Fortec Motorsport Ltd. is a motor-racing team that races in the

GB3 Championship The GB3 Championship is a single seater motorsport series based in the United Kingdom. The championship is the UK's premier single-seater category, and is aimed at young racing drivers moving up from FIA Formula 4 championships, the GB4 Cha ...

, GB4 Championship, and

F4 British Championship The F4 British Championship (full name Wera Tools F4 British Championship certified by FIA, formerly known as F4 British Championship certified by FIA — powered by Ford (2016–21), MSA Formula (2015)) is a single-seater motorsport seri ...

. The team was bought in 1995 by current owner Richard Dutton. Past drivers for the team include

Juan Pablo Montoya Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán (; born 20 September 1975) is a Colombian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to , IndyCar between 1999 and 2022, and the NASCAR Cup Series between 2006 and 2024. Montoya won seven Formula One Grand ...

, Gianmaria Bruni,

Danny Watts Danny Watts (born 31 December 1979) is a retired British professional racing driver. Career Watts was born in Aylesbury, and started racing in 1993, when he began karting. After five seasons of karting, he stepped up to single seater racin ...

, Jamie Green, James Rossiter,

Mike Conway Michael Robert Conway (born 19 August 1983) is a British professional racing driver. He lives in Sevenoaks, Kent and is currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Toyota Motorsport GmbH, Toyota Gazoo Racing. Early caree ...

, Fabio Carbone and

Heikki Kovalainen Heikki Johannes Kovalainen (; born 19 October 1981) is a Finnish auto racing, racing and rally driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Kovalainen won the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix with McLaren. In sportscar racing, Kovalainen won Super GT ...

History

The company was formed in

Newark-on-Trent Newark-on-Trent () or Newark is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road bypasses th ...

in 1989 by Peter Ablewhite, of Long Bennington, and mechanical engineer Peter Maxted of

Brant Broughton Brant Broughton (pronounced ''Brew''-ton) is a small village in the civil parish of Brant Broughton and Stragglethorpe, in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies north of the A17 road (England), A17 approximately east of ...

. It moved to part of a 50-acre site at Gonerby Moor in 1995, nearby to the

NAAFI The Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI ) is a company created by the United Kingdom, British government on 9 December 1920 to run recreational establishments needed by the British Armed Forces, and to sell goods to servicemen and their fam ...

distribution centre.''Grantham Journal'' Thursday 4 April 1996, page 3 The company left

Grantham Grantham () is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...

in 1999. Fortec has enjoyed great success since its inception. In 2002

won the

British Formula Renault Championship British Formula Renault Championship referred to one of two Formula Renault championships that were held in the United Kingdom. The main series was Renault Sport, Renault Sport UK's Formula Renault Eurocup, Formula Renault 2.0 UK championship which ...

for the team, with team-mate Jamie Green following close behind in second. In the same year, Fabio Carbone won the prestigious Marlboro Masters

Formula Three Formula Three (F3) is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. History Formula Three (adop ...

race, held at

Zandvoort Zandvoort () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is one of the major beach resorts of the Netherlands; it has a long sandy beach. It is bordered by coastal dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland National Park and the Amsterdam ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. The team's next championship win came with another British Formula Renault title in 2004, with

finishing over 90 points clear of his nearest rival, Comtec Racing's Westley Barber. Fortec added further team championships in the Formula BMW UK championship, taking three successive titles between 2005 and

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, also taking drivers' championship titles with Niall Breen and

Marcus Ericsson Marcus Thorbjörn Ericsson (born 2 September 1990) is a Swedish racing driver, who competes in the IndyCar Series for Andretti Global, Andretti. Ericsson competed in Formula One from to . In American open-wheel racing, Ericsson won the India ...

. After a barren year for the team in Formula Renault in 2005, 2006 saw the team regain both championship titles, with Sebastian Hohenthal just clinching the drivers' title on countback, after he and Team A.K.A. driver Patrick Hogan ended the season on the same number of points. Duncan Tappy and

Dean Smith Dean Edwards Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015) was an American men's college basketball Coach (basketball), head coach. Called a "coaching legend" by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he coached for 36 years at the University of North C ...

finished in the top two placings in 2007. Another teams' title followed in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. More recently, the team has seen great improvements in its Formula Renault 3.5 Series results, finishing fifth in the Teams' Championship in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, fourth in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and finishing as runners-up in 2011 season with driver

Alexander Rossi Alexander Michael Rossi (born September 25, 1991) is an American racing driver, who competes in the IndyCar Series for Ed Carpenter Racing, Ed Carpenter. Rossi competed in Formula One at five Formula One Grands Prix, Grands Prix in . In America ...

finishing third overall and best rookie. In 2012 the team fielded rookies

Robin Frijns Robin Christiaan Maria Frijns (born 7 August 1991) is a Dutch racing driver. He most recently raced in Formula E with Envision Racing, and in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Team WRT as part of the BMW in motorsport, BMW factory driver l ...

from the

and Carlos Huertas from

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

, Frijns won the driver championship in his first year scoring 3 wins during his championship season. Meanwhile, Huertas scored regular results and finished 16th in the season scoring 35 points, but Fortec finished 3rd in the teams championship behind

Tech 1 Racing Tech 1 Racing is a racing team based in Toulouse, France. Founded in 2000 by racing driver Simon Abadie and his sister Sarah, it has garnered success in the World Series by Renault, the Eurocup Mégane Trophy and the GP3 Series, most notably ...

and New team Arden

Caterham Caterham () is a town in the Tandridge (district), Tandridge district of Surrey, England. The town is administratively divided into two: Caterham on the Hill, and Caterham Valley, which includes the main town centre in the middle of a dry valle ...

Motorsport. Fortec were also crowned Team Champions in the Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship with Alex Lynn clinching the drivers' title with a record-breaking twelve wins in one season. Oliver Rowland secured second in the Championship, as well as winning the Graduate Cup. William Buller was Fortec's top finisher in the

British Formula 3 Championship The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single sea ...

, as he finished fourth in the Championship. In club-level racing, the new-for-2011 InterSteps Championship saw Jake Dennis win the Championship from teammate Alex Walker with Ed Jones finishing in fourth place, while in Formula Renault BARC, Josh Webster narrowly missed out on the drivers', after a close battle with eventual champion Dino Zamparelli. After the Formula Renault UK was cancelled for the 2012 season, the team joined the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC.

Current series results

BRDC British Formula 3 Championship / GB3 Championship

† Taylor drove for Chris Dittmann Racing from round 7 onwards.

GB4 Championship

F4 British Championship

†Hedley drove for Carlin from round 6 onwards.

Former series results

British Formula 3 International Series

Formula Renault 3.5 Series

Formula V8 3.5 Series

FIA European Formula 3 Championship

Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0

Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup

Euroformula Open Championship

† Includes points scored for other teams

Italian F4 Championship

† Italian F4 Trophy ‡ Shared results with other teams

Timeline

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fortec Motorsport British auto racing teams 1989 establishments in the United Kingdom Auto racing teams established in 1989 British Formula Renault teams Companies based in Grantham Companies based in Northamptonshire Daventry World Series Formula V8 3.5 teams International Formula 3000 teams Formula BMW teams Formula Renault Eurocup teams Formula 3 Euro Series teams British GT Championship teams GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup teams FIA Formula 3 European Championship teams British Formula Three teams Euroformula Open Championship teams Italian Formula 3 teams Sport in Lincolnshire