Comtec down to single car entry
The World Series by Renault field is down to 29 cars for this weekend's Misano races after Pascal Kochem was prevented from moving from EuroInternational to Comtec Racing
Kochem experienced budget problems and was replaced at EuroInternational by 19-year-old Brazilian, and sometime Spanish F3 driver, Carlos Iaconelli.
EuroInternational team-boss Antonio Ferrari brought out a court injunction against Kochem when the German tried to find a seat with Comtec, who required a temporary replacement for Jaap van Lagen.
The court injunction left Comtec with one car parked in the garage in Thursday's collective test, before trying to find a solution this weekend with Italian Formula 3000 race winner Marco Bonanomi. Bonanomi drove in Friday's collective test and impressed, but without the funding for him to race Comtec have resorted to running one car.
"We had a verbal agreement with Kochem but the money didn't come through, the transfer didn't happen on time, so on Thursday I rested him and he didn't go out," Comtec team manager Jonathan Lewis explained.
"Van Lagen will definitely, 100%, do Spa. The reason he isn't here is that the Megane race which he's competing in is back-to-back (with the World Series race).
"He'd love to do it, but with the heat here it's impossible. Jaap sometimes thinks he's superman, and the situation in Istanbul was that neither his Megane team nor us were getting the best of him. He had an agreement with them first so it's fair they have him.
"I was having dinner with my wife and kids last night and this Italian comes up to me and says 'I want to drive your car', and that's why we ran Bonanomi."
EuroInternational teamboss Antonio Ferrari set out the predicament his team were in.
"The deal with Carlos is race by race and we see how it goes," he said. "I am very angry with Kochem, I want you to print this. He breached his agreement with us, his deal at the start of the season was for 550 000 Euros, he has only paid 85 000. We went to a court and brought about an injunction.
"We don't deserve this, it's the second time a driver has broken his agreement with us after Tor Graves at the start of the season."
EuroInternational's lead driver Enrico Toccacelo is also having his last race with the team this weekend.
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