Comtec Racing

Comtec Racing
Founded	2001
Founder(s)	Pierre Moncheur
Base	Snetterton, Norfolk, England
Team principal(s)	Pierre Moncheur
Current series	Formula Renault 3.5 Series
Former series	Eurocup 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)
Website	http://www.comtecracing.com/

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.

History[edit]

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 his 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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

World Series by Renault[edit]

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
2010	Dallara T08–Renault	Stefano Coletti	17	0	0	0	76	6th	5th
2011	Dallara T08–Renault	Daniel McKenzie	17	0	0	0	0	30th	13th
2011	Dallara T08–Renault	Daniël de Jong	17	0	0	0	2	29th	13th
2012	Dallara FR35/12–Zytek	Vittorio Ghirelli	17	0	0	0	5	23rd	7th
2012	Dallara FR35/12–Zytek	Nick Yelloly	17	2	1	0	122	5th	7th
2013	Dallara FR35/12–Zytek	Daniil Move	17	0	0	0	12	22nd	13th
2013	Dallara FR35/12–Zytek	Lucas Foresti	17	0	0	0	0	NC	13th
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[edit]

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[edit]

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
2008	Comtec	Francisco Weiler	13	0	0	0	16	22nd	7th

Formula Renault 2.0 UK Winter Series[edit]

Formula Renault 2.0 UK 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 2.0 UK[edit]

Formula Renault 2.0 UK 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
2004	Tatuus FR2000–Renault	Susie Wolff	20	0	0	0	284	5th	2nd
2006	Tatuus FR2000–Renault	Pippa Mann	16	0	0	0	86	19th	10th

Formula Renault Eurocup 2.0[edit]

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[edit]

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	8th

Formula Three[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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
2003	Comtec F4	Chris Lewis	4	0		1	60	11th	2nd
2004	Comtec F4	Jonathan Lewis	7	4	2	2	105	7th	6th
2004	Comtec F4	John Roberts	5	0	0	1	60	18th	6th
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
2006	Comtec F4	Steve Patania	11	1	1	2	166	6th	1st

Saxmax[edit]

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:

1.^ - Iaconelli also entered in 4 races for EuroInternational and 6 races for GD Racing.
2.^ - Míguez also scored 1 point in 11 races for Pons Racing.
3.^ - van Lagen also entered in 2 races for EuroInternational.
4.^ - Nebylitskiy also scored 1 point in 13 races for SG Formula.
5.^ - Greg Mansell also scored 3 points in 13 races for Ultimate Motorsport.

References[edit]

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

External links[edit]

Comtec Racing

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

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