Halifax, Nova Scotia’s FOGI Racing has teamed up with another Canadian partner to compete in the final round of the Spanish Moto2 Championship in Valencia and they’re bringing young East Coast Canadian Austin Shaw-O’Leary with them.
Throughout the year, FOGI has been building a program for young talented racers to have the opportunity to ride world class venues on world championship spec machinery, while at home in Canada, Couturier Racing, headed by Stephane Couturier, as made a significant impact on the Canadian Superbike Championship with their ability to attract and support quality team members including veteran rider Kevin Lacombe, and rising star Samuel Proulx for the 2012 season.
According to Andrew Murray, Business Development at FOGI Racing, “Couturier Racing’s passionate approach to the team and success for young riders was very much in line with the ideals set forth by FOGI Racing. Throughout the year I have had several meetings with team owners to see if there would be an interest in bringing Couturier to the Spanish Championship to see if they would like to be a part of our program. We are very happy to see Couturier Racing come onboard to help complete the final round at Valencia and we hope Stephane will see the potential to make a real impact on the world stage for young talented Canadian riders.”
FOGI Racing continues their long standing partnership with FTR and looks forward to showing the Couturier Racing group the benefits of this great prototype chassis as they field a two rider team, headed by Graeme Gowland and rookie Austin Shaw-O’Leary at the final round of the Spanish CEV Moto2 Championship at the Valencia circuit on November 16th – 18th.
“Both FOGI and Couturier Racing have made many contacts throughout the racing community and we were lucky to find that Graeme was available for the final round at Valencia.” Andrew Murray, Business Development at FOGI Racing said yesterday when asked about how the partnership came to be. He continued to say “Graeme has worked with FTR in developing the Moto2 machinery, and has also worked with many of our staff in the past when he won the Spanish championship with Joe Darcey Racing so he will feel at home in our paddock box.”
Shaw-O’Leary was able to find support under the ‘Friends of FOGI Racing program’ to allow him to test and race in the final Moto2 round in Valencia. He is expected to use the experience to simply learn how to ride a prototype machine as well as be mentored by the team and Gowland for a two day test at the Valencia circuit on October 29th and 30th and then during race conditions on November 16th – 18th.
Gowland will pilot the FOGI Racing FTR Moto2 M211 machine, while Shaw-O’Leary will be running the Moto2 M210 machine. Both machines are in their final stages of preparation for testing to begin at the end of next month.
<
