Now the blue touch paper as been lit everyone stand back.
And here's we go
To our Owners Club family
I am currently at the Autosport show and very shortly I will be announced as the new driver for Handy Motorsport. I am sorry we have been so quiet over the off season but as I’m sure you can appreciate we have had to keep this under wraps however I wanted you guys to be the first to know and I wanted to explain the situation in more detail than the press will be able to.
Firstly this has been very difficult for us, Dad, Lucy and I have run the RAR team for ten years now and have grown it from running a single Ginetta G20 at track days to a race winning BTCC operation so I’m sure you can appreciate how difficult this decision was.
The fact is though that the only way we could have continued would have been with the Audi A4s while remaining on the GPRM suspension package. With the championship being so competitive we wouldn’t have been able to be at the front. If you’re not at the front then you and your sponsors don’t get seen and eventually this downward trend would only continue and, well, fading out isn’t a fate I was willing to accept!
We tried our upmost to bring a manufacturer on board and had some good engagement but unfortunately ran out of time. As you can imagine the level of funding required to build two new cars and update them both to the new RML kits is huge and as great as our sponsors are we really needed a manufacturer on board to make it possible.
I was then at a family dinner and, as I’m sure most of you know by now, Christian Dick who runs Speedworks is my brother in law. Speedworks run the car for Handy Motorsport and so he suggested this route. Tom Ingram put in some great performances last year and showed the car has enormous potential. When Christian told me some of their plans for the winter and given our situation I went for a meeting with Simon Belcher (who runs and owns Handy Motorsport)
Simon really impressed me, he has some exciting plans for the future, he’s a bloody good bloke and from a team point of view they are doing everything right! Things we simply couldn’t afford to do!
So we did a deal.
This deal sees US as a team joining forces with Handy. The same team of mechanics and engineers will be running my car, Dad and Lucy will continue their roles and I made sure that you guys were part of the deal as well. So we will still have OC meetings on Saturdays and we will be doing the roof scheme again and you will still be just as involved.
I’m sure you have heard that we are planning to run Sherman and Panzer in the B-Tec development series, so that side of the team will continue to run while the other side concentrates on our BTCC aspirations.
The car is a
brand new build Toyota Avensis which is considerably lighter and shorter (in wheel base) than the Audi, Tom proved it very competitive last season and there is and has been a considerable winter development plan. Combining the experience and skills of Handy Motorsport, Speedworks and RAR I really think we will have a package that will be a solid, consistent and
very competitive front runner.
It’s a big change and it’s been stressful, of course I care what you guys will think as well but everything considered I really believe that this is the right move for us and I hope we will continue to have your amazing support through this next chapter of our quest to win the British Touring Car Championship.
Here’s to a fantastic 2016 season!
As ever, thanks for your support.
Rob and the the RAR team
Still wanting money though
http://www.robaustin.com/news-rar-business-network.html
