Team News

fter another eventful season in the GMWC, and yet again another eventful season finale, RAC have now turned their attention to the up and coming 10C season....

10B season finale, held at Paul Ricard race circuit at Le Castellet, near Marseille, France, saw only two RAC drivers attend. Both Chris Jones (team owner) and Ian Cumming were fairly evenly matched during the event's sprint race's, and saw some good battle's between one and other. The Feature race however, turned out not so favourably for Ian, only managing 10th at best, Chris on the other hand was set for a commendable 5th place, only to find in the dying laps that both AJ Weber and Anthony Cochrane had under fuelled their cars for the final race, and was able to snatch 3rd by the skin of his teeth. 

And. at season end, Chris Jones finished a well deserved 4th, just 16 points behind title winner Matt Lewis. Ian Cumming was the next closest RAC Driver finishing the season 9th overall with 20 points, followed by Carl in 16th, Shaun in 18th and Brandon rounding up the team in 19th. And in the team constructors, RAC managed to grab hold of the bronze trophy finishing 3rd, just 20 points ahead of MRDC.

So now, days after the final race of 10B, RAC unveiled their new 10C competitor at Paul Ricard. And at a glance, the car seem's more visually dynamic, athletic and in general, a car that seem's to be travelling fast when it's standing still. The car's general appearance has not changed a great deal from 10B, the only difference being the new rear wing, opting to go with the lower wing of the 2 available. And as for the car's mechanical bits, the 10C car resemble's the 10B car with regards to brakes, engine and suspension, the newest feature's of the car will shortly be published by the admin of GMWC in due course.

"Testing time was limited for the team during the design process of the new car, and it has been rushed a little to get it finished in time for the submission to the league" Explains team owner Chris Jones, "Most of the car's feature's as identical to the 10B car, as we found these items beneficial to the team and drivers alike" When asked what bits of the 10C car are new, the reply "The rear wing is the most obvious new addition to the car, but the other new items on the car will be disclosed shortly by GMWC"

Here Is the car of the team owner Chris Jones taken just days after the season finale at Paul Ricard. 

AutoBollocks

Wednesday the 19th of May saw RAC's Cargo division preparing for the return flight to the US after a dismal turnout at Essington. Team owner Chris Jones was struck with illness, RAC's 2nd cargo aircraft had been grounded due to a engine failure preventing both Ian Cumming and Brandon Longworth's cars from even getting anywhere near the track, and technical gremlins stopped Carl Dixon and Shaun McLean's cars from racing. "We, as a team are very disappointed we were not available to participate due to the many issues that we encountered this week, and with a late departure for the US for the upcoming Laguna race, testing is going to be limited," explains team CEO Chris Jones.  "Our aircraft only returned Tuesday afternoon after sending out a spare engine for our downed 2nd aircraft."

So three races in, RAC have now been relegated to 3rd in the team championship standings, and Chris Jones has now moved down to 4th in the Driver's Championship table with Ian Cumming not too far behind in 7th.  "Again, we were disappointed we didn't score any points this weekend, so this coming weekend, we will have to come out with all guns blazing.  We have a strong team, very able cars and the motivation to win, and finger's crossed no more technical gremlins prevent the drivers from racing."

Shown are some pictures of a rather bare looking RAC cargo aircraft having had all its previous colours removed, seen shortly after it completed loading the team cars, and an hour later it was seen taking off from London Gatwick.

If 10A was a "reasonable" season for RAC, then they sure made it a breath taking race finale at Paul Ricard. Six laps into the feature race, team owner Chris Jones was in hot pursuit of fellow team driver Ian Cumming, with M-Sport's Anthony Cochrane trailing the pair, entering turn 3 at speeds well over 150 mph. M-Sport driver Alex Du Plessis found himself out of control on the exit of this turn and saw him facing side on to the approaching trio, and splitting both RAC drivers without either of them lifting to slow for the spinning car.

And so, after this breathtaking moment, the race died down into a calm, sobering affair eventually seeing the team owner take 5th from Ian, due to a driver error several laps later at turn 4.  RAC drivers finished 5th, 6th, and 7th, with Brandon Longworth rounding up the team in 14th.

So, looking forward to 10B, RAC have an all new car, new look and a new approach. And yet again, Ian Cumming was the highest finishing driver at RAC finishing 7th overall in the DC.  The team earned a credible 4th in the TC ahead of newcomers MRDC by 11 points.

RAC have in the last couple of days, unveiled two new car for the up and coming 10B season. The original plan for these cars was to launch them at the start of 10C, but strong motivation by the team has pushed the team to get them ready in time for 10B.

So up first, RAC's new Porsche, entering primarily into the Grid-Touring-B class, it's plain looks and colours emulate that of the GP cars. Testing was carried out at Montreal where the current GP cars are due to take part in their last but one race of the 10A season.

And onto the new Skoda, ok, it may not be as new as the Porsche, but it is a revamped 10A livery, this time doing away with the orange in place of the new team colours, Black, White and Red. Team owner Chris Jones was seen testing this car just a couple of days ago at Silverstone using the Sports Car layout, no other modifications have been made to the car other than the change in sponsor logo's etc....

So thats it, the 10B GP cars are at the ready, and now the Class B and C touring cars have appeared just in time. 2010B is looking to be a promising season for the struggling team.

RAC have finally unveiled their new and much improved (looks wise :ED) 2010B contender, the car has received a radical overhaul at the team's factory in South Wales, and for the first time, see's the team arc away from the so familiar orange colour scheme. Team owner, Chris Jones states "the car, the team and myself all needed a fresh start, so ditching the familiar orange, black and white colours of the current 10A car was the just the tip of the iceberg" 

10B will see the car return to a wider front and rear wheel track, while the majority of the design of the car remains the same, flexible front wing, low CofG are to name a few. "The car is not quite a remake of the 09C car, though some of the error's that were made on that chassis will not be replicated on the 10B chassis. Engine wise, not a great deal of testing has been done with the three engine choice's we have available to us, to be honest, the car hasn't even done any testing." 

So with the team's testing schedule due to start early Friday afternoon, the only driver available to test at present is Chris Jones, while Ian Cumming is having technical difficulties with his car, which is delaying his testing schedule. Brandon Longworth is currently not confirmed but is expected to make a test session over the weekend.

Other news at team RAC Racing is the return of two former team drivers, Carl Dixon and Shaun Mclean, taking RAC's driver tally back up to 5, "Carl approached me mid season asking me for permission for him to return to the team, and Shaun Mclean did the same only last week." 10B also see's the return of Brandon Longworth, having taken a sabbatical for several months, he now feel's he's in fit enough shape to return to his No 2 seat.

So, what will 10B bring the team? The team are currently 4th in the team constructors, and only 4 points ahead of MRDC, so a strong turn out and a good result in the coming races should secure that position, "The team's goal for 10B is to be a little more consistent, and faster that the previous two season's" explains Chris Jones "M-sport will be taking the honours in becoming the first British team to win the DC and TC in the same season, so our goal is to just improve." 

Autobollocks.

Several months have now been and gone since the 09C season started, but what didn't start was a car that RAC had initially planned on racing in that particular season, what was otherwise know as the Mk2B. Very little was brought to light about this car, and subsiquently after several failures with this particular car, it faded into the archives and storage sheds at RAC's headquaters, while the Mk3 RAC GP made it into the limelight.

Now, the previously unseen images of what remains of the original 09C have come to light again, showing what effectively became the blank canvas for what became the now so familiar, black, orange and white scheme of the 09C Mk3, and the current 10A Mk3a RAC GP cars.

For now, the black, orange and white scheme remains, but for how long that will stay around is anybody's guess, with dwindling driver numbers, and lack of activity on the GP front, team owner Chris Jones only available once in a blue moon, Brandon Longworth away on a sabbatical and Carl Dixon nowhere to be seen, that leave's Ian Cumming, the only other team driver holding the fort. What will happen to RAC? no one knows, just watch this space..............

Autobollocks magazine.

Just days after the launch of the 10A GMWC GP car, RAC pop up with another surprise, the launch of the newly re-designed GTCC Class C skoda. And along with the GP car, the Skoda has also received a facelift to promote the teams new sponsor, Skyhigh Radio. Unfortunately though, due to a tight submission deadline, only the RAC Skoda will receive the new updated livery, leaving the Class B Panoz and the Class A Proton in the 09C livery, which isn't to dissimilar to the 10A cars. Speculations are making the rounds at all the competing teams in the GMWC/GTCC league that the constant re-designs that are being carried out by RAC are funded by the rarest of white-gold zeppelins that were once the property of SDL team founder Dennis Loyer. Chris Jones, team owner of RAC was unavailable to comment on these speculations, but the teams spokes person merely stated "these very rare zeppelins were donated to the team." No matter which way you look at the current RAC's team car lineup, the designs on them are getting extremely complicated, but are a huge hit for the fans on track.

Autobollocks.

Just days after carrying out testing in the newly finished RAC-CUMMING-10A chassis, RAC are now officially unveiling the new, slightly re-designed team car, "We didn't want to spoil such a good livery that we designed for the 09C season, so we tweaked it slightly, and made room for our new sponsor, Skyhigh Radio" comments team owner Chris Jones. "We, as a team hope, along with the re-designed chassis, and now the slightly tweaked livery, the car will be better than ever, and ill probably have my hands full if Ian continues at his current level of progress he's making."

RAC have had their fair share in bad luck over recent season's, and are in some serious need of a good haul of points in the up and coming 10A season, and the teams goal has not changed, to be the first british team in the league to snatch the team championship from the dominant Antares. So with Chris, Ian and Carl all set for the start, and Brandon joining in hopefully mid way through the season, if not sooner, could the GMWC 10A season be the season for them? Who knows what could happen.

Autobollocks.

RAC have been almost invisible on the GMWC radar over the last month or so, with what seems like very little is being done to conceive their 10A contender, this however is not the case. RAC have been hard at work developing what is otherwise known as the Cumming chassis, named after the highest finishing driver in RAC's driver lineup (Ian Cumming) at various locations around the world, Suzuka, Spa and Silverstone are to name a few.

RAC had started off the 10A program with 4 potential designs, and after thorough vetting, a finalist was picked, which then spent many an hour on the simulated wind tunnel and at RAC's very own test track at Pembrey, South Wales. Testing was then handed over to Ian Cumming for further testing at Silverstone before heading abroad to Europe, then finally Suzuka where team owner, Chris Jones joined in on the action after a prolonged period of inactivity. So after weeks of testing and chassis adjustments, RAC's 10A contender is ready and waiting for the off, Chris Jones took the new freshly painted 10A for a spin around Suzuka for a promotional task, which soon ended in disaster. "Suddenly out of nowhere a golden Zepplin appeared on the track, and I swerved to avoid it," says team owner Chris Jones, "thankfully though, the car only suffered minor damage."                          

Those who are quick to spot, will have noticed that the team car design aint changed from the 09C season, though there are minor changes that have been made, Skyhighradio (www.skyhighradio.co.uk) have jumped onto the band wagon and have signed up to RAC as their prime sponsor for the 10A season, and these subtle changes make a huge difference in the way the car looks.

"09C was a good season for the team, not so for me, but the biggest improvement was made by Ian. And I think the 10A car will build on the success of the 09C car, and hopefully see a victory had by one of the drivers."

Autobollocks.

The last couple of weeks has seen a hive of activity at the RAC Pembrey test track here in South Wales, where testing has secretly been carried out in the night time by the driver who is only known as the STIG. The car in question was a closely guarded secret until just 2 days ago when RAC lifted the lid on their new car, which turns out, isn't as new as we initially thought. "So what is the not so new car?" i hear you call, well its a Class C Skoda, nothing special, though this one has been kitted out with the now more familiar KIRT technology which is also fitted to the other team cars. "The skoda was pretty much an afterthought when the other Touring class cars were created, so we held off the Skoda until the time was right to develop the car to the extent we have done" explains team boss Chris Jones. And the result, its a damn sight better looking than the car it will replace, though not expected to make into active racing until next season, its going to be a car that will WOW the crowd. The car has a more powerful engine than the outgoing engine, the new engine, much like the GP car is diesel powered, and the engine comes from skoda's top of the range vRS lineup, the vRS TDI engine produces 170BHP through the front wheels and will happily hit 165+mph on a long straight. Below are some pictures that were taken during the unveiling of the new Skoda, which shows off its flashy new design.

RAC Racing and Lamborghini have signed a new contract this week, for Lamborghini to supply a spec engine in accordance with the GMWC council for the 09C championship, but this is no ordinary engine, for the first time in the history of the GMWC, Lamborghini will be supplying RAC Racing a V8 oil burner, that's correct, a Diesel engine. This is the same unit that's rumoured to be powering Lamborghini's newest car, the Estoque, but modified to the correct specifications to meet the league's regulations.

"Expectations for this new power unit are high, as we draw to a close on our worst season to date, which is all due to the lack of development" explains Chris Jones, team owner, "this new engine under test conditions have proved to be successful, and the current development of the car's new technology and this engine will hopefully prove to be as successful combination"

Financing this new technology, which is rumoured to be a development of Knights Industries KITT (knighs Industries Three Thousand) now under the name of KIRT (Knights Industries Racing Technology) have all come from those old gold zeplins which Chris Jones and Brandon Longworth managed to retrieve from their previous team's (SDL) principle's office.

Current No 2 driver Brandon Longworth will be missing the up and coming Enduro event, and is likely to miss the final 2 championship races due to ill health, but rumours have it, he is currently sunning it up in some foreign country with the team's primary sponsor, which for leagal reason's we are still unable to disclose, but the team's logo (the scorpion) is a hint as to who she is.

Bernie Bigglestone

RAC Racing are going all out for the up and coming 09C GMWC series, with a host of new changes, driver position swaps and a host of other backround changes within the team. 09C hopes are to see RAC Racing being more competitive, consitant and above all, more colourful, as the following picture prove, they certainly managed to acomplish that.

These late changes to their design of the 09C car shape, the livery and the almost set in stone design specifications have not deterred team principle Chris Jones, from being a team capable of challenging for glory in the 09C season. Purely for the fact that all teams will be competing using a spec engine, front and rear track and car wheelbase will all be restricted, the only design changes that are team customizable will be the syspension, aero package, diffuser are among the few.

Rumours have it though that, RAC Racing are currently undergoing testing of some technology that has slipped past the scrutineers of the GMWC board, and will possiblly help with the performance of the car during racing, this technology is rumoured to be called KIRT (Knight Industries Racing Technology) and further evidence of this can be seen on the new car on the very tip of the nose where what seems to be a miniaturized scanner, but when questioned about the technology, Chris responded by saying "dont know what your talking about"

RAC racing are looking forward to consigning the current 09B car to the history books, and just pray they have a better 09C season.

Autobollocks columnist

Bernie bigglestone.

RAC Racing have been spotted just days after a successful 2nd place finish at Estoril, sporting a new car with a new livery design to the body work. Insiders have confirmed that the car, although not 100% finished, both in terms of design of the overall car and the livery, were more than happy to release the car early to give it a good shake down on track and find any potential flaws in the car. And if it's not already aparent, the team have made a return to the team's original colour, bright orange.

This weekend has also marked a new development for RAC Racing, as it has been confirmed that Lamborghini will be powering RAC's GRID-09C car. Sources have revealed that the design of the car is being cept tightly under wraps, and are unlikely to find out the engine's specifications until after the final deadline for the submition to the league has closed. But what is apparent, is the distinct lack of turbo power, the old familiar whoosh of the turbo as the current car accelerates is unmistakable, and the new car seem's to be missing this.

Reports are, that the PROTOTYPE-09C Mk3, as the car is called runs mid to high 1:16s, where as the RAC-09B car's best time over the weekend was a 1:17.3. Indicating that the engine has more power than the outgoing engine, and without a turbo will make a big difference. The team are also being hush hush over the design of the chassis and where the 8 point credits will be spent.

Spotted during testing, was RAC Racing's very own Class C Touring car sporting it's new livery (yet to be finished ED), which also marks the return of RAC Racing's very distinctive orange colour, last seen on the 2009A season Grid GP cars. The car also sported a new feature to help other drivers identify the driver in front should a quicker Class C touring car catch them, and this is in the form of a personalized name plate on the rear trunk. The new design, an otherwise slightly re-designed BTCC livery though will not make it's debut this coming saturday at the Orchard lake road course endurance event, as the team are still awaiting the delivery of the remaining 5 cars required for the remainder of the team after Team Principle, Boss, Driver and in general an all round nice guy Chris Jones, decided to cash in those supposedly worthless gold zeplins he aquired during his days at SDL.

Here's the photo of the unfinished car of Chris Jones.

Over the past few weeks, speculations as to the future of RAC Racing have been unknown. All teams are currently in full swing with their chassis and engine designs for the upcoming 09B season, but RAC Racing have been nowhere in sight, that was until earlier today in Sepang. Running in the distinctive grey primer all teams must run when testing new cars, was the recently acquired new ‘test driver’ otherwise known as the STIG. Team owner and 1^st driver Chris Jones and 2^nd driver Brandon Longworth were both unavailable for comment, but team mechanic Desmond Hill, has stated that the delay in the release of the new engine and chassis has been a long time in coming, but initial testing has proven that the chassis is very capable, where as the engine might need some tweaking.

When questioned about the car’s engine, Desmond responded by saying that the BMW engine that’s currently powering the 09A car is running perfectly, though is slightly down on top end speed. Desmond also stated that BMW will be pulling out of the contract at the end of the current season, which lead us to ask, “So what engine is powering the new car?” the reply was, “for now, it’s just called the prototype”

When asked about the cars handing , the STIG made his first reply in an unusual dialect, then displayed his comments on the front of his visor in the form of binary wording, our Intel team are currently in the process of trying to decipher what the STIG spoke and what his thought are on the handling.

Our photographer managed to catch the STIG in action at Sepang, pictured below.

Bernie Bigglestone, Autobollocks columnist.

As we have been reporting, the newest RACing team on the block have been hard at work on the team front.  We have been very fortunate in being able to bribe an employee at the Heathrow Cargo Facility, into obtaining some photo’s of the new RAC Team Car.  He did better than that and was able to get us photo’s of the brand new 747 cargo aircraft, which looking at the Aircraft Registration, someone was obviously taking the P*** (G-CRAC).  The team must be heavily funded by a well know pornstar or someone that repairs crack’s, in order to own their own Cargo aircraft. 

Whilst we were unable to get an official statement from the Team CEO, Mr Chris Jones, their marketing manager Brandon Longworth commented, ‘We are not allowed to give out the name of our main sponsor, due to her request, but all I can say is, she is very gorgeous and we could only honour her with the aircraft registration and her symbol of a Scorpion, which all ties in nicely with our logo’s’.  We are also led to believe that this person (whom we cannot name due to a court Ruling) likes elongated Gold Blimp shaped objects. 

We are pleased to show you the photo’s here as we have paid the bribed employee in only the way the Daily Sport knows best..

Bernie Biggles-Stone

Daily Sport Racing Guru

RAC Racing Press Release.

RAC Racing Announces new engine partnership deal.

Today (23rd of November 2008) RAC Racing have announced a new engine partnership deal with BMW Motorsport, this deal is set to power RAC Racing cars from the start of the 2008D/2009A season. This partnership will provide a 3.2 Littre V8 engine producing 533HP with a Torque of 422Nm. 

For a while now, there have been rumors that a new racing team has been formed here in the UK specifically to race in an ever growing league know as Grid Motorsports World Cup (GMWC), also there have been rumors that the team owner and No1 driver is currently still in employment with team Scuderia DeLoyer (otherwise known as SDL) up until the end of season, this person goes by the name of Chris Jones.

We received a tip off that this new team called RAC Racing, was due to be testing at a track not too far from the team's base, some 60 miles west at a track called Pembrey in Llanelli, South Wales. And it turns out that the team have used this track for some time over the past weeks, and are booked up for at least another 3 test sessions between now and the end of the current 2008c season.

After initial communication with the team proved fruitless, there was confirmation from them that the team will make a full press conference in just over two weeks. Photo's of one of the test sessions are provided below. 

John Smith: Editor of The Daily Sport 

**TEAM UPDATE** 

The RAC Racing team have had a slight repaint to their already impressive vehicles, we are pleased to present the new ‘Carbon Fibre’ black look.  Asked why the cars have already been repainted, Chris Jones, CEO of RAC Racing says ‘Well, we looked again at the black paint and thought it was too boring, so we decided to give it a bit of a more up-to-date look’.

The Team have released a ‘teaser’ photo of the car;

We would also like to announce that we have signed up two more drivers to the line up,  they are Carl Dixon and Tim Smith.  They have already run some races with us and we hope they are welcomed as usual by the other teams and drivers of Gridmotorsports.com