Difference between revisions of "Ecurie Fabron"

Revision as of 06:06, 24 February 2021

Ecurie Fabron
Full Name	Motul Ecurie Fabron
Base	United Kingdom France
Founder(s)	Alphonse Fabron
Team Principal(s)	Sophie Fabron
Technical Director	Édouard Clé
Current Drivers	Ryan Carlton James Douglas
Other Noted Drivers	Sylvain Fabron
Debut	2016 Rejects Touring Car Championship season
Races	16
Constructors' Championships	0
Drivers' Championships	0
Race Wins	0
Podiums	0
Points	22
Pole Positions	0
Fastest Laps	0

Ecurie Fabron is a French racing team, led by Sophie Fabron. The team took part in the 2016 Rejects Touring Car Championship season after buying out the entry and garage of Nurminen Racing Engineering. Because of this the team's current base is in the UK, despite having strong roots in France.

History

The team was originally founded as a small karting operation by Alphonse Fabron, a wealthy businessman with good connections to the French government, under the name AFMS. Once his niece Sophie started showing interest in racing, Alphonse provided all the backing she needed to progress on her career, with the ultimate goal set at becoming a Formula One driver. The goal was reached in 1991, when she was signed by Oreca.

Starting from 1990 Alphonse also supported his nephew (and Sophie's younger brother) Sylvain's career, although after learning from the past experience he never even considered supporting an expensive single-seater campaign, opting for Sylvain to participate in Renault Clio and Mégane Cups instead. In 2011 Sophie retired from driving and soon became the team principal of AFMS, with the now-aging Alphonse opting to handle the team's finances. The team was then renamed to Fabron Motorsports to reflect the new management, and they focused on Sylvain's career in FFSA GT where he had become a force to be reckoned with in the mid-to-late 00s.

RTCC

In late 2015 the team set up plans to join the world of RWRS motorsport, which had grown to a multi-series franchise since its inception in 2010. As all of the main categories were already full and had long waiting lists for an entry, the team decided to instead buy out Nurminen Racing Engineering's RTCC division after the Finnish team had struggled to find enough funds for the next season due to losing their factory Volvo contract because of poor results. However the price was more expensive as the Fabrons expected, and with the additional requirement of honoring Ryan Carlton's contract for the 2016 season taking a considerable amount of funds as well, Alphonse decided to save money by using one of the cheapest (and slowest) RTCC-approved cars, the Peugeot 405 Mi16. With Carlton's salary taking up all of their driver budget they had Sylvain drive the second car for free as he was without a drive at the time.

In the first race of the season at Bathurst, Carlton retired early on with suspension problems but Sylvain finished 18th, a position generally considered to be way outside the 405's capabilities. With this performance he had impressed the management of Davies Racing Team and moved there to replace the underperforming and uncooperative Tomasz Gabrysiak. This left the #89 car without a driver for the next round at Brands Hatch, where Carlton finished 27th in both of the starts. Just before the Austrian round it was announced that James Douglas had joined the team and would drive their second car for the rest of the season. Douglas would eventually finish far ahead of his more experienced team mate in 19th, as Carlton was a distant 30th. At Knockhill both cars sensationally made it to the points in the first start with Douglas 13th and Carlton 15th, but the second race was back to ground level for them as Carlton only managed an 18th place finish while Douglas retired with suspension problems. After a string of retirements for both cars, Douglas would take the only other points finish for the team in the whole season, finishing 12th while Carlton was 18th. The remaining rounds of the season would see only one more top-20 result for the team as Douglas finished 16th in Spa-Francorchamps.

ARST

For 2017, RTCC morphed into AutoReject Super Touring. Lacking the funds to enter full-time, the team entered a Peugeot 406 with Pierre Deschênes at the wheel for the French and Italian rounds of the championship. Disappointingly, he crashed out from their home race but managed to score points in Italy with a 12th place finish.

Ecurie Fabron did not return for the 2018 season and vanished from the international motorsport scene.

Complete Reject Motorsport Results

Rejects Touring Car Championship

Season	Car	Class	#	Drivers															Points	TC
2016	Peugeot 405	I			1	2		3	4		5	6		7	8	9	10	11	8	N/A
					BAT	BRA		SPI	SCO		DIJ	OSC		ZAN	SPA	ADR	SUZ	GAR
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
			68	Ryan Carlton	Ret	27	27	30	15	18	Ret	Ret	Ret	18	26	Ret	27	20
			89	Sylvain Fabron	18
				James Douglas				19	13	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	12	16	21	Ret	Ret

AutoReject Super Touring

Season	Car	Class	#	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Points	TC
2017	Peugeot 406	P
					AUS	BAT	GBR	FRA	SPA	CAN	USE	USW	RSA	ITA	BEL	CZE	JPN	HKG	14	N/A
			68	Pierre Deschênes				27						12

*Season in progress