USA: Gelles Racing enters World Finals

Formula BMW World Final next month
Gelles Racing teaming up for Valencia

Front Royal, Virginia, October 15th, 2006. -- Gelles Racing should be the only American racing team to travel abroad to the Formula BMW World Final in Valencia next month. Team owner Bob Gelles announced today at least five drivers of international caliber will be among the 36 entries in the four-day BMW race fest in Spain. Three regular 2006 Gelles drivers, Adrien Herberts, Maxime Pelletier and Sebastian Saavedra, will head to Europe while American Ryan Phinny and Formula BMW UK front runner Ross Curnow will join them. The fourth BMW World Finals are set to take place from November 23 to 26 at the facility that has become the Formula BMW headquarters.

"This will be our first time at the World Final, claimed team owner Bob Gelles and we will bring a whole six-car team over there. Three of our 2006 regulars will return to the track where they tested a BMW for the first time. French Canadian Maxime Pelletier and Colombian Sebastian Saavedra will vie to be the Top Rookie in this year's contest. Adrien Herberts from British Columbia is a 2-year veteran that anticipates a strong weekend.

We will also have Californian Ryan Phinny: he raced with us last year at Laguna Seca in the first rounds of the 2005 season and finished in tenth place in the 2006 standings. I am also very happy to have Ross Curnow from the United Kingdom join us. 18 year-old Curnow has been one of the stars of the BMW UK series for the last three years and has won rounds in every one of them: he was a Junior Scholar and Best Rookie in 2004 and just missed vice-champion this year by a mere 4-points. Ross is looking to compete in America next year and this will be his first experience with a U.S. team.

Completely revised cars

Since the end of the season in September, all six Gelles FB02 armada were completely stripped for a major revision. "We will be sending almost brand new cars to Europe, added Gelles. We didn't leave any component from a complete overhaul and we know our cars will be in top shape. We will also have our best engineers and staff available and we look forward to put on a good show. We still have ONE seat available since we are entering all six cars and we are waiting for a confirmation for the last one."

In 2007, Gelles Racing enters the Champ Car Atlantic Championship with a four-car effort and the Formula BMW USA Championship with six cars. Western Union, BMW of Sterling, Pure and Simple, Inc., Hebert & LeBleu sponsors the team. Gelles Racing announced it will campaign in the Champ Car series in 2007 with the next generation Panoz DP-01.

-credit: gellesracing.com.