Driving Into The History Books
Israeli sport is on the up with their athletes and sporting stars becoming more and more successful.
Be it on the football pitch, tennis or basketball courts, or even the ice-figure skating rink, they’re becoming more prominent on the world stage. Well, now you can add the world of motor sports to that list...
Aric Lapter is a 29-year-old racing driver and engineer from Tel Aviv who along with friends in Israel and with the help of GAC, a British Formula Vee constructor, has built the first ever Formula racing car in Israel and is now looking to race it abroad and become a professional driver.
Cars have always been close to Lapter’s heart as he explained to TJ: “I’ve always loved cars. When I was 16, cable TV arrived in Israel and I started to follow F1 and Ayrton Senna especially. “When I was 20 and serving in the army, Go Kart arrived to Israel which was when I started racing and winning, and after I finished in the army, I flew to Italy where I started racing Formula Ford and Formula 3.”
However, despite his love of the sport, it was only once the Knesset passed the Motor sport law in Israel last December that he really set his sights on building a car.
He said: “Even today things are not clear. We do not have a race track and we’re not allowed to bring Formula racing cars in, so if we can’t bring them, I say ‘lets build them’.
“When I started out, people would tell me ‘you’re crazy, there are no such things in Israel’. My reply was ‘great this would automatically make me the first one’. Being a step ahead of everybody else is a part of being competitive and winning. We didn’t have a state 58 years ago and what did we do? Give up? No!
“It all started with Zionism, this is the ‘2000’ era of Zionism and Israeli pioneering, we have everything in Israel but racing cars and tracks and I believe this is what Herzel and Ben Gurion would have done, if they were still alive.”
Having embarked on constructing it, the project encompassed one year of design and one year of production: “I had special help from GAC, lots of help from different workshops in Tel Aviv with five friends of mine voluntarily helping to finish the car, each one of them specializing in different field.”
The car itself has a 1300 cc VW Beetle engine and in order to lower the cost, has around 100 Brake horse power and only weighs 460kg. Capable of going from 0-100 km/h in only four seconds, it can reach a top speed of 200 km/h.
With the car being relatively new, Lapter has only had two test drives with it in Israel but has not taken it out of the country as he does not have a sponsor. He has though raced Formula Ford and Formula 3 in Italy and last October test drove GAC’s Formula VEE in Silverstone which he describes as ‘the most amazing circuit I’ve ever driven in.”
Currently racing in Formula Vee, he will after a couple of season be able to move on to British Formula 3 and then Formula 1.
With the sport being new in Israel, Lapter is looking to engage the Israeli public but feels the public are waiting for him to really start it up. “I did present the car a couple of weeks ago at the Israeli Motor Show and all of the people said they support me which is good.”
Not only is Lapter passionate about cars, he’s also extremely proud of his homeland and ensured his car was blue and white, to match the colours of his country. “Of course, I’m very proud of being Israeli and my heritage, and I hope I can race with the car abroad on an international, professional level, win, and bring back home prizes and pride.”
Having developed the car, Lapter has two key objectives: “In the short run finding a sponsor to race abroad as a professional driver, in the long run manufacturing in Israel more Formula VEE’s and also new Formula racing cars models.”
Although the 2006 season has started, Aric is now looking for sponsors so he can race his car in the UK, so he can compete in some of the latter races. If anyone would be interested in sponsoring him, please email sports@totallyplc.com for more details.
Alternatively, you can visit Aric website for more details: http//www.aric.20m.com
