races in the US again, before coming back to Europe for races here. It was a difficult decision to make, but we believe it is the best way to move forward. We have notified all circuits concerned."

Provided nothing changes here as well, the Cup will comprise two main categories, City EV class (Think City EVs) and Sports EV class (Westfield iRacers). A third class, Prototype EV, will be added later on and will include ultra-fast, non-production electric race cars.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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