Whatever happened to.. ?

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Furinkazen

Furinkazen

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Sometimes people, teams, cars and tracks in motorsport's disappear. This thread is for asking "Where did they go.?"

What happened to the Le Mans team Welter Racing? Unless I am wrong I remember them being absent from Le Mans in 2011, which was the first time in many years surely?
 
I just googled them, and it doesnt say anything about their departure. It just says that they unveiled a new LMP2 car at Le Mans in 2008. This needs further investigation. :confused: Cool thread though 👍
 
They are still around(as far as I could find), they just weren't granted entries for 2008, 2009 or 2011.

Go to #9 here.
 
Luca Badoer? He's sort of dropped off the face of the planet.
Yuji Ide? He wasn't any good in F1, but he must still be doing some sort of racing...
 
hawkeye122
Luca Badoer? He's sort of dropped off the face of the planet.
Yuji Ide? He wasn't any good in F1, but he must still be doing some sort of racing...
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Yuji Ide did the last 6 Formula Nippon races in 2006 with Team Dandelion Racing. He now races in the Super GT Championship with Autobacs Racing Team Aguri.
 
Anyone remember the Epsilon Euskadi ee1?
epsilon-2_MrV6b_7071.jpg


With proper development, it could have been a decent car.
 
Justin
They are still around(as far as I could find), they just weren't granted entries for 2008, 2009 or 2011.

Go to #9 here.
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race'emhard
Anyone remember the Epsilon Euskadi ee1?
epsilon-2_MrV6b_7071.jpg


With proper development, it could have been a decent car.
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In the link in Justin's post:

Nobody took the Epsilon Euskadi EE LMP all that seriously at first, designed by John Travis and Aitor Tejado it was later extensively reworked by Sergio Rinland. Like the Embassy the car only contested a single season in 2008. Gaining two entries at Le Mans surprised many but the car ran reasonably well but ultimately both cars retired. The project was put to one side as Epsilon Euskadi focused on an a bid to enter Formula 1.
 
Whatever happens to the Tyres after a race event is over? I think I could make a pretty awesome coffee table out of a tyre from a Peugeot 908, or the Pirelli from an F1 car. I don't care if it was Karun Chandok's tyre, where can I get one? I dont care if it's from some lowly LMP team, that would still be pretty cool.
 
hawkeye122
Thats pretty hit and miss... Like theres hundreds of them used by a series every weekend, they MUST go somewhere.
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The tyres go back to their tyre company for analysis and to ensure they keep the secrets of their rubber. This applies to all major motorsport series, even at national level series such as BTCC, Dunlop take back all of the tyres as far as I know.

Your best kind of bet for a souvenir is buying from a team (who do sell bits and pieces from time to time) and getting a demo or promo tyre. Only problem is its insanely expensive.
 
Whatever happened to... Prison Special!

Russell Spence

An average racing career, Russell Spence is best remembered for his brief but underwhelming stint in the BTCC in 1999. His only real highlight being this dangerous crash during qualifying for rounds 9 & 10 at Oulton. He left the team shortly after, being replaced by Will Hoy, and has been anonymous ever since.


Wikipedia
In November 2011, Spence was jailed for thirteen months for his part in a fraud relating to a chain of nine car washes.
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Jerry Mahoney

After a sensational start to his BTCC career in 1988 by winning his first race in the Arquati Sierra Cosworth, Jerry Mahoney, much like Russell Spence, became an anonymous racer highlighted by several poor performances that never came close to his fluke debut win. Here's a battle for the lower places between Mahoney and Mike Smith.


Wikipedia
He was the Managing Director of a corporate entertainment company, that was involved with the Vic Lee Racing Team. In 2005 Vic Lee pleaded guilty to drug trafficking offences relating to cocaine with a street value of £1.7 million. For his involvement in the case, Mahony was sentenced to eleven years in prison.
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MazdaPrice
Whatever happened to... Prison Special!

Russell Spence

An average racing career, Russell Spence is best remembered for his brief but underwhelming stint in the BTCC in 1999. His only real highlight being this dangerous crash during qualifying for rounds 9 & 10 at Oulton. He left the team shortly after, being replaced by Will Hoy, and has been anonymous ever since.




Jerry Mahoney

After a sensational start to his BTCC career in 1988 by winning his first race in the Arquati Sierra Cosworth, Jerry Mahoney, much like Russell Spence, became an anonymous racer highlighted by several poor performances that never came close to his fluke debut win. Here's a battle for the lower places between Mahoney and Mike Smith.
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That sucks. 11 years is a looooooong time.
 
Well that's what you get for smuggling drugs. And in Vic Lee's case, twice! He was done in late 1992 and again in 2005.

Do you know how they rumbled him? His team(s) conducted a suspicious amount testing at Zandvoort for a british racing team in the Netherlands of all places. In fact,

Whatever happened to...

Vic Lee

Vic Lee was a part-time touring car driver during the 1980s, mainly as the endurance driver and also competed in other motorsports from time to time. By 1991, Vic Lee Motorsport was the second works BMW team in the newly established Supertouring/Class II discipline in the BTCC. Two consecutive drivers titles in 1991 (Will Hoy) and 1992 (Tim Harvey) followed and VLM seemed to be on top of the world. However, charges of drug trafficing were brought against Lee in late '92 and he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The team undertook a suspicious amount of testing in the Netherlands and it was found that the team's transporters had several thousand pounds worth of cocaine stuffed into the spare tyres.

Released early, (sometime before or in 1999), Vic Lee Motorsport had been assimilated by Steve Neal's Team Dynamics so Vic established a new team, Vic Lee Racing. A successful campaign in 2000 saw VLR win both the NSCC and BTCC Class B Championships and in 2001, stepped up to run a works BTC Peugeot effort. This lasted until 2003 after consistantly coming behind both Vauxhall and MG in the championship. They say lightning never strikes twice but...

Wikipedia
In 2005 Lee was again charged with three others and convicted of drug trafficking offences, which he received again, twelve years imprisonment.
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An apt statement on Vic Lee.
 
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MazdaPrice
Well that's what you get for smuggling drugs. And in Vic Lee's case, twice! He was done in late 1992 and again in 2005.

Do you know how they rumbled him? His team(s) did suspicious of testing at Zandvoort for a BTCC team in the Netherlands of all places.
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Did the drivers, or crew members suffer from the charges? :nervous:
 
nitrorocks
Did the drivers, or crew members suffer from the charges? :nervous:
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Just the people directly involved in the affair as far as I am aware. Only a few of them ended up in prison, and the team itself was broken up and one of the drivers/owners, Ray Bellm, took his share and merged the team with Steve Neal's team; the famous Team Dynamics which still competes to this day.

Otherwise Tim Harvey and Will Hoy could have been in prison!

Check the updated post.
 
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KURT LUBY

Kurt Luby (born 6 March 1963 in Bolton, Lancashire) was a British auto racing driver who now works as a motorcycle dealer in his home town of Bolton. He first entered racing through karting in 1978, winning seven championships up to 1987. In 1987 he won the British Formula Ford 1600 series, winning the championship that year and then defending his title in 1988. He switched to the Formula Vauxhall Lotus Championship in 1989, finishing second on points. A year later he was third in the championship. After moving to saloon car racing, he was second in the 1991 National Saloon Championship Group N, driving a BMW M3. Also that year he won the Willhire 24 Hours with Will Hoy and Ray Bellm. His final championship title was in the 1998 British GT in a GT2 class Chrysler Viper GTS-R alongside Richard Dean.
Luby is best known for his brief time in the British Touring Car Championship. His first year was in 1990, racing for the BMW Junior Team. He drove in seven races with five wins and two second places in his class, finishing thirteenth in the final standings. His second year in the BTCC didn't come until 2001. He only raced in the first part of the season in a Lexus IS200 for ABG Motorsport, finishing ninth in the championship in what was a small field of drivers.
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Now a motorcycle dealership owner.
 
P.J. Jones

The son of the legendary Parnelli Jones, He has raced in Nascar NSCS, NNS, and NCTS. He aslo raced in the Indy Racing League, IMSA GT, IMSA GTP, and the ALMS. He now resides in My town Scottsdale, AZ. Something Ironic is that I was just looking at parking reserve spots in the pits at my kart track, and he owns one on the first row! He's still got it for an old man.
 
What happened to Memo Gidley? He was sensational in the 2001 CART season when he got a seat from Chip Ganassi Racing after Nicolas Minassian was dropped after disappointing results. He finished three times on the podium, which was quite an achievement that season because of the sheer gamble in almost every race - plus he nearly won at Cleveland, which was his second race of the season, and would have done so easily if he didn't have to stop for tyres. His other podiums included a 3rd place at Houston and 2nd at Laguna Seca, and he was 17th overall in the points, only one position behind teammate Bruno Junqueira, who would go on to have an excellent CART career.

But Gidley never got a seat for 2002 while Junqueira did, and after that he didn't appear in CART except in occasional races some years later. Did he continue to race somewhere else regularly after 2001? I would be really interested to find out what happened to him.
 
Carbonox
What happened to Memo Gidley? He was sensational in the 2001 CART season when he got a seat from Chip Ganassi Racing after Nicolas Minassian was dropped after disappointing results. He finished three times on the podium, which was quite an achievement that season because of the sheer gamble in almost every race - plus he nearly won at Cleveland, which was his second race of the season, and would have done so easily if he didn't have to stop for tyres. His other podiums included a 3rd place at Houston and 2nd at Laguna Seca, and he was 17th overall in the points, only one position behind teammate Bruno Junqueira, who would go on to have an excellent CART career.

But Gidley never got a seat for 2002 while Junqueira did, and after that he didn't appear in CART except in occasional races some years later. Did he continue to race somewhere else regularly after 2001? I would be really interested to find out what happened to him.
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He runs Grand-Am now
 
To have something posted/written/stated/said/implied/ or expressed before someone(s) says the same idea/thought/concept

Urban dictionary is your friend, had to help a brother out
 
TheBigMan045
To have something posted/written/stated/said/implied/ or expressed before someone(s) says the same idea/thought/concept

Urban dictionary is your friend, had to help a brother out
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Okay thanks
 

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