Scots racer Paul Luti, who seven years ago underwent open heart surgery, has announced plans to contest next year’s British Touring Car Championship and the 26-year-old is taking an innovative approach to raising the funding.
Stirling-born Luti, who plans to purchase an MG ZS from championship-leading team WSR for 2010, was just 19 when he contracted bacterial endocarditis which resulted in the surgery to replace a damaged valve in his heart.
Now Luti, a regular competitor at Scottish Motor Racing Club meetings, plans to give fans the chance to get their names on the side of his car for the whole season in exchange for a donation through his website www.racethemg.com.
“I’m keen to get the backing of race fans,” Luti, a regular race-winner in the Rover Metro Championship and the MG Trophy, said today, “and I’m offering them sponsorship packages from just £100.
“That amount of sponsorship buys them a 10mm-high sticker with their name on it and this will be stuck on the side of the car. So everybody who supports me will actually be directly involved in every race.”
Depending on how successful the fundraising is, Luti’s Dreadnought Racing squad could receive technical support from WSR, which built and ran the ZSs for the works MG squad in 2002-03 and then on an independent basis for the next three years.
“I would be thrilled to race an MG car in the BTCC,” Luti, who will join Kirkcaldy’s Jonathan Adam on the grid next year, continued, “and would be delighted to receive support from any companies or individuals with an interest in keeping MG’s rich racing heritage alive.”
JM