Pacific Racing: Difference between revisions

Pacific
Full name	Pacific Grand Prix (1994); Pacific Team Lotus (1995)
Base	Thetford, United Kingdom
Founder(s)	Keith Wiggins
Noted staff	Adrian Reynard; Frank Coppuck
Noted drivers	Paul Belmondo; Bertrand Gachot; Giovanni Lavaggi; Jean-Denis Délétraz; Andrea Montermini
Formula One World Championship career
First entry	1994 Brazilian Grand Prix
Races entered	33 (40 starts from 66 entries)
Constructors'; Championships	0
Drivers'; Championships	0
Race victories	0 (best finish: 8th, 1995 German and Australian Grands Prix)
Pole positions	0 (best grid position: 19th, 1995 Japanese Grand Prix)
Fastest laps	0
Final entry	1995 Australian Grand Prix

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Pacific Racing (later known as Pacific Grand Prix, and finally as Pacific Team Lotus) was a motor racing team from the United Kingdom. Following success in lower formulae, the team took part in two full seasons of Formula One, in 1994 and 1995, entering 33 Grands Prix without much success.

Origins and success in lower formulae

The team was founded by former mechanic Keith Wiggins in 1984, to race in the European Formula Ford Championship, with Norwegian driver Harald Huysman and Marlboro backing. Huysman won both the European and Benelux titles. On Huysman's advice, Pacific entered Bertrand Gachot in British Formula Ford with a Reynard in 1985. The following year, Gachot, also part of the Marlboro World Championship team, won the Formula Ford 2000 crown for Pacific. Marlboro stayed with Wiggins' team in FF2000 in 1987, winning the British title with JJ Lehto.

In 1988, Pacific entered the British F3 Championship with Lehto and a Reynard car, and won the title on their first attempt. Wiggins did not want to stay in F3 and moved up to Formula 3000, once more in association with Reynard and Marlboro. However, Lehto and Eddie Irvine's season was disappointing and the tobacco company's support moved to rival DAMS in 1990. The team returned to form in 1991, taking Christian Fittipaldi to the F3000 crown.

Formula One

Bertrand Gachot at the 1994 Pacific Grand Prix.

Pacific Racing had won in every junior category it had participated in, and by 1992 Wiggins was determined that it would make the step up to F1 for the 1993 season, in the process renaming the team as Pacific Grand Prix. Lacking an in-house engineering staff and conscious of how limited his timescale was, Wiggins contacted F3000 constructor Reynard Racing to design and build the new PR01 chassis, hoping to benefit from several years of research and development that Reynard had invested in their recently scrapped in-house F1 project. Unfortunately for Pacific, the Rory Byrne-led design team had gone to Benetton at the end of 1991 and Reynard had sold the design (still in form of paper drawings) to Ligier. The small PR01 design team, working at Reynard but nominally employed by Pacific to conform to FIA Regulations, were forced to start a new design based on what little of the Reynard F1 research remained and utilizing a number of minor components from Reynard's F3000 chassis in an attempt to constrain costs. With their roots in the same project, the resulting Benetton B193, Ligier JS37 and Pacific PR01 shared the same slab-sided, raised-nose profile that later became standard in Formula One.

They instead postponed their entry in January 1993^[1] because of a recession and resulting failure of investors to pay up.^{[citation needed]}

They were unable to enter F1 until 1994. The year was a disaster. Paul Belmondo and former Jordan driver Bertrand Gachot started the season as drivers, with Oliver Gavin testing. The PR01, designed for the 1993 season, had undergone none of the vital wind tunnel testing required to refine the car's aerodynamics, had seen only a few dozen miles of track testing and its Ilmor 3.5 L V10 engine was underpowered by 1994 standards. That season the team did not finish a single race and from the French Grand Prix onwards, neither car qualified. They scored a total of zero points that season.

By 1995, Pacific had merged with the dying Team Lotus.^[2] The obsolete Ilmor engines had been replaced by Ford ED V8s and a whole host of new sponsors were brought in. Good news also came when the PR02 was guaranteed a start each race, with Larrousse and Lotus disappearing from the entry lists and only Forti coming in. Belmondo had been replaced with Andrea Montermini. Having had no luck in the first half of the season, team partner Gachot vacated his seat in mid-1995, making way for infamous paydrivers Giovanni Lavaggi (four races, four DNFs) and Jean-Denis Délétraz (two races, one DNF, one NC). Gachot later returned after the money of the two pay-drivers dried up and two drivers Wiggins wanted to run (Formula Nippon driver Katsumi Yamamoto for Okayama and Suzuka and test driver Oliver Gavin for Australia) were denied superlicences. Pacific's best finishes that season were 8th in the German and Australian Grands Prix.

Withdrawal and aftermath

At the end of the 1995 season, the team withdrew from Formula One and Wiggins went back to Formula 3000, resurrecting Pacific Racing with Oliver Tichy and Marc Gené as drivers. Gené left the team after his accident at Pau, and Tichy continued alone until the team quit in mid-season. In 1997 Wiggins also attempted to enter sportscar racing and the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a heavily modified BRM chassis known as the P301 and using Nissan engines. Following a series of failures for the project into 1998, Wiggins closed the team.

Wiggins joined Lola and helped the constructor reclaim ground in the Champ Car World Series. With a foothold in the United States, the mechanic-turned-team manager joined up with the Herdez brewery and in 2000 acquired Bettenhausen Motorsports, renaming it HVM Racing, which he still runs today. In 2006, Paul Stoddart, former owner of the Minardi F1 team, bought an interest in the team and renamed it Minardi Team USA.

Racing record

Results summary

Year	Championship	Car	#	Driver(s)	Races	Wins	Poles	Fastest laps	Points	DC/WDC	TC/WCC
1984	Benelux Formula Ford 1600^[3]			Harald Huysman						1st
1984	European Formula Ford 1600^[3]			Harald Huysman						1st
1985	British Formula Ford 1600^[3]	Reynard		Bertrand Gachot
1986	British Formula Ford 2000^[3]	Reynard		Bertrand Gachot						1st
1987	British Formula Ford 2000^[4]			JJ Lehto						1st
1987	European Formula Ford^[4]			JJ Lehto						1st
1988	British Formula Three^[4]^[5]^[6]	Reynard-Toyota		JJ Lehto	18	8	6	11	113	1st	n/a
				John Alcorn					21*	7th
				Evan Demoulas	8	0	0	0	0	NC
	Macau Grand Prix^[7]	Reynard-Toyota	2	JJ Lehto	1	0	0	0	n/a	Ret	n/a
1989	International Formula 3000	Reynard-Mugen	24	Eddie Irvine	10	0	0	0	11	9th	7th
			25	JJ Lehto	9	0	0	0	6	13th
			25	Allan McNish	1	0	0	0	0	NC
1990	International Formula 3000	Lola-Mugen	24	Stéphane Proulx	11	0	0	1	0	NC	NC
			25	Marco Greco	2	0	0	0	0	NC
			25	Claude Bourbonnais	2	0	0	0	0	NC
1991	International Formula 3000	Reynard-Mugen	29	Antonio Tamburini	10	1	0	1	22	4th	1st
1991	International Formula 3000	Reynard-Mugen	30	Christian Fittipaldi	10	2	4	1	47	1st	1st
1992	International Formula 3000	Reynard-Mugen	1	Laurent Aïello	10	0	0	0	3	13th	4th
1992	International Formula 3000	Reynard-Mugen	2	Jordi Gené	10	1	1	0	21	5th	4th
1993	International Formula 3000	Reynard-Cosworth	8	David Coulthard	9	1	0	2	25	3rd	4th
			9	Michael Bartels	7	0	0	0	4	=11th
			9	Phil Andrews	2	0	0	0	0	NC
1994	Formula One	Pacific-Ilmor	33	Paul Belmondo	16	0	0	0	0	NC	NC
1994	Formula One	Pacific-Ilmor	34	Bertrand Gachot	16	0	0	0	0	NC	NC
1995	Formula One	Pacific-Ford	16	Bertrand Gachot	11	0	0	0	0	NC	NC
				Giovanni Lavaggi	4	0	0	0	0	NC
				Jean-Denis Délétraz	2	0	0	0	0	NC
			17	Andrea Montermini	16	0	0	0	0	NC
1996	International Formula 3000	Lola-Zytek	28	Patrick Lemarié	16	0	0	0	2	=13th	7th
1996	International Formula 3000	Lola-Zytek	29	Cristiano da Matta	16	0	0	0	7	=8th	7th
1997	International Formula 3000	Lola-Zytek	14	Oliver Tichy	8	0	0	0	14*	7th	9th
	International Formula 3000	Lola-Zytek	15	Marc Gené	2	0	0	1	0	NC	9th
	Intl. Sports Racing Series	BRM P301-Nissan	14	Franz Konrad Richard Dean Wido Rössler	1	0	0	0	0	NC	NC
	24 Hours of Le Mans	BRM P301-Nissan	14	Eliseo Salazar Harri Toivonen Jesús Pareja	1	0	0	0	n/a	n/a	n/a
1998	Intl. Sports Racing Series	BRM P301-Nissan	14	Tim Sugden Grant Orbell William Hewland	2	0	0	0	0	NC	NC

* Including points scored for other teams.

Complete International Formula 3000 results

^[8]^[9]

(key)

Year	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Points	TC
1989	Reynard 89D	Mugen V8	A		SIL	VAL	PAU	JER	PER	BRH	BIR	SPA	BUG	DIJ		17	7th
				Eddie Irvine	DNS	Ret	DSQ	Ret	3	Ret	6	9	4	4
				JJ Lehto	DSQ	Ret	4	6	Ret	Ret	Ret	5	Ret
				Allan McNish										8
1990	Lola T90/50	Mugen V8	A		DON	SIL	PAU	JER	MNZ	PER	HOC	BRH	BIR	BUG	NOG	0	NC
				Stéphane Proulx	12	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	10	Ret	Ret	Ret	7
				Marco Greco	DNQ	DNQ
				Claude Bourbonnais										DNQ	DNQ
1991	Reynard 91D	Mugen V8	A		VAL	PAU	JER	MUG	PER	HOC	BRH	SPA	BUG	NOG		69	1st
				Antonio Tamburini	3	10	4	7	4	6	5	Ret	1	Ret
				Christian Fittipaldi	2	2	1	3	DSQ	4	3	Ret	2	1
1992	Reynard 92D	Mugen V8	A		SIL	PAU	CAT	PER	HOC	NUR	SPA	ALB	NOG	MAG		24	4th
				Laurent Aïello	Ret	Ret	Ret	11	10	5	6	Ret	7	Ret
				Jordi Gené	1	Ret	3	Ret	5	8	2	Ret	8	10
1993	Reynard 93D	Cosworth V8	A		DON	SIL	PAU	PER	HOC	NUR	SPA	MAG	NOG			29	4th
				David Coulthard	13	2	2	1	Ret	7	3	Ret	Ret
				Michael Bartels	Ret	3	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret
				Phil Andrews								DSQ	13
1996	Lola T96/50	Zytek V8	A		NUR	PAU	PER	HOC	SIL	SPA	MAG	EST	MUG	HOC		9	7th
				Patrick Lemarié	12	5	13	10	8	Ret	8	15	Ret	8
				Cristiano da Matta	9	4	5	Ret	Ret	10	5	7	20	Ret
1997	Lola T96/50	Zytek V8	A		SIL	PAU	HEL	NUR	PER	HOC	A1R	SPA	MUG	JER		8	9th
				Oliver Tichy	8	8	2	9	Ret	7	5	Ret
				Marc Gené	13	DNQ

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Points	WCC
1994	PR01	Ilmor 2175A 3.5 V10	G		BRA	PAC	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	EUR	JPN	AUS		0	NC
				Paul Belmondo	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	Ret	Ret	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
				Bertrand Gachot	Ret	DNQ	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
1995	PR02	Ford EDC 3.0 V8	G		BRA	ARG	SMR	ESP	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	EUR	PAC	JPN	AUS	0	NC
				Bertrand Gachot	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	12							Ret	Ret	8
				Giovanni Lavaggi									Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret
				Jean-Denis Délétraz													Ret	15
				Andrea Montermini	9	Ret	Ret	DNS	DSQ	Ret	NC	Ret	8	12	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret

References

^ "January & February 1993 Information". Teamdan.com. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
^ "F1 News > Pacific forms alliance with Lotus". Grandprix.com. 28 February 1995. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Constructors: Pacific Grand Prix". GrandPrix.com. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Jyrki Järvilehto career statistics". Driver Database. Retrieved 1 January 2008.
^ "Evan Demoulas career statistics". Driver Database. Retrieved 1 January 2008.
^ Pitkänen, Seppo. "F3 British Championships 1988 (GB)". Driver Database. Retrieved 1 January 2008.
^ "1988 Macau Grand Prix" (PDF). Formel3Guide.com. Retrieved 8 January 2008.
^ "GP2 & F3000". Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 1 January 2008.
^ "Formula 3000 results, 1989-1997". Racing Database. Retrieved 1 January 2008.

External links

Team Profile on F1 Rejects

[1] "January & February 1993 Information". Teamdan.com. Retrieved 23 April 2011.

[2] "F1 News > Pacific forms alliance with Lotus". Grandprix.com. 28 February 1995. Retrieved 23 April 2011.

[gp.com-3] "Constructors: Pacific Grand Prix". GrandPrix.com. Retrieved 3 January 2008.

[lehto-4] "Jyrki Järvilehto career statistics". Driver Database. Retrieved 1 January 2008.

[5] "Evan Demoulas career statistics". Driver Database. Retrieved 1 January 2008.

[6] Pitkänen, Seppo. "F3 British Championships 1988 (GB)". Driver Database. Retrieved 1 January 2008.

[7] "1988 Macau Grand Prix" (PDF). Formel3Guide.com. Retrieved 8 January 2008.

[f3000-8] "GP2 & F3000". Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 1 January 2008.

[rdb-9] "Formula 3000 results, 1989-1997". Racing Database. Retrieved 1 January 2008.

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