Motorsports: Racing Eagles switches to Bentley by 2014

By Ime Bassey

Team Principal of Nigeria Racing Eagles (NRE), Ribi Adeshokan has disclosed that the team will switch to Bentley by 2014 in the GT Series.

Adeshokan who spoke exclusively to Vanguard Sports from London said the team’s new manager, John Wickham has started the designing work for the new Bentley series.

“John has started the designing of Bentley for GT Series for racing Eagles, part of the idea now is to conclude the formalities with Bentley for the project. By 2014, we hope to switch to Bentley series from Audi.

“With this partnership, we can talk to anyone who cares to listen that we are not just in the business for noise but for the real thing, which is building an industry for the country as a whole,” Adeshokan said.

Meanwhile, the Racing Eagles manager, John Wickham has stressed that Nigeria Eagles would soon become of world champions in Formula 1.

“I feel honoured to be part of the historic Nigeria Racing Eagle and the dream of developing African Racing Team, including drivers, team and crew to represent the continent at the top level of world of Motorsport and one day becoming the World Champion,” Wickham said.

Before joining Nigeria Racing Eagle, Wickham owned F1 Spirit Racing in the ‘80s and was Team Manager for F1 Arrows in the ‘90s. From 1996 to 2003 he was Team Manager for Audi Sport UK and Bentley, who won the series in Touring Cars of the Le Mans 24 Hour Race.

From 2004 to 2009 Wickham worked for the successful A1GP Series as Head of Operations. In 2011 he was Team Manager for Lotus-Renault F1.

He would be in charge of the technical department of Nigeria Racing Eagle (NRE) running day to day activities of the team, including team managing at the Race events, drivers’ training & testing and Driver Academy.