CAR DELAY FORCES EVCUP TO PULL THE PLUG ON 2011 RACE SERIES LAUNCH

London (October 7, 2011) - Organisers of the EVCUP, the world’s first zero emission circuit electric car race series, have been forced to pull the plug on their plans to start racing in California at the end of this year.

Delays in final production of the electric cars to be used for the pioneering race series have left EVCUP with no choice but to abandon plans for this year. The news comes just four months after the series had to call off its European races for the same reason.

EVCUP Managing Director Sylvain Filippi said: “We are bitterly disappointed to have to take this decision but we felt it was the only practical decision we could take given delays in finalisation of cars which would need to be shipped from the UK.

“We have done all we can to make these events possible but we could not go ahead with an event when we do not have full confidence in the cars being used to operate at the highest level of performance and reliability. It would do harm to everyone’s interests including those of our commercial partners. We will now refocus our energies to the future.”

It was at the UK based Autosport International exhibition in January that the EVCUP series was first launched. The plan was for zero emission race days based on Think city cars and high performance Westfield iRacers together with other prototype cars.

Julian Turner, Managing Director of UK based Westfield Sportscars, explained: “We are breaking new ground in producing high performance EVs and want to ensure the cars have unquestionable reliability and performance.”