Vic Lee Motorsport | |||||||
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Nationality | British | ||||||
Established | 1980s | ||||||
Founders | Vic Lee | ||||||
Noted drivers | Josh Jones | Patrick Babiche | Kevin Bolland | Alen Kopić | |||
British Touring Car Championship Career | |||||||
First entry | 1991 | ||||||
Races entered | 33 | ||||||
Teams championships | 0 (1 Independents) | ||||||
Drivers championships | 0 | ||||||
Race victories | 3 | ||||||
Podiums | 19 | ||||||
Points | 1,179 | ||||||
Pole positions | 0 | ||||||
Fastest laps | 3 | ||||||
Last entry |
Vic Lee Motorsport is currently involved in British Touring Car Championship as an Independent team, under the name of Team Halfords. They have been associated with BTCC since 1991.
History[]
Origin[]
As Vic Lee Motorsport the team had considerable success in the early 1990s:
1991[]
In 1991 VLM ran 4 BMW M3s, 2 BMW Team Labbatts liveries and 2 in BMW Team Listerine colours. The Labatts cars were driven by Kevin Bolland and Alen Kopić and the 2 Listerine cars were driven by Josh Jones and Patrick Babiche.
1992[]
For 1992 VLM would scale back it's operation from 4 cars to 2, choosing to run only the Listerine cars. However, a brand new BMW was in use. Gone was the venerable M3 E30 and replaced with the new 318i E36. Josh Jones and Kevin Bolland were retained to drive for VLM. However, VLM would pull the plug on BTCC racing at the end of the season and would not return until 2001 as a factory Peugeot operation.
2002[]
After a disappointing factory campaign in 2001 led to Peugeot withdrawing as a factory outfit, VLM would return in 2002 as an Independent, with Halfords as the title sponsor. It would initially run 3 Peugeot 406 Coupes for rookies, Japan's Artus Wizkawo, Wales' Toby Johnson and Brit Tom Dee. Dee would withdraw partway through the season, so VLM would effectively become a 2 car team. But the efforts of Wizkawo and Johnson were not in vain, as Wizkawo's 2 outright victories and multiple podiums coupled with Johnson's retirement-free season would give VLM the Independent's Teams title, as well as finishing 3rd outright in the overall teams standings.
2003[]
Buoyed by their championship success from 2002, the 2003 season would see significant change for the VLM squad. Gone were the 406 Coupe's to be replaced with 2 of their own hand-built 307 hatchbacks. Artus Wizkawo would remain with the team, targeting the other title that was out of his grasp, the Independent Drivers title. Johnson would venture to a new team for 2003, leaving the 2nd seat open for MG refugee John Park.
Complete British Touring Car Championship results[]
(Key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Team Name | Car | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | Points | Position |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1991 | M3 E30 | BMW Team Labatts | Kevin Bolland | 6 | 4 | DNS | 11 | 12 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 9 | DNS | DNS | 10 | DNS | DNS | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 217 | 7th | |||||
Alen Kopić | 13 | DNS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BMW Team Listerine | Josh Jones | 2 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 10 | DNS | 4 | DNS | DNS | 248 | 4th | |||||||||||||||||||
Patrick Babiche | 3 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1992 | BMW 318is | BMW Team Listerine | Josh Jones | 10 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 4 | C | RET | 7 | 6 | 80 | 6th | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Kevin Bolland | 8 | 10 | 10 | RET | DNS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2002 | Peugeot 406 Coupe | Team Halfords | Artus Wizkawo | 6 | 11 | 1 | RET | 2 | RET | 7 | 3 | 7 | 9* | 2 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 6* | 3 | 9 | 14 | 12 | 1 | 11 | RET | 2 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 642 | 3rd | |
Tom Dee | RET | RET | 7 | 13 | 7 | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Toby Johnson | 12 | 8 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 10 | 16 | 6 | 13 | 10 | 11 | 9* | 10 | 11 | 6 | 13 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 9 | ||||||
2003 | Peugeot 307 | Team Halfords | John Park | -* | 0th* | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Artus Wizkawo |