DF1 Racing Press Release 2020
The Japanese driver will drive the #48 Chevrolet Camaro in the EuroNASCAR 2 championship
After the successful partnership in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series (NWES) race at the Hockenheimring in 2019, DF1 Racing and Marko Stipp Motorsport will continue to cooperate in the 2020 season. The Austrians and the team from Germany will jointly enter the #48 Chevrolet Camaro in the series. The Japanese driver Kenko Miura has already been signed up for this purpose and will focus on the EuroNASCAR 2 championship.
The podium finishes that DF1 Racing and Marko Stipp Motorsport achieved in the Challenger Trophy at Hockenheimring show how well the two teams work together. Building on the experience in 2019 and 2020, both teams will work on an economical cooperation under the name DF1-MSM Racing for 2021.
With Kenko Miura, DF1 Racing has a driver in its ranks who knows the NWES like the back of his hand: The Japanese driver won the Challenger Trophy in the EuroNASCAR PRO championship in 2018 and has gained a lot of experience with his 46 starts in both EuroNASCAR championships. Miura has been part of the series since the 2017 season. Together with the experienced mechanics of Marko Stipp Motorsport it’s realistic to match Miura’s goal to bring the title to Japan.
“I would like to thank Alex Caffi for the great years in his team and his support,” said Miura. “I have been exploring the possibilities, such as looking for a new engineer or to move to another category. At the end, I decided to join DF1 Racing. DF1 Racing have always delivered strong performances over the years and they have found a way to build fast cars. They have the necessary experience so that I can build on the successes of the past. Also, everyone in the team always has a smile on their faces, which I really like. In 2020 I want to be the first Japanese driver to make it into Victory Lane. I want to make it to the podium and achieve the best possible results. If I do my best, I’m sure it can be done.”
Team boss Marko Stipp is looking forward to the cooperation with Miura and DF1 Racing: “The cooperation is beneficial for all of us. Kenko is a good and experienced driver who has proven himself a lot of times in the past. With our know-how we want to have success with him and DF1 Racing. Together we are strong and we will prove that in 2020.”
DF1 Racing Head of Motorsport Norbert Walchhofer is positive about the upcoming season: “I’m delighted to have this likeable racing driver in our ranks. Beside the technical side, we at DF1 Racing want to support Kenko’s PR and marketing activities in Japan more actively. We have already noticed Kenko in his debut year 2017, where he immediately clinched several top-10 results. We are therefore very pleased that Kenko will be part of the new cooperation, DF1-MSM Racing, in 2020. We have already agreed that the management of Kenko will offer sportswear, of course with the well-known team logo, the DF1 Tiger. For DF1 Racing it is a great opportunity to make our team better known in Asia. We will also actively support this from Europe. We want to inspire Asian fans and also potential drivers with regular activities. We hope to be able to field a #48 NASCAR car in the NWES as early as the 2021 season, which will be manned solely by Asian drivers
