Ridge will be Twingo star

British Super1600 Rallycross pioneer Hal Ridge is building a new Renault Twingo II for the 2012 season in which he plans to drive in both British and European championship events.

Ridge has driven a self built Super1600 Clio over the last two years but has now put the car up for sale as a rolling shell. “The original plan had been to rebuild the Clio and work-in some new ideas but then I was offered a Twingo shell and the benefits of moving to a current production model in terms of profile, sponsorship and media outweigh the disadvantages of starting again with something new,” said Ridge who plans to carry over the major mechanical items from his Clio. “It might look like an expensive thing to do, its not actually that bad, we can use the same engine and gearbox in the Twingo, so that saves time and we are using a very considered approach to the design of all the components on the car. The things that will slow down the build a bit are the roll cage because RenaultSport is the only supplier and the body panels which Magnum Motorsport will make from scratch for me.”

Super1600 will be introduced to the British championship as a standalone class in 2012, and Ridge is supporting the initiative. “I haven’t really bothered to race the Super1600 at home before but I want the class to work here, so I will do the British championship and then as many ERC rounds as I can. The sponsors I have had over the last few years are remaining with me and I am deeply grateful for their continued support which makes it possible to go racing. I am hoping to welcome some new sponsors to the team in the coming weeks, one of who is only coming on board because of the new direction,” said Ridge.

Ridge’s Twingo will be only the third example of the car in Rallycross. David Olivier won the French S1600 title with his version last year while Russian Ildar Rakhmatullin won one round (Norway) of the European championship with his Twingo.

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