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Third chassis joins British F3 grid

A third constructor will join the British Formula Three Championship this season when a new team revive the SLC chassis for a National Class campaign

Litespeed F3 have been set up by former Team Lotus engineers Steve Kenchington and Nino Judge after they bought the rights to the chassis design.

They plan to run an upgraded version of the car this year before developing a Championship Class version for next season.

The SLC chassis was originally raced in the F3 Euro Series in 2005 by Signature, and then in German F3 in 2006 by Italian team Target Racing.

The car ran competitively in both series and scored a pole position and second place at the Nurburgring in 2006 in the hands of Riccardo Azzoli.

Judge, a former club-level F3 racer himself, said: "We're looking to become an F3 constructor and this was a good opportunity.

"The work Signature and Target did with this car was phenomenal, apart from one major flaw which for some reason they never got ironed out. But even so it was taking the fight to Dallara."

"There was a flaw in the gearbox but we've corrected that with a new design and we fully expect the car to be on the pace in the National Class this season."

Litespeed intend to bring out a competitive Championship Class car next season and Judge is keen to take the fight to the dominant Dallaras: "Dallara need more competition. Mygale are trying and it would be good to have another constructor fighting it out as well.

"We ran Dallaras for years in club-level F3 and they're good, but they're nothing special. They're beatable."

The team have four chassis but don't want to run more than one or two cars this season. No drivers have yet been signed, but prospective drivers won't need to bring a full budget.

Judge added: "Championship Class budgets are huge - so are some National Class ones for that matter. We won't be charging anywhere near that because we've got some commercial backing already so everything but the running costs is covered already."

Litespeed are currently in negotiations with reigning British Formula Ford champion Callum MacLeaod and Irish A1GP rookie driver Niall Quinn, but the team are still looking for potential drivers.

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