Lissone – Italy, March 14th 2016 Birel ART Junior is born Birel ART is pleased to announce the creation of Birel ART Junior, the official organisation dedicated to the Mini Kart class whose aim is to help youngsters take their first steps in the world of karting. It will provide direct technical support, as well as the same type of assistance and methodology that the drivers will come across later on at the Birel ART Racing factory teams in the higher classes. The racing side of Birel ART Junior will be run by Giorgio Pantano before a motor racing career of the highest level, including competing in Formula 1, Pantano had an extraordinary karting career. Indeed, the driver from Padua won the 100cc class Italian, European and World Championships in 1993 and also retained the Italian and World Championships in 1994. Pantano then took third place in the Super A World Championship in 1997, was runner-up in 1998 and third again in the 1999 World Championship. In single-seater racing, Pantano won the German Formula 3 Championship in 2000, was runner-up in the International Formula 3000 in 2002 and triumphed in the GP2 Series in 2008. Giorgio reached the peak of his single-seater racing career when he competed in Formula One in 2004 for Jordan and in the IndyCar Series in 2011 for Ganassi. In his final years of racing, he took part in the International GT Open in a McLaren MP4-12 in 2013 - winner of the GTS class- and the Blancpain Sprint Series in 2014. The Birel ART Junior programme will come into play officially at the second round of the WSK Super Master Series at Sarno, due to be held on March 17-20. The definitive line-up will be announced soon. Ronni Sala, President: "Birel ART Junior represents a very important initiative for Birel ART. Created together with the All Road Academy, the aim of the new mini-kart class factory team is to help develop young drivers, preparing them for the professional world of karting, [email protected] /BirelART @BirelART Birel_ART taking them under the Birel ART wing, by immediately providing them will all the facilities available to our drivers in the higher classes. The project commences in the mini-kart class, but will not be limited to karting, having the ultimate goal of helping drivers progress to single-seaters. In fact, thanks to All Road Academy, which is part of Nicolas Todt’s All Road Management, drivers will be able to continue their development in the best competitions at international level, with the ultimate goal of competing in the most prestigious championships in world motorsport.” Giorgio Pantano: “After nearly 20 seasons as a driver, I returned to the karting scene last year armed with a new idea. I saw a lot of young and talented drivers in the paddocks. However, I noticed that something important was missing: someone to teach them about strategy and give them some advice on their driving. I decided to create a “Junior” programme through which I could provide drivers with all my years of experience. The project aroused great interest on the scene, but in order to be 100% successful, it needed an equally successful partner. I found the prospect of creating this new project together with Birel ART extremely interesting, because it entails teaming up with a group that is part of karting history and is now a vital part of the motorsport scene. We created "Birel ART Junior" to guide the development of our drivers, step-by-step, in order to attain the highest levels in four-wheeled motorsport.” Here is a preview of the new "Birel ART Junior" logo [email protected] /BirelART @BirelART Birel_ART .