Hello
How are you?
I am doing an academic research on the Portuguese drivers who joined the ETCC in 1984-1986.
Although it was common practice to have local drivers on each rounds and Estoril hosted ETCC races for several years, the partnership between Christian Melville and Luigi Racing was the first attempt by a Portuguese team to do a full-time season on this championship and one of the few Portuguese projects abroad. Many Portuguese drivers went racing abroad, mainly since the mid-1980s, but not in Portuguese teams.
When Christian Melville became Luigi Racing's official representative in Portugal in 1984, after returning to motorsport after more or less 10 years of absence, he joined the driver and boss of Traffic team, Pedro Meireles, planning a full season on the ETCC. The partnership was fruitful and an agreement was reached with Luigi Cimarosti. The two Portuguese drivers started at the end of 1984 and managed to do the whole 1985 season with quite interesting results.
Unfortunately, economic problems forced Meireles to retire to focus on his daily business and Team Traffic returned to the Portuguese National Championship. Abroad, the team was sponsored by the French textile brand Ton-sur-Ton, produced by Traffic, a powerful textile company at the time.
I would like to know if it is possible to get in touch with people related to the team, from foreign drivers to the engineers to the journalists who worked closely on the ETCC scene, please.
Best Regards
