Comtec Racing

Comtec Racing is a motor racing team based in the United Kingdom. It competes in three championships Formula Renault, World Series by Renault and the Auto GP World Series.

Comtec Racing
Founded2001
Founder(s)Pierre Moncheur
BaseSnetterton, Norfolk, England
Team principal(s)Pierre Moncheur
Current seriesFormula Renault 3.5 Series
Former seriesEurocup Formula Renault 2.0
Formula Renault 2.0 UK
Formula Ford
Auto GP
Teams'
Championships
2002 Formula Ford UK
Drivers'
Championships
2006 FR 3.5 (Danielsson)
2002 Formula Ford UK (Barber)
2003 Monoposto 2000 (J. Lewis)
2004 Monoposto 2000 (J. Lewis)
2006 750 MC Formula 4 (C. Lewis)
Websitehttp://www.comtecracing.com/

History

The team started out in Formula Ford from the ashes of the Van Diemen works team. Team Principal Piere Moncheur has guided the team since its formation.

The Formula Ford UK 2003 Championship was a 3-car assault, Tom Gaymor claimed 5th place, Oliver Jarvis finished 8th and Dan Clarke finished 12th.

For 2004 a 2-car assault on the Formula Renault UK Championship was launched with Westley Barber and Susie Stoddart (now Susie Wolf) as drivers. Westley finished runner up in the championship with Susie achieving 3 podiums and finishing 5th. Susie Wolf is now a test driver for the Williams F1 team.

The team then moved up to compete in the European and French Formula Renault Championships for 2005 with Westley Barber and Pippa Mann. Westley ran out of funds halfway through the year after a promising start which included a 2nd-place finish at the season opener and Pippa was very much on a learning curve with a best finish of 14th.

In 2006, Comtec moved up once more and competed in the World Series by Renault. In there maiden year Alx Danielsson won the championship. Halfway through the year a nightmare weekend at Spa proved the turning point for Alx Danielsson, he wrote his car off twice but after that five podiums which included four wins in 8 races gave Alx the crown in a great comeback. Pippa Mann continued to drive in the Formula Renault Eurocup with a best finish of 15th.

In 2007, the team used several drivers. Alejandro Núñez finished highest with 13th in the standings with one win.

In 2008, Marco Bonanomi and Pasquale Di Sabatino joined the team. Bonanomi won two pole positions but finished 11th. Di Sabatino was replaced for the final four races by Duncan Tappy.

Also in 2008 The team bought out the formula ford constructor Spirit and brought in the former UK champion Westley Barber alongside Brazilian rookie Francisco Weiler. Westley had a good start to the year and the car was good but the Mygale was better and in the hands of Wayne Boyd it dominated. Westley achieved two 2nd-place finishes at Brands Hatch, a 3rd and 4th place at Knockill and two other 5th-place finishes before the curtain was pulled down on the venture half the way through the season.

In 2009, still pursuing the Renault 3.5 world series Jon Lancaster led the team. He gained a pole position and one win after joining the championship halfway. The other seat changed between Anton Nebylitskiy, Harald Schlegelmilch, Alexandre Marsoin, John Martin, Max Chilton and Alberto Valerio.

In 2010 the team was led by Stefano Coletti and finished 5th. Greg Mansell was the team's other driver.

In 2011, Comtec signed rookies Daniel Mckenzie and Daniël de Jong. New Zealander Chris Van Der Drift tested the car to help the two Daniels in there quest to improve. but to little effect, just 2 points in the teams championship was all they could muster.

For 2012 Comtec Signed Nick Yelloly and Vittorio Ghirelli. Nick scored 2 wins for the team on his way to a creditable 5th-place finish overall in the championship. Vittorio endured a long learning curve but showed improvement with good drives ending with 5 points for the season.

2013 saw the team rebranded to SMP Racing by Comtec and the promotion of Phil Blow to team manager. Series veteran Daniil Move has signed for the season and will be partnered by Lucas Foresti.

The team has also just announced a partnership with Virtuosi Racing with an entry into Auto GP for Venezuelan Roberto La Rocca with a view to entering 2 cars in 2014 alongside their assault on the World Series By Renault. At the first race in Auto GP Roberto La Rocca scored a creditable 8th-place finish which meant starting from pole for the 2nd race on a reverse grid. Roberto was running 5th before being pushed off, he went on to finish a creditable 7th. Better than the two drivers in the parent team Virtuosi Racing.

The team was based close to the Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit in Norfolk.

After 16 years of racing Comtec Racing closed its doors for the last time in 2017. Fond memories of ups and downs have been made for mechanics, engineers, drivers and other staff for sure.

Club Racing History

Comtec has had a successful period in single seater club racing. Former team owner Jonathan Lewis won the 2003 and 2004 Monoposto 2000 series and also the 2003 Formula 4 Championship. His brother Chris Lewis won the Formula 4 Championship in 2006.

John Roberts and Steve Patania also had race wins in Formula 4.

The team endured a great battle and friendly rivalry with ABM Racing Adrian Kidd and Barry Pritchard. Adrian Kidd won the championship in 2004, and Barry Pritchard in 2005

The team then ran Adrian Kidd's 16-year-old son Ben Kidd in the inaugural season of SAXMAX in 2006 after sadly Adrian died.

Television appearances

In June 2007, the team's WSR car was featured in the BBC television programme Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain; Marr driving the car to illustrate the political scandal in 1997 between Bernie Ecclestone and the newly elected Labour Party. The team has also appeared in the BBC motoring programme Top Gear, where presenter Richard Hammond drove a Comtec Formula Renault and then World Series by Renault car before moving up to a Renault Formula One car.

Results

World Series by Renault

Michael Herck driving for Comtec at the Donington Park round of the 2007 World Series by Renault season.
Formula Renault 3.5 results[1]
Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.L. Points D.C. T.C.
2006 Dallara T05–Renault Alx Danielsson 17 4 3 2 112 1st 3rd
Edwin Jowsey 2 0 0 0 0 N/A
Jaap van Lagen 5 0 0 0 8 28th
Carlos Iaconelli 2 0 0 0 0 N/A1
Celso Míguez 6 0 0 0 102 24th2
2007 Dallara T05–Renault Jaap van Lagen 2 0 0 0 0 N/A3 13th
Michael Herck 14 0 0 0 0 N/A
Alejandro Núñez 16 1 0 0 31 18th
2008 Dallara T08–Renault Marco Bonanomi 16 0 1 0 56 11th 8th
Pasquale Di Sabatino 13 0 0 0 20 20th
Sten Pentus 2 0 0 0 0 31st
2009 Dallara T08–Renault Anton Nebylitskiy 4 0 0 0 04 29th4 10th
John Martin 7 0 0 0 8 22nd
Cristiano Morgado 2 0 0 0 0 38th
Alberto Valerio 2 0 0 0 0 36th
Greg Mansell 2 0 0 0 15 26th5
Harald Schlegelmilch 2 0 0 0 0 37th
Alexandre Marsoin 1 0 0 0 0 41st
Max Chilton 1 0 0 0 0 40th
Jon Lancaster 12 1 2 1 39 13th
2010 Dallara T08–Renault Greg Mansell 17 0 0 0 23 15th 5th
Stefano Coletti 17 0 0 0 76 6th
2011 Dallara T08–Renault Daniel McKenzie 17 0 0 0 0 30th 13th
Daniël de Jong 17 0 0 0 2 29th
2012 Dallara FR35/12–Zytek Vittorio Ghirelli 17 0 0 0 5 23rd 7th
Nick Yelloly 17 2 1 0 122 5th
2013 Dallara FR35/12–Zytek Daniil Move 17 0 0 0 12 22nd 13th
Lucas Foresti 17 0 0 0 0 NC
2014 Dallara FR35/12–Zytek Nikolay Martsenko 4 0 0 0 36 14th 11th
Cameron Twynham 6 0 0 0 0 NC
Andrea Roda 1 0 0 0 0 NC
Esteban Ocon 2 0 0 0 2 21st
2015 Dallara FR35/12–Zytek Louis Deletraz 2 0 0 0 0 NC
2016 Dallara FR35/12–Zytek Thomas Randle 4 0 0 0 0 NC

Auto GP

Auto GP results
Year Drivers Races Wins Poles F.L. Points D.C. T.C.
2013 Roberto La Rocca 6 0 0 0 20 15th 9th

British Formula Ford

British Formula Ford results
Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.L. Points D.C. T.C.
2002 Van Diemen RF02 Westley Barber 18 8 6 7 487 1st 1st
Stuart Hall 18 0 0 0 187 9th
Mike Conway 18 0 3 0 319 4th
Jan Heylen 18 5 1 2 453 3rd
2003 Van Diemen RF03 Tom Gaymor 20 3 1 2 316 5th 3rd
Oliver Jarvis 20 0 1 0 274 8th
Dan Clarke 20 0 0 2 161 12th
2008 Comtec Westley Barber 11 0 1 0 176 12th 7th
Francisco Weiler 13 0 0 0 16 22nd

Formula Renault UK 2.0 Winter Series

Formula Renault UK 2.0 Winter Series results
Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.L. Points D.C. T.C.
2003 Tatuus FR2000–Renault Westley Barber 4 2 1 1 52 2nd 3rd

Formula Renault UK 2.0

Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 results
Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.L. Points D.C. T.C.
2004 Tatuus FR2000–Renault Westley Barber 20 6 3 4 426 2nd 2nd
Susie Wolff 20 0 0 0 284 5th
2006 Tatuus FR2000–Renault Pippa Mann 16 0 0 0 86 19th 10th

Formula Renault Eurocup 2.0

Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 results
Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.L. Points D.C. T.C.
2005 Tatuus FR2000–Renault Westley Barber 8 0 0 0 16 18th 12th
Pippa Mann 15 0 0 0 0 39th
Gustavo Sondermann 2 0 0 0 0 N/A
2006 Tatuus FR2000–Renault Pippa Mann 16 0 0 0 86 19th NC

Championnat de France Formula Renault 2.0

Championnat de France Formula Renault 2.0 results
Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.L. Points D.C. T.C.
2005 Tatuus FR2000–Renault Pippa Mann' 12 0 0 0 1 21st 8th
2005 Tatuus FR2000–Renault Westley Barber' 10 1 1 2 86 5th

Formula Three

British Formula 3 results
Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.L. Points D.C. T.C.
2006 Dallara F304–Mugen-Honda Basil Shaaban 4 0 0 0 0 N/A N/A

Monoposto 2000

Monoposto 2000 results
Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.L. Points D.C. T.C.
2003 Van Diemen Comtec 2003 Zetec Jonathan Lewis 6 5 5 4 90 1st 1st
2004 Van Diemen Comtec 2004 Zetec Jonathan Lewis 6 3 4 4 77 1st 1st

750MC Formula 4

750MC Formula 4 results
Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.L. Points D.C. T.C.
2003 Comtec F4 Jonathan Lewis 12 6 7 4 235 1st 2nd
Chris Lewis 4 0 1 60 11th
2004 Comtec F4 Jonathan Lewis 7 4 2 2 105 7th 6th
John Roberts 5 0 0 1 60 18th
2005 Comtec F4 Chris Lewis 5 2 0 1 120 7th 2nd
Steve Patania 11 3 1 2 196 3rd
John Roberts 7 0 1 0 166 4th
2006 Comtec F4 Chris Lewis 11 6 7 5 294.8 1st 1st
Steve Patania 11 1 1 2 166 6th

Saxmax

Citroen Saxmax results
Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.L. Points D.C.
2006 Citroen Saxo VTR Ben Kidd 9 0 0 0 190 10th

Notes:

References

  1. WSbR complete results Archived 19 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine speedsportmag.com
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