Dash Cup

Dash Cup

Year Founded	1999
Founder(s)	Graham Truro Mitchell Montgomery
Executive(s)	Dean Thompson
Current Divisions	Pirelli Super Stocks Series Aspira Juniors Series Oval Stock Series (defunct)
Current Champion	Justin Keith (Super Stocks) Reece Reynolds (Juniors)
Racing Series

Dash Cup is a Europe-based auto racing sanctioning body established in 1999. Since its first season, a 7-round championship, it has developed into two distinct series, with more than a dozen feature events spanning four continents and several countries.

Dash Cup has been noted as one of the most diverse and progressive racing series in history, with an assortment of drivers from many nations and with various levels of experience having found success. The series has also seen a large number of female drivers participate in recent seasons, with four of them having scored championships as of the end of 2015. It is currently one of the world's fastest-growing auto racing organizations in terms of participation as well as popularity.

Its premier race is the Spa GP, which has been held every year since the series's debut season. Until 2012, it was held as the championship finale.

Jean-Pierre Beaufort currently holds the distiction of having won the most championships of any driver with four, which he scored consecutively from 2004 through 2007. As of the end of 2015, Cassandra Collins holds the record for the most race victories with 22 (21 PSS and 1 OSS). Collins is also the youngest driver to win a Pirelli Series championship, winning the 2015 title at the age of 18.

History[edit | edit source]

The first season of Dash Cup was contested in 1999, and consisted of seven race weekends. Englishman Todd Benetar would win the championship, which was decided on the final lap of the inaugural Spa GP when a sudden rainstorm caused his points rival Dean Thompson to spin off of the track from the lead, giving the race victory to Frank Smith and the title to Benetar.

From 1999 through 2001, a three-race format was used for every race weekend - excluding the Spa GP - in which the starting order of Race 1 was determined by a qualifying session, the starting order for Race 2 was determined by the results of Race 1, and the starting order for Race 3 was determined by the results of Race 2, with the order of the lead-lap finishers being inverted.

The 2011 season was never run, due to sponsors dropping support and leaving no funding for the races with the exception of the Spa GP. However, before 2012, Dubai-based FutureTechnologies, Inc. struck a deal to support Dash Cup, leading to a longer schedule and the introduction of several international races.

Through 2012, the only two manufacturers to field cars in Dash Cup were Spiedel, with its Wasp model, and STS Motor Company with its Arrow. It was announced after the 2012 season that Spiedel would no longer offer manufacturer support. However, Dash Cup officials lifted chassis restrictions, bringing several new manufacturers into the series, including Calton-Morel, Xenos, Lycoia, SMC, and others.

For 2015, it was announced that Dash Cup would introduce multiple divisions of racing for the first time in its history. The original Dash Cup became the Dash Cup Pirelli Super Touring Series, adopted the use of touring cars, and ran entirely on road courses with the exception of Mallory Park. The new Dash Cup Oval Stock Series became the second series that Dash Cup would sanction, and used the 2014 spec cars. The Oval Stock Series raced only within Europe, and, as told by the name, the schedule consisted entirely of ovals. Midway through the year, the Dash Cup Aspira Juniors Series was introduced as a championship for drivers of age 14-16, and exclusively uses Matthews Aspira chassis.

As a result of declining television ratings and profits, the Pirelli Super Touring Series returned to the use of stock car chassis and was renamed to the Dash Cup Pirelli Stock Series in 2016, and the Oval Stock Series was discontinued. The "new" Pirelli Stock Series chassis is based on pre-2012 TM Master Cup regulations, opening up the series to more manufacturers, and with some teams electing to run upgraded ex-Master Cup cars.

In 2019, the Pirelli Stock Series held races in Europe, the United States of America, and Canada, and races were previously held in Australia and Dubai. The continued popularity of the American events, and crossover with American drivers and teams, led to rumors of Dash Cup officials looking to form a new division holding races exclusively in the U.S.

This would come to fruition for 2020 with an agreement with the National Road Racing Club of America, the sanctioning body for AmeriCar. The Dash Cup America Series, sanctioned by NRRC will be supported on most weekends by the Dash Cup Pickup Racing Series or the Overdrive Championship Series. In 2021, the Dash Cup Pirelli Super Stocks Series was bought out by Bruce Keaton to create the Euro Racing League.

Pirelli Stock Series Champions[edit | edit source]

For current season, please see: 2019 Dash Cup season.

Year	Winner
1999	Todd Benatar
2000	Dean Thompson
2001	Matteo Moretti
2002	Garry Carter
2003	Dean Thompson
2004	Jean-Pierre Beaufort
2005	Jean-Pierre Beaufort
2006	Jean-Pierre Beaufort
2007	Jean-Pierre Beaufort
2008	Ben Atkins
2009	Carla Rosinski
2010	Daniel Miller
2011	season not run
2012	Reuben Vogt
2013	Robert Dorian
2014	Hannah Percy
2015	Cassandra Collins
2016	Matilda Dillinger
2017	Tom Delgado
2018	Justin Keith