Having had his first taste of the 550 hp strong Renault R.S. 01 as a guest driver on two occasions last year, Dutchman Pieter Schothorst will now be contesting a full season in the Renault Sport Trophy. During the six events scheduled for the 2016 season, Pieter Schothorst will be competing with a car entered by Equipe Verschuur from Nijmegen in The Netherlands. “Thanks to the support by McGregor and Gofield & Only, I could turn my participation in this season’s Renault Sport Trophy into reality. With Equipe Verschuur, I am a part of the best team in this category, so the goal is clear: I will be aiming for the title,” Schothorst is leaving no doubt about his ambitions.

As a competition with the spectacular Renault R.S. 01, a purpose-built silhouette race car powered by a 3.8 litres Nismo V6 engine, the Renault Sport Trophy had its inaugural season last year. Renault is considering the Renault Sport Trophy as the step between the Clio Cup and professional championships such as FIA WEC, DTM and Japanese Super GT. One professional driver and one gentleman driver form a team in each car. For each of these drivers, every race meeting includes one individual sprint race. Together, the drivers compete in the endurance race, in which one of the drivers is eligible to score points in alternating order: on one weekend, the professional drivers score points, on the next weekend, the gentlemen drivers. “This format worked well last year and will remain unchanged for the upcoming season, although there are a few more restrictions for the gentlemen drivers, as there were some really fast guys among them last year,” Pieter Schothorst says. He will be teaming up with his father Jeroen. “The same constellation as my brother Steijn had last year,” he explains. “Steijn is now racing in GP3 this year, so I am taking his place. And Steijn was in contention for the title in the ‘Elite’ class for professionals until the final race of last year, so I know what I have to do…”

Faster than GT3

Last year, Pieter Schothorst raced a GT3 car in the Blancpain Endurance Series. “For this year, my full focus is on the Renault Sport Trophy, but whenever an interesting opportunity arises, I will definitely look into it,” he says. Having raced both the Renault R.S. 01 and GT3 cars, Schothorst is one of the few drivers in a position to compare the two. “At Silverstone, I have raced both a GT3 car and the Renault and there, the Renault’s lap times were seven to eight seconds lower. The advantage mainly stems from the corners: carbon brakes in the Renault allow you to brake 40 to 60 metres later for some corners and the increased downforce allows for considerably higher cornering speeds. Moreover, unlike the GT3 cars, the Renault’s performance hasn’t been compromised because of the ‘balance of performance’, so you can use it to its full potential, even more so as everybody has more or less identical equipment. That is one of the reasons why I like this category so much!”

At the end of this month, Spain’s Motorland Aragon circuit and the former Grand Prix track of Estoril in Portugal will both be hosting the series for two days of official pre-season testing each. The season gets underway at Motorland Aragon in mid-April where the Renault Sport Trophy is the main act. The other events at the circuits of Imola in Italy, Red Bull Ring at Spielberg in Austria, Paul Ricard in the south of France, Spa-Francorchamps in the Belgian Ardennes and, once again, Estoril, are held in conjunction with the sports cars and GTs from the European Le Mans Series. “Apart from Imola, I have raced at all these circuits before. I am really looking forward to the upcoming season and I can hardly wait to get back behind the wheel again,” Pieter Schothorst says. “I am really eager to make it a fantastic year together with Equipe Verschuur!”