Best In The World

The Best In The World is a brand that was first founded by ARWS driver Kay Lon. Starting out as a minor merchandising project, it now is a connected entity consisting of a number of companies and multiple investments in all types of racing-relevant enterprises along with an own driver program.

History

The concept of "Best In The World" was developed by a German marketing company in June 2013 and was based on a public statement by Kay Lon after failing to qualify for the 2013 F1RWRS French Grand Prix, where he claimed to be the best driver in the world. A series of merchandising products were developed and sold through the fanshop of Castrol Jones Racing. The campaign was a full success, using the new-found public interest in Lon to its full extent. By using further opportunities for new merchandising, Best In The World became the merchandising producer with the second-highest turnover in the RWS1, only slightly behind the established Holden Racing Team. Throughout the years, Holden's market share would sink. With new deals signed by Best In The World, it would soon take the first spots, by far outperforming all teams selling their merchandising independently.

Meanwhile, Lon's financial advisor Cengiz Atali, known for being financial director of JLD Motorsport for a short period of time, invested the earnings of the brand into a number of companies. While very risky, these moves payed off, according to rumours almost quadrupling the invested money. Kay Lon decided to use the money to create a sports brand that is supposed to rival the Jordan Brand of Nike. Before the end of 2013, the brand invested in the F1 movie What Is Délétraz Doing? which became a financial success due to attaining an ironic fandom by having Samuel Jackson play Délétraz. They also took over the ailing Street Racing League series from Walther Williams, though the investment did not last long, as the financial difficulties of the series were too heavy.

Meanwhile, the brand purchased the Akrotiri Bay International Circuit together with Volkswagen Group and some Asian investors and founded the Akrotiri Bay Track Management KG. In early 2014 the brand name was used by Kay Lon for his entry to the short-lived Formula One Rejects Big Car Championship and the German announced his interest to start up a F2RWRS team under the brand name, looking to have the team managed by Colin Kolles. Lon withdrew the attempted entry after purchasing Falik Arrows (see Best In The World Motorsport below).

In the first half of 2015, BITW managed to strike a major merchandising deal with Melrose Racing Team and another team. The brand also released a controversial documentary about Lon's early F1RWRS career. The documentary, called Kay Lon: The Kahama Years, had to be withdrawn after a court granted Barii Mori an injuction. Legal proceedings were undertaken by Lon's solicitors to allow for the sale of the film and a settlement was soon reached, after the Streisand Effect already spread the video on most filesharing boards. The second part of the documentary, sold under the label Kay Lon: Death of a Star, Birth of a Hypernova failed to meet the standards by audiences and failed, albeit only by a slim margin, to make proper returns. Best In The World's further exploits in movie publishing proved more successful, as The Little Portugese, a depiction of Laurindo Coelho's triumph at the 2018 Race of Rejects, and Cleveland Brown Bear, a story about a bear that plays fullback for a struggling football team, both were financially successful.

The brand itself has been criticized for being Lon's "publicocrap vehicle". In addition, the brand is also alleged to secretly fund Tropico Grand Prix, making it their German council.

Best In The World Support Group

Kay Lon had been involved in offering support to less experienced drivers since his international breakthrough in early 2012. Officially formed in 2014, Best In The World brand now offers financial support to drivers from around the globe who are considered marketable, especially to audiences and regions not normally interested in motorsport.

Current Drivers

Driver	Years
Kay Lon	2014-
Koyomi Setou	2016-
Asim Adhikari	2017-
Calvin Brooks	2017-
Marlin Hortin	2017-
Zaituni Dileita	2017-
Khungirat Molotov Khünbish	2018-
Salva Al-Bashir	2018-
Simon Mestach	2018-
Laurindo Coelho	2018-
Sandra Yoo	2018-
Pierre St. Laurent	2022-
Kim-Lennard Abdramane	2024-
Salomon Florence	2024-

Former drivers

Driver	Years
Jef Verbeeck	2015-2016
Chacko Palaniappan	2016-2017
Li Qi	2016-2017
Renaldo Jiménez	2014-2018
Jordan Davies	2016-2018
Bob Lomas	2017-2019
Tomo Kazama	2014-2020
Haílton Fidélis	2017-2020
Rêdûr Jaffer	2018-2020
Anita Horford	2015-2021
Alberto Cara	2014-2022
Du Lon	2014-2022
Kika van den Heiligenberg	2018-2022
Lauren Kendrick	2018-2023

The program has so far won a number of championships and awards:

Year	Championship/Trophy	Driver
2014	Rejects World Series 3 Drivers Championship	Tomo Kazama
2015	Rejects World Series 2 Drivers Championship	Tomo Kazama
2016	Lupo Cup Woman Of The Year	Koyomi Setou
2017	GT-R Independent World Championship	Asim Adhikari
2017	GT-R Independent World Championship	Marlin Hortin
2017	RAC Tourist Trophy	Asim Adhikari
2017	RAC Tourist Trophy	Marlin Hortin
2018	Nobushige Fukuda Memorial Trophy	Kay Lon

Best in the World Motorsport

Before the 2015 Formula 3 Rejects World Race Series season, Prince Falik put Falik Arrows up for sale, citing financial reasons for the impromptu sale. Kay Lon was one of the first people to put in an offer for the team, and it was immediately accepted, with Lon taking full control of the team and renaming it Best in the World Motorsport. The drivers were not part of the package and Josh Carlisle was promoted to the Falik Arrows F2RWRS team, with Akinjide Ezerioha's contract expiring. The team decided that they would not renew his contract. Run in conjunction with Colin Kolles, the team set about hiring new drivers, with the departure of one American came the arrival of another; Anita Horford, daughter of ex-Formula One driver Roberto Horford. Already a member of the BITW development program, Anita was quickly signed to the team by Lon.

The original sale of the Falik Arrows Junior were merely for Prince Falik's debts and contracts. Prior to the sale to Best In The World, Zytek were comissioned to design and build a chassis and an engine to Falik Arrows Juniors team. Best In The World chose Mugen-Honda engines instead, and it led to Zytek demanding to use the Zytek chassis and engine for two years or face legal action. A compromise was reached between the conflicting sides which would see the team use the Zytek chassis together with the newly purchased Mugen-Honda engine.

Amidst the driver merry-go round, BITW focused on securing the services of Judd McAllister, who was released at the team currently known as Aeroracing Engineering. With the possibility McAllister remaining loyal to his father despite having his seat taken from him, Lon's team set about securing the services of reigning F3 Open Series champion Takuma Taki as alternative for 2015, but McAllister agreed to become a part of the German team. Takuma Taki eventually found a drive at Red Bull Team Jagermeister for the upcoming season. The team's first RWS3 season proved to be a rough one with points hard to come by. Impressive driving by young Judd McAllister were the only source of success for the new team. Kay Lon quickly became discontent with Horford's perfomances and decided to replace her after her home races had failed to bring any improvement in her results, sending her off to join BITW driver Chacko Palaniappan in the American Le Mans Series. The team snatched up the services of Jef Verbeeck, making this the first time he raced since his terrible accident in late 2011.

After selling the RWS3 entry, facilities and chassis/engine at the start of 2016, Kay Lon re-signed a significant amount of personnel for an entry as independent team in the GT-R World Championship. A new facility in Moodiesburn in North Lanarkshire was opened under the name of BITW UK. A season as lower midfielders followed, with various drivers sharing driving duty at the hand of the Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT used by the team. Running more stable lineups with Anita Horford/Bob Lomas and Asim Adhikari/Marlin Hortin proved very successful in 2017, where the team would take four class victories and would even go on to take an overall win at the famous Silverstone Circuit, winning the legendary RAC Tourist Trophy. The season concluded with the Adhikari/Hortin car securing the Independent Championship. With only one win the following year, the title defense would prove unsuccessful. 2019 would prove a minor improvement again, two wins by Koyomi Setou, however, proved still not enough to get back in contention for the Independent Championship.

A new branch, mainly consisting of former Sauber personnel, was established in the Swiss city of Uster, fittingly called BITW Uster. This branch was established to run a RTCC entry, using a BMW 318i, and did so quite successfully in the 2016 season, racking up a very healthy number of points and podium finishes at the hands of Jef Verbeeck and Koyomi Setou. Despite this success, the RTCC entry was abandoned, as Cengiz Atali used Kay Lon's connections to arrange a contract with the Volkswagen AG, earning BITW the right to produce works LMP1 cars for the ACO Le Mans Cup under the Porsche brand, thereby returning the brand to endurance racing after the end of the WEC. The ACO Le Mans Cup failed to materialise, leaving the factory to instead modify the Škoda Superb road model to return to touring cars, in the championship now known as International Procar Championship. For the second time, a series involving BITW Uster broke down. In 2019, the FIA Prototype Challenge was announced and thanks to a major sponsorship deal with beer brand Warsteiner, the Porsche prototype developed for the Le Mans Cup was updated to the new regulations and entered under the Bentley label. This move proved to be successful, as the duo of Calvin Brooks and Asim Adhikari combined to take six podiums. Adhikari was in contention for the championship at the final race, but lost out to Ron Mignolet. With Adhikari returning for a second season, joined by Sandra Yoo and Jenson Button, optimism was high for the [season].

A third branch was opened under the name of BITW Ohio in 2017 to run a two-car entry from the 2017 Rejectrucks Super Series season onwards. Anton Bosevic and Cormac Frisch were signed for the 2017 season, however, the Rejectrucks Super Series had to cancel operations due to financial difficulties. Most BITW Ohio staff were redirected towards the 2018 Group B Rallycross Championship season, where the team entered a customer Audi purchased from Aeroracing Engineering. After the successful conclusion of that season, BITW Ohio's operation shifted towards running an entry in the ARCA Menards Series.

Complete RWS3 Results

Year	Chassis	Engine	#	Drivers	1		2		3	4		5		6		7	8		9		10	Points	CC
2015	Zytek F3C15B	Mugen-Honda MF315			AUS		TUR		MON	USA		GBR		GER		BEL	ITA		JPN		SUR	24	11
			40	Judd McAllister	14	Ret	18	8	12	10	34	5	10	5	17	6	38	33*	14	15	19
			41	Template:USA Anita Horford	31	Ret	23	24	30	42	Ret	26	33
				Template:BEL Jef Verbeeck										13	31*		9	27	31	40*	5
				Tomo Kazama												Ret