After missing the season opening round at Valencia, it has been confirmed that 42 Racing by FS Motorsports will be entering next week’s NASCAR GP of Italy at Franciacorta. It has also been confirmed that 2018 TCR Italy runner-up Luigi Ferrara will drive the No. 42 Mustang in the Elite 1 class, while VW Fun Cup driver Claudio Remigio Cappelli will drive the No. 42 Mustang in the Elite 2 class.
While this will be the first race 42 Racing by FS Motorsports under its current name, technically they have been competing in this series since 2014. MRT Nocentini, the previous incarnation of 42 Racing, first entered the series in 2014 as Event4you by Nocentini. The next year, they achieved their biggest success in the series when Gianmarco Ercoli won 4 races on his way to win the Elite 2 championship.
A somewhat overambitious expanding attempt in 2016, however, crippled the team’s economy and they were forced to sell most of their assets to Dario Caso’s Vict Motorsport. After a part-time effort in 2017, they tried to compete full-time last year with two cars. However, funding ran out once again after just two races and they ultimately only competed in just three races.
Before the 2019 season began, it is known that Swiss racing team 42 Racing SA has entered a partnership role with Nocentini as they were listed as “Racing 42 – Nocentini” in the initial 2019 entry list. At some point between the initial 2019 entry list reveal and Valencia, Nocentini sold the team to the Swiss outfit and after a period of reorganization and signing a new partnership deal with FS Motorsports, the team is ready to compete in the series once more at Franciacorta.
Luigi “Gigi” Ferrara (born 12 May 1982 at Bari) has been active in motorsport since 1994 when he made his racing debut in karting. His career would then continue in the feeder formula series, with his highest achievement being the champion of Italian Formula Three in 2005. He then switched to sports car racing in 2008 and won the Porsche Carrera Cup Italy in his debut season. After driving in the final few years of the Superstars Series with CAAL Racing, he returned to GT racing in the Italian GT Championship before switching to TCR’s starting in 2016.
Last year, he scored 5 race wins on his way to finish second in the TCR Italy Touring Car Championship. Daniele Vernuccio’s V-Action Racing was supposed to be the team that fielded his entry last season, but 42 Racing entered a partnership role with V-Action that eventually saw the team took over the majority ownership of V-Action’s TCR Italy operations. Now, after 42 Racing took over MRT Nocentini in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, Ferrara will begin a new chapter as he will made the jump to stock car racing for the first time in his career.
As for Cappelli, the Robecco D’Oglio native mostly lived his everyday life as the owner of Cremona Gronde, a company specializing in roofing work. His racing career has been mostly spent with racing in VW Fun Cups, driving for his self-owned team 8KS Corse. 8KS, founded by Cappelli and his friends Ottorino Zorza and Frederico Sordini, has scored some impressive finishing results in the Fun Cup championship and they currently sit in seventh place in the overall standings of the 2019 European VW Fun Cup Championship.
Last year, Cappelli began to try his hands at endurance racing. Again, he scored some impressive results, including winning the 991-AM class and finishing seventeenth overall (out of 91 starters) at last year’s Dubai 24 Hour. Next week, Cappelli will also start a new chapter in his racing career as he will make his debut at stock car racing for next week’s NASCAR GP of Italy at Franciacorta with 42 Racing.
Photo credit by NASCAR Whelen Euro Series on Facebook.
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