Williams Motorsport News Thread

[Crisis Nine]

Williams Motorsport confirms its inaugral season in the TORA GT championship.

After taking control of the now defunct Vector Motorsports team at the end of last season Sir Frank Williams has overseen some massive changes to the structure and management of the team.

With the focus on inexperienced but hungry drivers this season lead driver Crisis Nine will remain with the team and Williams Motorsport are also delighted to announce that the second seat this season will go to canadian Shantzez.

Lead driver Crisis Nine had this to say:

"I am delighted to have Shantzez on board for the new season. We worked together briefly last season at RBS Racing and I was very impressed with how quickly he picked up the pace and I always knew that in the right car and with the right support he would be a driver to watch out for so I am very pleased to have him on board for the new season."

Williams are currently completing some intensive testing to ensure that not only are the right cars picked but that once a vehicle and manufacturer are secured the setup of the car is perfect to be ready for the season start at Mugello in May.

[Crisis Nine]

Testing Update

The Williams Motorsport team have allowed each driver a free reign when selecting a manufacturer this year. It is hoped that both drivers will participate in the same vehicle however this remains to be seen.

It is understood that lead driver Crisis Nine has selected his vehicle and has been happy with his choice for some time now. He is continuing to test to get the best from his new challenger.

Livery has now been finalised and will see a range of sponsors on the car carried over from the Williams Motorsport team in Formula One.

No. 2 driver Shantzez is still testing a handful of cars however he is currently lapping in a carbon copy of the car that Crisis Nine hopes to be using to see how it feels.

Both drivers have confirmed however that they cannot wait for the new season to begin to see how they match up against their fellow competitors.

And finally to advertise that the third driver seat at Williams still remains open for any up and coming, hungry drivers looking to get a foot in the door of the TORA GT Championship.

[Crisis Nine]

Breaking news!

Williams Motorsport are very pleased to announce the signing of Culchi as third seat this season. We are very proud to have Culchi aboard and are looking forward to the new season with both him and Shantzez on the team along with Crisis Nine.

So far all three drivers are rumoured to be using the same car so a manufacturer team could be in the offing. There is still some testing to take place but the team are hopeful of securing sanction of all three vehicles on release day in April.

[ART Carrera]

congratz culchi and shantzez! Crisis you got a good team this season. Good luck buddy

[Crisis Nine]

Hey nice one man! All the best to you too! I know you will do well along with IOR this season. Should be an awesome season and I think some of the Lobby C racers from last season will surprise a few come May.

Just remember to sort your NAT out so we can battle on the track!

[ART Carrera]

thx buddy. Hopefully we can smash each other, I mean drive cleanly on the track. lol

[Crisis Nine]

World exclusive! First pictures of new FW002GT

Ahead of tomorrow's first official test session for the upcoming forth season of the TORA GTC Chris Allcock was snapped putting his Williams Motorsport FW002GT through its paces.

As is customary Williams will be running their usual all dark blue livery throughout testing until next weekend's GTC media day where the full race livery will be unveiled.



Coming through the legendary Corkscrew turn.



Shot from the pit wall.



Climbing the hill.



And returning to the pits to make some adjustments before going out for another run.

Allcock is said to be "very happy" with the car and has high hopes this season after his debut last year. Williams hope to have a very successful first season in the TGC and hope that "Williams - Powered by Lotus" will be rolling off the tongue for seasons to come.

[Shantzez]

Hey Crisis i have decided to take part in the test tonight. I gifted you my car, can you apply the test scheme to it? and send it back. Sorry this is so last minute but i just got back from training at work.

[Crisis Nine]

Yeah cool man I'll do it ASAP.

[ATR DAN]

Nice paint job mate!
Hope you guys do really well this season!

[Crisis Nine]

Cheers dude. The final paint is much nicer IMO. And thanks lol. Not as much as I do! But same to you too.

[Crisis Nine]

Williams Motorsport announce final sponsors

With Williams confirming that ti will be running a three car team for the upcoming season, main sponsor Royal Bank of Scotland Group have decided to utilise all three vehicles to advertise some of its global companies and gain some much needed exposure after the recent financial crisis.

As such the three cars will each carry a different sponsor of the RBSG. The number 25 car of Crisis Nine will carry the RBS name to represent the UK arm of the company, whilst the number 89 car of Shantzez will carry the Charter One name to represent its American arm, and finally the number 69 car of Culchi will carry the ABN AMRO name which represents its European assets.

All thre companies currently carry the familiar RBSG arrows logo so only the colour and names on each car will change. All will be revealed very soon.

[Crisis Nine]

Mid-season team report

At the start of the season team manager Chris Allcock had two clear goals for the team, to get at least one driver into the top ten individual rankings, and to get the team into the top five in the teams championship. Prior to yesterday's race at the Suzuka circuit this was the case with Crisis Nine sitting in 10th place and with Williams Mototrsport in 5th place in the teams standings. After a very poor showing at Suzuka things have begun to unravel somewhat.

Both lead driver Crisis Nine and his team-mate Culchi had terrible qulaifying sessions with remaining driver Shantzez unable to make the race due to outside commitments. Crisis, whilst usually running around 2.02.500 came in at 2.04 and after a spin coming through the Esses Culchi came out with a time of 2.33. In the sprint race Crisis found himself on pole in C lobby with a host of much more powerful vehicles to keep behind him for the 8 laps. As expected the Maserati and Viper pulled past into the first corner and then as he went to straighten up for the scond turn in he took a big knock from behind which sent him into a spin and off the track. This had a direct impact on Slider S15 and Chucky 1982 as the car span round and back onto the track which took all three drivers out.

A safety car was called which bought the pack back up to speed and the ensuing restart saw Crisis make up a place and get into a good psoition to battle through the field. Some lucky mistakes by other competitors coupled with the Lotus' ability through the corners meant that by lap 7 he was in 4th and bearing down rapdily on iredbeard and Silencer S6 to take 2nd place overall. A mistake by Silencer saw iredbeard squeeze past on lap 8 and Crisis jumped through the gap leaving his Lotus side by side with the TVR or iredbeard for a straight drag race to the finish line. The two cars finished within inches of each other with Crisis coming home in a respectable third place after battling back from second to last on the first corner.

Unfortunately all this battling meant that he couldn't put in any decent laps as he was having to slow down through every single corner to avoid traffic infront of him which was impeding his laptimes. This resulted in his running over a second and a half off his usual laptimes and put him into C lobby for the feature race.

Crisis said: "It was very disappointing to lose so much time through racing in the sprint and even if I'd have had an off lap I still could have easily got into A lobby but that's the way things go with these new rules. I love the way this chapionship makes you work on two fronts at the same time and although its not gone in my favour tonight I still wouldn't change it as I still had a thoroughly enjoyable meeting."

In the feature race both Crisis Nine and Culchi were to be in C lobby once again however a terminal connection problem prohibited him from racing meaning that he had to cut his race night short and leave Crisis Nine as the only driver representing Williams on the night. Starting in 3rd place due to the retirement of Culchi he went on to bring home the Lotus in a very repectable 4th place infront of a Honda and a BMW which he was very please with. Some good battles were had with Jenson09 and after a mistake by iredbeard he also began to catch the TVR in the final stages only to see the Vibe Entertainments driver pull out two amazing laps in the last two of the race to take the gap from 350 metres to over 900.

This means that Williams have now dropped to 7th in the teams standings and Crisis Nine has dropped to 11th by two points in the driver standings. The team will be looking to consolidate on the early success by aiming to get drivers into A lobby once more going forward and hopefully regain that top 10 spot for Crisis Nine and the top 5 spot for Williams Motorsport.

[i redbeard]

good write-up Crisis... but maybe i'm a touch biased! did manage a 2:02.1 though

I'll try & get some pics of that sprint up soon too.

[XTI Jon Snow]

you didnt mention your tactics to force Redbeard off the road

[i redbeard]

i think it was more of an accident, he just happened to be talking to me while i was coming up the inside of you through Dunlop. worked out ok in the end but i wish i'd managed to keep it together. TVR's & grass aren't meant to meet at 100+mph!

[XTI Jon Snow]

hey no problem at all. the race was in a bit of a lull and that livened it up!

[Crisis Nine]

I can honestly say last nights lobby was the most enjoyable one of my time with TORA.

[Shantzez]

Another season is finished, and i am somewhat pleased with the outcome of the season. I know i could been more competitive but work forced me to miss a few races and some renovations at the house obviously had taken precedence.

I was hoping for a better finale race, all through out testing i was running in the high 1'50"s and mid 55.3"s, and through out tonights race i was never able to replicate those times. That being said it was a really fun race for me, battling with Aero for the first stint was awesome, and then exiting the pits with troff beside me, we were neck and neck. troff found some pace and started driving away from me, but Aero kept me honest the whole time. Even with the lack luster results, the racing tonight is what keeps me coming back to TORA.

My hat is off for Crisis Nine and Culchi for keeping the car competitive, they did their best to keep on developing the car. They both proved to very valueable team mates through out the season, well done both of you.

Thanks to all the other competitors and a huge thank you to the guys who take on the responsibility of keeping TORA running smoothly all while keeping it fun.

some randoms of closing laps of today's race:

[culchi]

More of the same for next season Crisis?

[Crisis Nine]

Will have to wait and see my friend! Not sure what the plan is for next season yet so just going to play it by ear until we come to that bridge.

[Crisis Nine]

Breaking News

With the new TORA season rapidly approaching Williams Motorsport is undergoing some major changes.

After turning down several teams, including the hotly tipped Austins Motorsport, team manager Crisis Nine has decided to sign for an as yet un-named team which is soon to be announced. As a result the team has been handed back to season 3 originator Aid123X for the forthcoming season.

With Crisis racing elsewhere and fellow driver Culchi already confirmed to be in talks with a rival team driver, spaces are available however talks are ongiong with current driver Shantzez and a higly competitive veteran and the team is looking to start the season with a bang.

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