Founded by David Bartrum in 2004 as Motorbase Performance, the Kent squad moved from Porsche Carrera Cup to the BTCC, British GT and Brands Hatch glory before taking the Alliance name.
Alliance Racing is a British team founded in 2004 by David Bartrum as Motorbase Performance. It moved from the Porsche Carrera Cup into the BTCC, won the Independent team and driver titles in 2016 and took British GT titles in 2012 and 2014 before taking the Alliance name.
Alliance Racing is a British motor racing team that began in 2004 as Motorbase Performance, founded by former Production Saloon racer David Bartrum. The Kent-based operation is best known for its British Touring Car Championship campaigns, which ran for years under the NAPA Racing UK name, and for a long run of Porsche and Aston Martin results in sports car racing.
Today the owners are Pete Osborne and ex-BTCC racer Shaun Hollamby. Its story is one of steady reinvention: it moved from Porsche to Honda, SEAT, BMW and Ford, changed sponsors more than once and kept coming back to the grid with new drivers and new cars.
How did the team start out in the Porsche Carrera Cup?
The team's first season was the 2004 Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain, where it finished second in the teams' championship even though its best-known driver, Damien Faulkner, joined only partway through the year. The 2005 season was harder, with no wins and weak points returns.
In 2006 the team ran in both the Pro class and the newly created Pro-Am class. Its main hope came from Tim Harvey, the 1992 BTCC champion, who won three races on his way to second place in the championship. The following year Steven Kane collected the most wins in the field, ending third overall.
A Kent team that began in the Porsche Carrera Cup, took Ford and BMW machinery into the BTCC and still returns to the paddock as a fighting independent.
Who were the team's top Carrera Cup drivers?
In 2008 the squad stepped away from the Carrera Cup to concentrate on the BTCC, and it returned in 2009 with entries in all three classes. Michael Caine won three races in 2009, finishing fourth, and in 2010 he took seven wins in a title bid. Harvey, a former Motorbase driver, beat him by 10 points.
The team's best Carrera Cup year came in 2010, when it won the teams' championship with a four-car squad. Over seven seasons at the top of the German marque series it collected 26 race wins. Harvey also claimed a notable result in the GB section of the Porsche Carrera World Cup, racing on the Nurburgring Nordschleife against more than 100 911 GT3 Cup cars.
What did the team's first BTCC seasons look like?
The team entered the BTCC for the first time in 2006 with a Honda Integra Type R run by David Pinkney. He took a podium at Knockhill and finished 13th overall. For 2007 the team bought two ex-works SEAT Toledo cars, and Gareth Howell and rookie Matt Allison drove them. Both were written off at the Brands Hatch meeting.
The BTCC cars were replaced for 2008 by factory-specification BMW 320si E90s, driven by Steven Kane and Rob Collard. Wet-dry races were not kind to the rear-wheel-drive BMWs, but Collard took two top five finishes at Croft, and Kane came second at Snetterton.
Why did the BMW years give way to Ford?
In 2009 Jonathan Adam replaced Kane, and the cars ran under the Airwaves BMW banner after new sponsorship arrived. Collard won two races, and the team finished fourth in the teams' championship. In 2010 Mat Jackson replaced Collard, Kane returned, and the pair took two wins and 11 podiums, again finishing fourth among the teams.
For 2011 the team switched to Ford. It ran three Ford Focus STs as Airwaves Racing. The chassis was built to S2000 specification, but the team used the turbocharged NGTC engine. Jackson stayed for a second season, joined by rookie Liam Griffin, and the team also ran a third car for Michael Caine at two rounds, later replaced by James Thompson.
How did the Airwaves and Crabbie's years go?
In 2012 the team raced as Redstone Racing with the same Focus ST line-up. After a blaze in Liam Griffin's S2000 car left the team a car short, it built a new NGTC-specification Focus ST Mk III, which won its first race at Silverstone in the hands of Jackson. Airwaves returned as the main sponsor in 2013.
In 2014 David Bartrum signed the two-time champion Fabrizio Giovanardi as lead driver for Airwaves Racing. Former F2 racer Jack Clarke drove a lime green Crabbie's Ginger Beer car, and Jackson returned for his fifth season with the squad. Giovanardi had been out of the series for four years and never found his form, but Jackson finished fourth overall and was runner-up among the Independents.
The team's best season to that point followed. It finished fourth in the Overall Teams' Championship, and its #6 Focus ST completed every lap of the season. Clarke took his maiden podium and an Independent race win at Brands Hatch. That year also marked the end of Airwaves' six-year involvement, and the squad said farewell to its sponsor at Brands Hatch.
How did the team cope with the 2015 break?
The 2015 season began badly. A new title sponsor was lined up but withdrew weeks before the start, and David Bartrum made the difficult decision to take a half-year break from the BTCC. The team kept working on a Ford EcoBoost project with Mountune, and James Cole was already signed.
The comeback came at Snetterton as the season's second half began, with the new EcoBoost engine and chassis work giving the Focus ST fresh life. Jackson took a maiden BTCC qualifying pole at Rockingham and then won three in a row. In the final three meetings he and the team took four outright race wins and four podiums, and Cole recorded a career-best ninth at Silverstone.
What made 2016 the team's best year?
2016 was the best year the team had enjoyed. Andrew Jordan, the 2013 BTCC champion, joined alongside Jackson. Jackson took five outright wins and led more laps than anyone in the 32-car field. Jordan won at Thruxton, his first win in over two years.
Going into the finale at Brands Hatch both drivers were still in the title fight. Jordan was ruled out after a heavy accident, but Jackson took his fifth win of the season and finished third overall, the highest-placed Independent and 16 points behind champion Gordon Shedden. Motorbase also won the Independent Teams and Independent Drivers titles, and its drivers logged seven wins and seven podiums, and the squad added 15 Independent wins and 21 Independent-class podiums.
What happened in 2017 and 2018?
For 2017 the team focused entirely on the BTCC and ran three cars as Team Shredded Wheat Racing. At Croft a wet qualifying session ended his season with life-threatening injuries. He made a full recovery but did not return to racing. Rory Butcher took over for the final four meetings and scored two top ten finishes.
The team ended 2017 sixth in the Teams Championship and third among the Independents. For 2018 it brought in Tom Chilton and Sam Tordoff, while Jackson's shock departure opened the way for James Cole to return. The Ford Focus RS arrived that year, reviving the RS name in the championship after a quarter-century gap.
Chilton finished third overall and took second in the Independents' standings, with a maiden Focus RS win at Knockhill. Tordoff proved the strongest qualifier of the year, starting 6th on average, and he put the Focus RS on pole for the first time at Rockingham. The team finished fourth overall in the Teams Championship.
What changed for 2019?
The team kept three Ford Focus RS cars for 2019 but changed the line-up. Tom Chilton was joined by ex-AmDTuning.com driver Ollie Jackson, who had raced for the squad before in the Porsche Carrera Cup UK. The third car went to a ROKiT Racing entry, as the team's season was shaped by sponsors and results.
Nicolas Hamilton, whose half-brother is the six-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, drove the third car for eight rounds. When sponsorship issues ended his run, Michael Caine took over the car for the last two rounds at Silverstone and Brands Hatch, backed by Pro Alloy. Chilton took two podiums at the Brands Hatch opener, then claimed the squad's sole outright victory of 2019 at Croft, and he finished 10th overall. Ollie Jackson logged seven top-10 results, peaking at fourth at Snetterton, and ended 19th in the standings.
How did the 2020 car project turn out?
For 2020 the team built an entirely new car from the Ford Focus ST Mk4 chassis, its largest design project to date. It used computer-aided design for the first time, and three new cars were built for Rory Butcher, Ollie Jackson and Andy Neate.
The car proved an instant success. Butcher took two podiums at Donington Park in the opening meeting, two pole positions at Brands Hatch GP and Oulton Park, and the car's maiden win in race one at Oulton Park. Butcher finished fifth in the championship, Jackson 12th, and the team took fourth in the teams' standings with 11 podiums.
What did the British GT programme achieve?
The team's sports car arm returned to the British GT Championship in 2012 with Michael Caine and Daniele Perfetti in a Porsche 997 GT3. In only its first season back the pairing clinched the British GT title. In 2013 Caine and Ahmad Al Harthy raced under the Oman Air Motorbase name and finished fifth overall.
The move to Aston Martin paid off in 2014, when the team reclaimed the overall Teams Championship at Donington Park. Al Harthy and Caine finished as vice champions. In 2015 the duo won the GT3 Silver Cup title, and the squad took third overall at the Gulf 12 Hours at Yas Marina.
What is the team's current identity?
The team now races as Alliance Racing. It still uses the Motorbase name in its history, and David Bartrum's operation has been through several sponsors and series. Its racing record in the BTCC, British GT and Porsche Carrera Cup gives it one of the longest-running histories among Kent-based teams.
What are the team's key milestones?
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2004 | Founded by David Bartrum; second in the Carrera Cup teams' championship |
| 2006 | First BTCC entry with a Honda Integra Type R |
| 2010 | Teams' championship title in the Porsche Carrera Cup |
| 2011 | Switch to Ford Focus STs as Airwaves Racing |
| 2012 | British GT title in the first season back |
| 2014 | Fourth in the BTCC teams' table; British GT teams' title |
| 2015 | Return from a half-year break with the EcoBoost Focus |
| 2016 | Independent team and driver titles; seven BTCC wins |
| 2018 | Ford Focus RS debut; fourth in the BTCC teams' table |
| 2020 | New Ford Focus ST Mk4 car; fourth in the teams' standings |
