Fittipaldi

Here's another car which took part in the Thoroughbred Grand Prix Championship race at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2006.

It's a Fittipaldi F5A, entered in the race by MEC Auto and driven by Steve Allen. Fittipaldi Automotive was formed in 1974 by Brazilian Wilson Fittipaldi and his younger brother Emerson, winner of the 1972 World Drivers' Championship. Emerson drove for the Fittipaldi team from 1976 to 1980; the F5A is a modification of the 1977 F5 and is the car which the team used in 1978 and part of 1979. This is what Wikipedia says about the F5A:

'While it was not a great success in 1977, in 1978 the F5A, modified to implement the principles of ground effect demonstrated to excellent effect by Lotus, allowed the former World Champion to score several good results. The best of these was a competitive second place, after fighting with Mario Andretti and Gilles Villeneuve, at the team's perennial happy hunting ground in Brazil. Fittipaldi finished the year with 17 points and the team, now known as Fittipaldi Automotive, came 7th in the Constructor's table – one place ahead of Emerson's old team McLaren.

The 1979 season saw the promise of the previous year fade away. Implementing ground effect successfully was becoming crucial to success on the track but understanding of the phenomenon was in its infancy and Ralph Bellamy's F6 was a failure on the track. Fittipaldi was again the team's only driver, although Alex Ribeiro was run in the non-championship race which inaugurated the Imola circuit that year, before attempting and failing to qualify a car for the end of season North American championship races.'