Piston Cup European Series

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**Piston Cup European Series** is a racing series in Europe organised by the Piston Cup. The series takes place in Europe and races are held in European countries which are Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Hezergovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany (has its own Piston Cup division), Greece, Hungary, Ireland (has its own Piston Cup division), Isle of Man (crown dependency of the United Kingdom), Italy, Latvia, Lithunia, Monaco, Netherlands, New Rearendia (has its own Piston Cup division), Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia (last race held in 2021), Slovakia, Spain (has its own Piston Cup division), Sweden, Switzerland (last race held in 1954), Turkey, Ukraine (last race held in 2021) and the United Kingdom (including England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) (has its own Piston Cup division). They race in 33 countries, 4 countries part of a country, and 1 crown dependency which meant that the European Piston Cup has raced in 38 different nations, the most nations any Piston Cup Division held races in.

From 1952 to 1989, two separate races were held in Germany when both countries used to be split into West Germany and East Germany.

## History

### 1952-1959 - Beginnings

In 1952, a few years after World War II, Europe got back on it’s knees and so a few people decided to bring the Piston Cup into Europe by taking European sports car designs from manufacturers like Ferrari and Jaguar and tuning them to race. Around 20 countries realized this and soon started either loaning their tracks or built new ones for the series, and soon they had their first race in Spa in March. The inaugural season was won by British-New Rearendian George Conrev, who went on to also win the 1956 and 1960 titles. Other racers like Heinrich Farber and Nik Smokski also won championships during the decade.

### 1960-1969 - Advancements

In 1960 came a big year for PC Europe. Europe continued fielding sports cars but American cars entered Europe. The Monegasque government decided to enter the calendar and on certain occasions would become the season opener. Also in that year American sponsors Texaco and Pepsi entered two racers Daniel Hendrick and Nikolaus Motor respectively and became the first foreign sponsors of the series. From 1960-1966 there were 6 different winners with only 1 repeat champion. However the late 60's were dominated by “First Lady” Bel White and anti-heroic "Second Lady" Olga Cecic. More countries also entered tracks in the sixties and it also became the first decade where countries entered more than 1 track with West Germany and the United Kingdom entering Hockenheim and Brands Hatch respectively.

### 1970-1987 - Era of Gen 3

Cecic and White still dominated the early 70s but a new generation of cars called the Gen 3s came and starting in 1975, Sauber’s Carlos Alvarez, Caterham’s George Kenway, Shell’s Henry Wolsey, and Rothmans’ Helmut Busch won every title from 1975-1989. Around that time most of the 60s racers retired. However while the 1970s were relatively a halcyon decade, the 1980s were marred by two great tragedies as the deaths of Heinrich Damon in 1983 and Rex Myers in 1987 tarnished Europe’s reputation for safety. However the Gen 3s’ dominance came to an end when Gen 4s entered.

### 1988-2006 - Era of Gen 4

In 1988 two racers by the name of Vasili Petrov and Nick Lawton entered, although they had newer models they were undoubtedly less talented and were kind of average, however that changed in 1989 which became the last Gen 3 championship year and for a good reason as well when a car named Eric Henson debuted as one of the 7 rookies, the highly talented Henson got second just on his rookie year, and in the next decade of the 1990s he won 9 of the 10 years with only Henri Olssen beating him in 1997, a legendary single racer streak never beaten by anyone in any division. In the early 2000s Gen 4s like Henson, Werner Taub, Henri Olssen, and Tyler Revout still dominated but it came to an end in 2006 when the Gen 5 car debuted. What also made the 2000s special was that it was the first decade that never had any fatalities.

### 2007-2016 - Era of Gen 5

2007 would mark the era the Generation 5 car marked it debut. Also Monaco would become the season opening race since that year. Otto Busch dominated the late 2000's winning the 2007 and 2008 titles while Cartoon Networks Tyler Revout won his final championship in 2009 after having surgery to compete with the latest generation. Otto began dominating the early 2010's but Harrison Perspex would win the 2014 season and became the first Scottish to do so. John Soft would become the second Scott to win a championship winning the final 2 seasons of the Fifth Generation era.

### 2017-Onwards - Next-Generation Era

Tyler Revout and a couple of others retired or were fired in honour of 11 new Next-Generation rookies. Most of the stock cars managed to compete with them but didn’t win much. Kurt Taub would win the 2017 championship at the age of 16 making him not only the youngest European champion but Werner and Kurt became the second farther and son duos to win a championship. In 2018 Swiss Caterham racer Edward Pistons won the championship in his rookie season and in 2019 John Soft would win his third championship as he received Next-Gen surgery that year.

The start of 2020 saw the remaining amount of stock cars either retiring or were fired or had next-gen surgery. Midway though the season it would cause a huge impact and as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic most races had to be postponed and some drivers were unable to compete cause of travel restrictions at the time for some of them. Regardless it didn’t stop Edward Pistons from winning his second championship while Kurt Taub would win another championship in 2021. 2022 proved to be a challenging season as 2019 rookie of the year Alice Weathers attempted to win the 2022 season in order to win the championship and become the second female champion. But as she was sick and had to miss the last 2 races Nikolas Fast managed to beat her in points and despite finishing fourth in the final race, he would become the third Scott to win a championship.