The event kicked off with an indoor reveal of Felix Perez’s version of the car. Team Principal and co-founder Adam Blocker had the following to say before pulling the covers off of the car: “Welcome everyone to Virginia International Raceway! I’m excited to be here to launch what will be FIRST Motorsport’s fifth car to compete in Formula Virtual, a car that we hope will continue our successes from 2019 and perhaps go further.” “You’re probably thinking: Why the name Copp 20? I can answer that. Similar to what we did last year in honoring Smokey Yunick, the late stockcar and Indy 500 engineer and mechanic, we have decided to use our car’s name to honor another American motorsports engineering legend. This time it is Harley Copp, the man who led the design and engineering of two of Ford’s most iconic motorsport constructions: the Ford GT40 and the Ford Cosworth DFV engine. The GT40 was the car that famously broke Ferrari’s streak of winning Le Mans by winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans 4 times in a row from 1966 to 1969. The DFV engine is the most successful engine in Formula One history, winning 155 races from 1967 to 1983 and 12 drivers’ championships. Engines derived from the DFV also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans (twice) and the Indianapolis 500 (ten times). Copp worked for Ford for 35 years doing everything from the above projects to helping Ford enter NASCAR in the 50s to working on various production car models. We hope that the Copp 20 will represent his legacy well this season. And with that being said, I present you with FIRST Motorsport’s Copp 20!” “Technically, the Copp 20 is an evolution of the Yunick 19 from last season. The engine is also an evolution and will be referred to as the Ford SVT 183B V10. Livery-wise the car is also an evolution from last year, with the now familiar FIRST color scheme still in place but with some updates to keep the livery looking fresh.” “You’ll also notice some minor sponsor changes for this year. Ford, FIRST, and Verizon remain the dominant sponsors on the car, and loyal sponsors such as Sonoco, 3M, MoTeC, and Taco Bell remain. On behalf of the team, I’d like to thank all of them for their continued support of our program. Our new sponsors for this season are Ford’s oil and aftermarket parts arm Motorcraft, peanut butter company Jif, and electronics provider HP. Motorcraft was actually a partner of the team last year, as they started formulating the oil for Ford’s FV program but they have increased their involvement this year which I am excited about.” After the indoor reveal of the car, event attendees spread themselves out across the vast VIR circuit to watch Will Hoskins drive the Copp 20 for the first time in public. Hoskins did an eight lap run of the 17 turn 3.27 mile scenic road course, setting a best time of a 1:21.92 which is a new unofficial lap record of VIR. On his in lap, Hoskins stopped between turns 3 and 4 to give spectators some FV donuts to thank them for coming out in support of the team.
FIRST have a lot of expectations to meet in 2020 after signing top class drive Will Hoskins and it will be intriguing to see if they can meet those expectations. The team has had two top 5 constructors’ finishes in 4 years of competition and is reportedly aiming for their first top 3 finish this season as well as a maiden victory. Competition will be stiff, with the likes of the other Ford powered teams North Star and AMR expecting good seasons and others such as Ingram expected to bounce back from a quiet 2019.
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