Draig Racing

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Wales Draig Racing
Draig Logo 2018-02.png
Full name Fanatec Draig Racing
Owner/s Wales Mike Phillis
Base Wales Hirwaun, South Wales, UK
Competitions
Superleague Team Draig Racing
Début Australia Australia 2010
Supercup Team Draig Racing
Début Australia Australia 2010
Formula Challenge Team Draig Racing
Début Australia Australia 2015
World Sport Series Team None
Début -
International Touring Cup Team None
Début -


Fanatec Draig Racing is a constructor currently owned by Mike Phillis and managed by Ben Willis. They have competed in the Superleague, Supercup and Masters Series and won the Constructors title in the 2010 Supercup season. The team are competing in the 2018 Supercup season.


History

Draig Racing has had a long and interesting history during its time at GPVWC.

2009/10: Early Success

Draig Racing was created in 2009. Co-Owner and founder Mike Phillis, had just taken over as Team Manager of a little known team called 'Maximum Racing'. With the bug of management, came the bug of wanting to own a team, so with some hard work, and some help from some friends, Phillis made Draig Racing a reality. Starting off in the Welsh Valley's town of Aberdare, Phillis took his team looking for drivers, painters and anyone else in between. The teams First outing was in 2010 at Jerez, their first outing as a proper outfit, it boasted the likes of Kieren Spencer and Ashley Walsh, pitting their time with the current GPVWC Superleague Champion. With competitive times, Phillis thought that this could be a rookie year to remember..... on one hand yes it was but on the other hand, it was one to forget.

With Drivers stepping down, the team became unstable in the GPVWC Superleague, with many drivers trying to take the team in the right direction, but failing to score points. In July Phil Perkins became partner in the team, and also became the stable driver, scoring podium in such a short time, and points in the first two races. Phil outscored all the other drivers who had decided to pass through the doors of Draig Racing.

2010, was the year for nurturing talent, Draig Racing also entered the GPVWC Supercup in its new format. Liam Hatchell, started from round 4 Abu Dhabi, who was later joined by Christoph Lichtenstein in round 5, after uncertainty on his future at Red5Racing. Between both drivers Draig Racing managed to secure the Constructors title, and Christoph winning the Drivers Championship, it was a double Celebration.

2011/12:Troubled times ahead

The next two years were not as successful and triumphant as the previous two. During the 2011 Superleague season, the outfit ran into financial issues and the team collapsed, leaving no Superleague entry for the team. The trauma did not end there, with personal issues Mike had to step away from the team and Lee morris stepped up to the plate to run the team in 2012. Having had a torrid time himself, he decided to step down, Draig Racing was to be no more and thus vanished from the simracing scene all together.
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2013:The Rebirth and fall

2013, was the rebirth of Draig Racing having sorted all the things out that needed to be. Phillis decided to start small this time, entering into the GPVWC WSS. With this, Draig Racing started looking for more of the sports car racing which led them to entering the Endurance scene. Draig Racing started to race at Xtreme RPM in their World Endurance league. Starting with their unofficial test race, running in the LMP1 and LMGT class, Draig Racing managed to get 2nd overall in the race, showing a welcome return to success. So in 2013 Draig Racing was starting to find their feet within the Endurance paddock. With the history of the team we had an admirer in the form of another team, Pulse Racing.

The management of Draig Racing and Pulse Motorsport had a series of meetings before the start of the Endurance series and managed to come to an agreement and the teams were merged to create MPH Tech. MPH Tech started off on a good spell, having have stable drivers in the LMGT class who won their 1st race under the new name. LMP1 class was another story, even though drivers were training harder than ever, Phillis again had other priorities to take care of, so decided to take a back seat and work on the behind the scenes as and when needed. This unfortunately changed to a complete hands off. With this, added to the fact that the manager of the Pulse Racing side had been signed by a rival team, the team once again fell into disrepair and once again Draig Racing fell of the simracing map.

2014: Rebirth 2.0

With the dissolution of MPH Tech, the team was left in control of the only two remaining drivers, Ben Willis and Ben Horrill. Being left with only minor infrastructure,no other drivers and the prospect of no racing in 2014, they realised they needed to act to save the team. Working back alongside Phillis, Phillis taking a more technical role and back as the 'behind the scenes guy' they all decided to rebrand the team back to Draig Racing. In January 2014, the team was approached by michael pitman. Pitman (the owner of VB Motorsport) was looking to branch out his outfit into the endurance scene. After numerous discussions, an agreement was drawn up and a partnership was struck, Draig Racing became Draig Racing VBM and the team was once again revived. With both teams bringing a wealth of experience to the table it makes for an exciting era.

By the end of the year, this partnership would end - as Draig split from VBM. In late 2014 Draig, now an independent team once more, were announced as part of the 2015 Formula Challenge grid, with car numbers 34 and 35. This would mark their return to the Career Ladder after a 2-year absence.

2014

World Sports Series

Draig racing completed their second season in the WSS championship but this time in a partnership with VB Motorsports.