Lotus Cup Europe is the World’s premier and longest-running Lotus race championship. It was originally set up by Group Lotus as fun but professionally run motor sport series.
Lotus Cup Europe is an FIA International Series, with safety and technical regulations governed by the FIA. In addition to enjoying similar status to prestigious series such as Formula 2 and DTM, it is run as a championship.
The championship has its own hour-long TV Programme, with all seven rounds broadcast throughout Europe on Motors TV and Facebook.
Lotus Cup Europe enjoys unrivalled support from the Lotus community, with many enthusiasts attending events. The championship is active on social media with well over 60,000 Facebook followers and received over 3 million views and 1/4 million likes in the last full year.
Competitors are assured of maximum time on track during events, and many of these open with a test day, for which drivers are welcome to enter. Race weekends start with a free practice session, and this is followed by 30 minutes of qualifying. There are two half-hour races, with both standing and rolling starts employed.
Lotus Cup Europe receives technical support from Group Lotus, and competitors have full use of a dedicated hospitality unit as a social hub, and this includes catering facilities.
Entries are split into four classes: V6 Cup – for the Exige V6 Cup and Evora GT4. 2-Eleven – for the four-cylinder supercharged open-top 2-Eleven. Production – for normally aspirated Elises and Exiges. Lotus Open – for four-cylinder Exige Cup cars, and for most other Lotus cars that are not eligible for the above categories.
Championship points are scored according to class position, with bonus points added for the number of cars starting races in each class – therefore, drivers from all four classes have an equal chance of competing for the overall title. Belgian John Rasse won the 2017 title from the V6 Cup class, Hungarian Tamas Vizin raced a Production car to the championship in 2016, and Frenchman Jérémy Lourenco claimed the 2014 championship with a 2-Eleven.
The Lotus Cup Europe calendar features the continent’s finest circuits, all of which have a history of hosting Formula 1 Grands Prix, including classic venues Spa-Francorchamps, Hockenheim and Le Mans.
The championship is open to drivers at all levels of experience, provided that they hold an International D licence or higher. Whilst the series has grown hugely since its inception over a decade ago, the emphasis has firmly remained as a fun and social environment in which to compete.
