FFF Racing Team by ACM (known as Rexal FFF Racing Team and previously Orange1 FFF Racing Team for sponsorship reasons) was a Chinese

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing that uses sports cars with two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built Sports prototype, sports prototypes, which are the highest level in sports car racing; or grand to ...

team that competed in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe, GT World Challenge Europe, and

GT World Challenge Asia The GT World Challenge Asia (formerly Blancpain GT Series Asia and Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia) is a Grand tourer, GT series motor racing competition promoted by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation and organized by Team Asia One GT Management. ...

, among other series. The team was crowned GT World Challenge Asia champions in 2018, as well as team champions in the

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, formerly for sponsorship reasons the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015 and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from 2016 to 2019, is a sports car racing series developed by Stéphane Ratel Or ...

and overall championship in 2019.

History

Founding

Founded in 2014, the team came about as a result of a partnership between Chinese businessman Fu Songyang and Italian racing driver

Andrea Caldarelli Andrea Caldarelli (born 14 February 1990) is an Italian racing driver who currently competes in IMSA in the GTP class for Lamborghini- Iron Lynx in the Lamborghini SC63 Hypercar alongside Matteo Cairoli and former Formula One driver Romain Gro ...

, branded as FFF Racing Team by ACM. The team began competition the following season, taking delivery of three McLaren 650S GT3 models ahead of the

2015 GT Asia Series The 2015 GT Asia Series was the sixth season of the GT Asia Series championship. It began on 16 May at the Korea International Circuit and ended on 2 November at the Guia Circuit after 11 championship races and a non-championship event. The serie ...

season. The team claimed their inaugural victory at

Okayama is the prefectural capital, capital Cities of Japan, city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The Okayama metropolitan area, centered around the city, has the largest urban employment zone in the Chugoku region of western J ...

that season, as full-time driver Hiroshi Hamaguchi finished 10th in the driver's championship.

Lamborghini transition

For the 2016

GT Asia Series The GT Asia Series was a sports car racing series based in Asia. The championship combines Group GT3, FIA GT3 specification cars as the elite class of the series with Ferrari Challenge, Porsche Cup and older GT3 machinery competing in the GTM cl ...

season, FFF Racing shifted to competing with the recently introduced Lamborghini Huracán GT3, with

Lamborghini Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. ( , ), usually referred to as Lamborghini or colloquially Lambo, is an Italian manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its su ...

's factory junior driver pairing of Edoardo Liberati and Andrea Amici joining the team's effort. The team would take two overall victories and seven podiums that season, with Liberati and Amici claiming the driver's title. 2016 also marked the team's first foray into European competition, fielding two entries in the GT3 Le Mans Cup and another at the

Paul Ricard Paul Louis Marius Ricard (; July 9, 1909 – November 7, 1997) was a French industrialist and creator of an eponymous pastis brand which merged in 1975 with its competitor Pernod to create Pernod Ricard. Ricard was also an environmentalist and t ...

round of the International GT Open. Lamborghini Huracan GT3-Team FFF Racing

The following season, the team entered the inaugural season of the Blancpain GT Series Asia with support from Squadra Corse. The #1 car featured the season-long duo of Alberto di Folco and Aidan Read, while the #2 featured a slew of drivers across the Pro-Am and Am classes. The 2018 season proved successful for the team, claiming the overall team's championship alongside multiple driver's titles. Martin Kodrić and Dennis Lind claimed the overall and Silver Class championships, while Hiroshi Hamaguchi and

Marco Mapelli Marco Mapelli (born 1 August 1987 in Seregno, Italy) is an Italian racing driver. He is part of the Lamborghini Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. ( , ), usually referred to as Lamborghini or colloquially Lambo, is an Italian manufacturer of lu ...

took the Pro-Am Cup championship.

Full factory support

For 2019, the team launched a renewed three car effort with full factory support for the

2019 Blancpain GT Series The 2019 Blancpain GT Series was the last season under the title of the Blancpain GT Series. The season began on 14 April at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza and ended on 29 September in Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Barcelona. The season featu ...

. Success followed the team into 2019, as drivers

and

made series history by becoming the first set of drivers to win the Sprint, Endurance, and Overall championships in the Pro category. Furthermore, the team claimed the Pro class Overall and Endurance team's championship titles, while Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Phil Keen helped the team to the Pro-Am class team's and driver's titles in the Sprint series. In 2021, the team announced their intentions to compete at the

Nürburgring 24 Hours The Nürburgring 24 Hours is a 24-hour annual touring car racing, touring car and Grand tourer, GT Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing event that takes place on a combination of the Nordschleife ("North Loop") and the GP-Strecke ("Gr ...

for the first time in team history. Following the 2021 season, the team paused their GT3 program, electing to focus on their

Lamborghini Super Trofeo The Lamborghini Super Trofeo is an international motor racing series. The Lamborghini Super Trofeo is the one-make championship organized by Lamborghini Squadra Corse. The series involves exclusively Huracán Super Trofeo Evo model cars in 3 co ...

efforts. In January 2023, the team announced that it had ended its racing activities. The team was reportedly affected heavily by the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing to the team folding. Caldarelli stated that the decision to close the team came from a multitude of factors, which included a lack of factory-supported opportunities with Lamborghini in the near future. Japanese team B-Max Engineering entered the

2023 GT World Challenge Asia The 2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS was the fifth season of the GT World Challenge Asia, an auto racing series for grand tourer cars in Asia co-promoted by the SRO Motorsports Group and Team Asia One GT Management. The races w ...

under the Spirit of FFF Racing moniker, paying homage to the defunct team with which driver Hiroshi Hamaguchi formerly competed.

eSports

In April 2020, the team announced the creation of their eSports arm, dubbed FFF eSports, to compete in the 2020 SRO E-sport GT Series. For their inaugural season, the team competed in the Silver Class designed for sim racers, signing drivers Jaroslav Honzik and Kamil Franczak.

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:FFF Racing Team Chinese auto racing teams Auto racing teams established in 2014 2014 establishments in China GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup teams International GT Open teams Auto racing teams disestablished in 2023 Italian auto racing teams