The Praga R1 is a sportscar made by Czech car manufacturer Praga Racing. The cars raced on the Supercar Challenge and the Britcar Endurance Championship.

Development

The first Praga R1 was built in 2012. Official Praga testdriver

Danny van Dongen Danny van Dongen (born 1983) is a Dutch racing driver and entrepreneur currently competing in the MW-V6 Pickup Series. Racing career Van Dongen started his racing career in the Dutch Citroën Saxo Cup. He scored a third-place finish in the cham ...

drove the car for the first time on October 10, 2012. Production of the R1 began in March 2013.

Racing history

On 15 November 2012 the Supercar Challenge organisation in conjunction with Praga Racing and

Radical Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...

Benelux launched a new racing class. The Supercar Challenge Superlights would feature four sub-classes, one for the Praga R1, one for the

Radical SR8 The Radical SR8 is a British sports car made by Radical Sportscars. Dominic Dobson drove one to victory in the 2015 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Michael Vergers held the all-time lap record of the Nordschleife circuit on the Nürburgr ...

, one for the

Radical SR3 The Radical SR3 is a race and sports car produced by Radical Sportscars, which has been built in Peterborough since 2002. The vehicle is considered a further development of the Clubsport 1100. History Designed by race car designer Mike Pilbeam, ...

and one for

Group CN Group CN is a category of motorsport, introduced by the FIA in the early nineties for sports car racing. Group CN cars are mainly seen in hillclimbing championships or sports racing series. Group CM is a non-FIA class which is closely related to G ...

cars.

2013

The first race of the Superlights class was run at the

Slovakia Ring Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. Praga Racing announced that they would enter 10 Praga R1's in the first round. Due to a strike in the Spanish

customs Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...

division most of the wheels, produced by Spanish company

Braid Wheels A braid (also referred to as a plait) is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing two or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair. The simplest and most common version is a flat, solid, three-strande ...

, did not arrive in time. Due to not having enough wheels only three cars could start the first race. The drivers ( Van Dongen,

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

, Hrobarek and Rosina) had their first racing experience with the Praga R1 on May 17. Danny van Dongen was the fastest Praga in free practice, setting a third time overall behind two Radical SR8's, and in front of a

Norma Norma may refer to: * Norma (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Astronomy *Norma (constellation) * 555 Norma, a minor asteroid *Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral arm in the Milky Way galaxy Geography *Norma, Lazi ...

M20F and two Radical SR3's. Danny van Dongen took the first

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

in the PR1 class, fourth overall.

Stefan Rosina Stefan may refer to: * Stefan (given name) * Stefan (surname) * Ștefan, a Romanian given name and a surname * Štefan, a Slavic given name and surname * Stefan (footballer) (born 1988), Brazilian footballer * Stefan Heym, pseudonym of German writ ...

won the first race.

2014

During the 2014 season the Praga R1 was part of the Supercar Challenge, drivers Berry van Elk, Carlo Kuijer, Nol Köhler and Danny van Dongen we participating in the championship in Europe. At the Menzo

24 Hours of Zolder The 24 Hours of Zolder (24 uur van Zolder in Dutch) is a yearly sports car and touring car endurance race held at Circuit Zolder in Belgium. The race was initially held in 1983, and has run every year except for 1988. In 1989 a GT car won for th ...

the Praga R1 was classified 3rd in class and completed the first ever 24 hours race with the Praga R1. The drivers were Ronald van Loon, Nol Köhler, Berry van Elk and Carlo Kuijer.

2017

The Praga R1T was entered for the 2017 Dutch GT & Prototype Challenge in CN class, being run by VR Motorsport in their first year with the car and this championship. The driver line-up consisted of Tim Gray, Oliver Hewitt & Alastair Boulton. For a first season, the team performed well with multiple podium positions and an outright win at Zolder.

2018

The Praga R1T was entered for the 2018 Dutch GT & Prototype Challenge in CN class, being run by VR Motorsport, with drivers Tim Gray & Alain Berg. strong results saw the Praga win the CN class. The highlight of the year being an outright win against the more powerful LMP3 cars in a DTM support race at Zandvoort.

2019

The Praga R1T was entered for the

2019 Britcar Endurance Championship The 2019 Dunlop Endurance Championship is a motor racing championship for GT cars, touring cars, sportscars and Production cars held across England. Cars compete in five classes with a car's class decided on horsepower, momentum, equipment, et ...

, being run by VR Motorsport, with drivers Tim Gray, Grant Williams and Alastair Boulton at the wheel in various parts of the season. It had been a strong contender in the championship but in the second half of the season, the car experienced problems and dropped to sixth before having a good race in the final round of the championship at

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently host ...

. After swapping the provisional pole position spot with the

Brabham BT62 The Brabham BT62 is a mid-engine track-day car produced by Australian car manufacturer Brabham Automotive. It was introduced in 2018 with deliveries expected to start at the end of that year. A planned production of only 70 cars is intended, in ...

, it ended up third on the grid. In the first race, fuse problems, accompanied by a door issue put the car down the field in 11th at the end of the race. In the second race, the car was a lot more reliable, ending the race in 2nd place. The team ended the season 4th overall but 1st in class.

2020

In 2020, VR Motorsport upgraded to a three-Praga entry with two Class 1 cars and one Class 2 entry. One of the R1T Evos took pole position and the overall race 2 win. Danny Harrison and Jem Hepworth won the overall and Class 1 title in the 2020 Britcar Endurance Championship, Jack Fabby and Garry Townsend finished 3rd overall and 2nd in Class 1 while Martyn Compton and Warren McKinlay were 9th overall and 3rd in Class 2. Praga Cars announced in September 2020, that the

2021 Britcar Endurance Championship The 2021 Britcar Endurance Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2021 Goodyear Britcar Endurance Championship) was a motor racing championship for GT cars, touring cars and sportscars held across England. The championship's field ...

would feature an all-new Praga-only category, which would pave the way for a one-make Praga series in 2022, also announcing they would field a series of guest drivers at various events throughout the season.

2021

Praga unveiled their new all-carbon Praga R1 on 20 January 2021. It was designed to produce 15% more downforce and reduce the drag by 5%. Upgrades to the engine were also made which improved the throttle response along with increased torque. Sim racer Jimmy Broadbent, ex-TV star and SAS soldier Jay Morton, YouTuber and businessman James Walker, otherwise known as "Mr JWW", supercar driver Miles Lacey, as well as

Abbie Eaton Abigail Eaton (born 2 January 1992) is a British racing driver from the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. She starred as the test driver for the second and third series of ''The Grand Tour'', an Amazon Prime Video-exclusive motoring series. ...

and Gordie Mutch, a protegé of

Romain Grosjean Romain David Jeremie Grosjean (; born 17 April 1986) is a Swiss-French professional racing driver, competing under the French flag in the NTT IndyCar Series, driving the No. 28 Honda for Andretti Autosport. Grosjean had previously spent nine ...

, were announced as the guest drivers in the new Praga R1, with one more driver yet to be announced. The first-ever running of a dedicated Praga class took at the

Silverstone Circuit Silverstone Circuit is a motor racing circuit in England, near the Northamptonshire villages of Towcester, Silverstone and Whittlebury. It is the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted as the 1948 British Grand Prix. The 1950 ...

in April 2021 in the

Britcar Britcar is an endurance sports car racing and touring car racing series in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1997, as a result of a discussion in a Nürburgring bar between Willie Moore and James Tucker. Folklore has it that James Tucker and J ...

Endurance Championship, with eight Praga R1 racing cars.

Praga R1R

The Praga R1R is a

mid-engined In automotive engineering, a mid-engine layout describes the placement of an automobile engine in front of the rear-wheel axles, but behind the front axle. History The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive format can be considered the original layout of ...

production

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

based on the R1. This is Praga's first road car since 1947. The car is powered by the same engine, transmission, brakes, clutch, and chassis, but has a few differences, like being slightly smaller than the R1.

References

External links

{{commons category, Praga R1
The Praga R1 at pragaglobal.com
Racing cars Praga vehicles Cars introduced in 2012