December 13, 2010, 12:48 pm
Paris Hilton Starts a Motorcycle Racing Team
By JONATHAN SCHULTZ
Paris Hilton, hotel-chain heiress and driver of hot-pink Bentley Continental GT’s, is entering the motorcycle racing business.
The world’s premier motorcycle race series, MotoGP, confirmed on its Web site Monday that Hilton is fielding riders for the 2011 125cc World Championship season in conjunction with the Barcelona-based team By Queroseno Racing (BQR). Their joint effort is called SuperMartxé VIP by Paris Hilton — the name referring to an Ibiza-based dance-party series with which Hilton has been affiliated since 2009.
Hilton’s entry into MotoGP will be feted on Saturday night at the Madrid dance club Fabrik, where BQR racers Sergio Gadea and Maverick Viñales will also be in attendance. Viñales, at 15 years old, won the Spanish national and European 125cc championships earlier this year.
Asked how the unlikely pairing of Hilton and BQR came to be, Joan Xufre, a BQR company spokesman, responded in an e-mail that Hilton was approached by Riccard Garriga, a team partner, and Nano Barea, the founder of SuperMartxé, to gauge her interest in lending her image to the proposed team. “The prospect of being involved really excited her to the point that she became one of the team owners, in addition to lending her image,” Xufre said.
Xufre said that Hilton is contractually obligated to appear at five sanctioned races during the 2011 season, but it has not been confirmed which ones.
