Fusion Lotto Racing

Fusion Motorsports
Full Name	Energy T.I. Fusion Motorsports
Base	Bath, England
Founder(s)	Jake Legge
Team Principal(s)	Jake Legge, Jacques Couteau
Technical Director	Adrian Oldey
Current Drivers	#37: Miko Fäkkinen #38: Geoff Donnelly
Other Noted Drivers	none
Debut	2017 F1RWRS Australian Grand Prix
Races	1 (2 entries)
Constructors' Championships	0
Drivers' Championships	0
Race Wins	0
Podiums	0
Points	0
Pole Positions	0
Fastest Laps	0

Fusion Motorsports is a racing team based in Bath, currently racing in F1RWRS. They became the high-performance arm of the Astro Racing Group after the group's formation in late 2015. Previously, the team had entries in F3RWRS and RoLFS, but these was handed over to Nebula Grand Prix after their birth as a junior team. Fusion also raced in F2RWRS in 2016, but after joining F1RWRS the entry was passed over to Nebula again.

History

Fusion Motorsports was conceived in the Caffé Nero in Bath, where Jake Legge pondered wistfully out of the window. He'd long dreamed of running a racing team of his own, and when vacancies appeared in the Rejects of LFS championship he remortgaged his house and began to plan out the team's structure. He purchased some lock-up garages in Bath, and took delivery of the team's Scaven S15 chassis for the RoLFS. Due to the small resources, only one chassis was purchased. Legge then began to attend some motorsport events within the UK, and found the young Finn Jari Lappalainen. He was racing in the British Formula Ford series, and impressed Legge with his tenacity and flair. They swapped phone numbers, but Lappalainen was unsure of longevity the new start up operation and hesitated to call.

Whilst on holiday in Barcelona, Legge watched a Spanish Formula Renault 2.0 race at the Circuit de Catalunya. The race that day was won by the young Spaniard Diego Álvarez Torrente, and Legge immediately made him an offer to drive in the 2015 Rejects of LFS season which he gladly accepted. Armed with a promising young driver, sponsorship deals were signed with Mad-Croc and GAC Logistics. Zytek engines were also brought to the team, which were rebadged as Toyotas. The car was presented neatly; predominantly white with grey crocodile skin sidepods. Lappalainen saw the press release by the team in Autosport, and was rather impressed. After calling Legge back, he was invited to look around the team's new facilities; the Bath City Council giving Fusion a grant of £1,000,000 to create a factory within the city on the proviso that they link up with the University of Bath's Engineering Department. Lappalainen later joined up as a test driver. The plan was for him and Álvarez Torrente to do half of the RoLFS season each, but the Finn was loaned out to Donkervoort in the inaugural season of the F1RDS.

F3RWRS Entry

As the F3RWRS expanded its grid for 2015, Fusion applied for an entry with drivers Leandro Moreira and Marko Jantscher, the latter having driven for Legge in another series. They were accepted into the sport with other newcomers Kamaha Motorsports, Foster's Good Call Racing and West Cliff Racing. Despite there being financial difficulties at the birth of the team, PepsiCo funded the RWRS effort considerably with its Gatorade brand. GAC also continued its support into a different series, as Stilo, Autobacs and ExxonMobil joined the team's new venture.

To power the team, Legge considered the Lancia engine as Parma Corse principal Alessandro Linari wished to allow some more customers. However, the greater reliability of the Audi engine appealed more to the Fusion boss, and thus he got into contact with Aeroracing owner Phoenix McAllister who controls the Audi supply. He was happy to not only allow the supply of engines, but to support the operation with its application.

Their solitary season in F3RWRS was a success; Jantscher in the hunt for the championship for most of the season and taking 5th in the Teams' Championship.

Handover to Nebula

As Fusion lodged applications into F1RWRS and F2RWRS, they handed their IFRC and F3RWRS entries to sister team Nebula Grand Prix, fronted by flamboyant Frenchman Jacques Couteau. This was done in order to let Fusion develop their facilities ready for higher formulae.

F2RWRS

Fusion found themselves on the 2016 F2RWRS grid after Michael Alexander, the owner of Kingfisher Racing, became ill and had to scale back his team's involvement in junior series. The contract for Dutchman Martin van der Maeyede was kept in place, although Mitchell Macklin was drafted into the second seat in place of Latvian Matthias Valsattis, since the team were after an experienced driver to lead the operation. Macklin brought the team their first win at Austria in a race that saw Astro Racing Stars Diego Álvarez Torrente and Marko Jantscher flank the Australian on the podium.

That was as good as it got for the British team, as the pairing of Macklin and van der Maeyede underperformed often throughout the second half of the season, and although they made a few forays out of pre-qualifying their race performances were middling. At the end of the season, both drivers were fired by the team. However, as Fusion received a late entry into F1RWRS at the end of 2016, again the team handed their F2RWRS entry to Nebula, who replaced the driver lineup with young Brits Quentin Reatherson and Thomas Yorke.

F1RWRS

After CR Motorsport and Dofasco Racing left the paddock of the RWRS' premier series, two new slots were opened up in time for the 2017 F1RWRS season. Nurminen Racing Engineering were the first team to join the field; the Finnish team had pedigree in the lower ranks and impressed the F1RWRS commission enough to give them a space. The second slot was expected to be filled by an entry with backing from an unknown Singaporean consortium, but after the investors defaulted on payments the slot was handed to Fusion. For their first season, the team hired pay-drivers Miko Fäkkinen and Geoff Donnelly for their first assault of F1RWRS. The team developed a very experimental chassis, and to ensure they could develop the chassis further in their first year signed a free engine supply with Great Wall. The Chinese automotive company had procured the engine designs from the former Prospec team, and began to manufacture them in exchange for free marketing.

Fusion failed to prequalify for the first event at Adelaide, although Fäkkinen did manage to set a quicker time than a number of more established runners. At Bathurst - the next round - Fusion took advantage of the wet conditions to send both cars into qualifying proper for the first time; a number of teams gambled on the rain subsiding and didn't leave the pit garages until late. Although Donnelly failed to qualify, Eric Swerts struggled with his Gillet and let Fäkkinen into the race, to the surprise of everyone. The Finn drove a steady race to finish 12th and last on track, although Alexey Buyvolov's retirement meant the Russian was classified last.

Results

F1RWRS Results

Year	Chassis	Engine	#	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	CC	Pts
2017	Fusion CL1/17	Great Wall GWRS-17			AUS	NSW	GBR	ITA	AUT	CAN	SUS	NUS	GER	NDS	BEL	MON	MAR	ARG	JPN	CHN	13th*	0*
			37	Miko Fäkkinen	DNPQ	12
			38	Geoff Donnelly	DNPQ	DNQ

F2RWRS Results

Year	Chassis	Engine	#	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15		CC	Pts
2016	Zytek	Holden LSF2-16	32	Martin van der Maeyede	AUS 3	PAC DNPQ	GBR DNPQ	ITA Ret	AUT Ret	TUR 11	USA 9	GER 11	NDS Ret	MON 6	BEL DNPQ	MEX Ret	CHN 9	JPN DNPQ	100 12	100 DNPQ	11th	25
			33	Mitchell Macklin	AUS 9	PAC DNPQ	GBR DNPQ	ITA Ret	AUT 1	TUR 9	USA Ret	GER Ret	NDS 3	MON Ret	BEL	MEX Ret	CHN 10	JPN DNPQ	100 Ret	100 DNPQ
				Benoit Voeckler	AUS	PAC	GBR	ITA	AUT	TUR	USA	GER	NDS	MON	BEL DNPQ	MEX	CHN	JPN	100	100

Rejects of LFS

Year	Chassis	Engine	#	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	DC	Pts
2015	Scaven S15	Toyota-Zytek 3.0 V8	23	Diego Álvarez Torrente	BLA HEA 5	BLA FEA 3	WES HEA 1	WES FEA 3	FER HEA 4	FER FEA Ret	SOU HEA 4	SOU FEA Ret	AST HEA 4	AST FEA 14	KYO HEA 13	KYO FEA DNQ	KYO 200 20	10th*	16.5*

F3RWRS Results

Year	Chassis	Engine	#	Drivers	1		2		3	4		5		6		7	8		9		10	Points	CC
2015	Fusion FM-301	Audi F3-1			AUS		TUR		MON	USA		GBR		GER		BEL	ITA		JPN		SUR	73	5th
			33	Marko Jantscher	4	21	4	9	3	2	3	2	1	21	1	5	37	18	Ret	34	Ret
			34	Leandro Moreira	Ret	Ret	14	7	10	37	15	Ret	18
				Stefan Kuntz										29	8	26	17	23
				Thiago Mazzacane															12	10	21

Related Pages

• Astro Racing Group
• Nebula Grand Prix
• Pulsar Racing Team