Hydook Racing
Hydook | |
---|---|
Full Name | Hydook Racing Team |
Base | Zagreb, Croatia |
Founder(s) | Anton Bosevic Bratislav Bosevic |
Team Principal(s) | Anton Bosevic |
Technical Director | Nikica Stankic |
Current Drivers | Anton Bosevic Johannes Rueckert |
Other Noted Drivers | |
Debut | 2014 F2RWRS Turkish Grand Prix |
Races | 10 |
Constructors' Championships | 0 |
Drivers' Championships | 0 |
Race Wins | 0 |
Podiums | 1 |
Points | 24 |
Pole Positions | 0 |
Fastest Laps | 0 |
Hydook Racing Team is a motor racing team based in Zagreb, Croatia. The team is specialised in open-wheel series and was participating in 2014 and 2015 F2RWRS seasons.
History
2013
After a dismal season in Hungarian Suzuki Swift Cup in 2009, Anton Bosevic started completing people, equipment and knowledge to form his own racing team, planning to promote young drivers from Balkans and Central Europe. Shortly after announcing his plans to compete in 2014 season of F2RWRS, Mirko Bosevic joined the team and provided backing from many prominent Croatian companies and Croatian tourist board. After succesfully submitting their entry, Anton Bosevic was signed to be the first driver, to reduce the cost of signing two drivers. German young hopeful Johannes Rueckert was given an offer to be their second driver. Bosevic signed him and announced completing the 2014 squad shortly after.
2014
F2RWRS
After promising pre-season test sessions, the first race of the season was a disappointment. Rueckert qualified 9th and Bosevic took the 19th spot, and both didn't finish their debut race, Johannes had to stop after just after seven laps when a wheel on his car worked itself loose, and Anton retired with a puncture, resulting in a Reject of the Race title. In Monaco Hydook finally had their time to shine as both Anton and Johannes finished in points (respectively 7th and 5th), and in France Johannes saved team's honor by finishing 5th once again, although the German was on track for a podium with just a few laps to go. British Grand Prix once again saw Hydook struggling in the back and eventually not finishing the race, and in Austria Anton and Johannes were classified 9th and 15th. German Grand Prix saw the spike in Hydook performance when Rueckert qualified 3rd and maintained his position until Tanner Jason took him out of contention. Shortly after electrical problems kicked in and Johannes had to retire. Anton Bosevic finished 9th and expressed his disappointment shortly: "Jason you f**king idiot!". Dutch Grand Prix was another great qualifying performance from Rueckert squandered by electrical failure. The real pinnacle of Hydook's performance came at the Hungaroring, where Johannes Rueckert finished second, with Anton adding three points to the tally with his 6th position. With plenty of point-scoring finishes from both Rueckert and Bosevic, Hydook finished their first season in a solid 8th position.
Last race of the season - FedEx 100 - allowed the team to evaluate a young Italian, Enrico Molinaro, who took Bosevic's place for this one-off appearance. Both cars failed to finish the race, with Rueckert but Molinaro was a strong runner before his engine expired halfway through the race.
RoLFS
Continuing their ongoing goal of taking the RWRS world by storm, they quickly started building up a young driver development programme, starting with a Rejects of LFS team. Anton Bosevic was signed to be one of the drivers, in order to gain more single-seater experience, with Alex Dorval being Croatian team's protege. Despite having a good package of good machinery and talented drivers, Hydook's foray into RoLFS was unfruitful, with Alexandre Dorval being the only point-scorer with 6 points he scored for a 2nd place at South City.
2015
F2RWRS
Hydook went for a very unconventional line-up of already-proven Johannes Rueckert and Enrico Molinaro, whose experience with F2RWRS was very limited, as could be seen during pre-season tests. However, they also decided to go for a much more proven engine and Aston Martin was chosen in favor of last year's BMW plant. Season got off to a bad start, as Rueckert was banned from the inaugural round for dangerous driving at the 2014 FedEx 100. British racing veteran Phil McCracken was signed to fill in for the German driver. McCracken finished 17th, way out of the points, whereas Molinaro retired with an engine fire, repeating last year's feat of being given ROTR title in the first race of the season. After Rueckert's return things weren't looking up either. Although his performance, with 2nd place in Belgium and 3rd place in Italy, allowed Hydook to escape pre-qualifying, German driver has grown disappointed with the Croatian team and after the Italian Grand Prix Rueckert decided for a mid-season move to Castrol Jones Racing, alongside Terry Hawkin.
That left team having to give a premature F2RWRS step-up for Branko Ristic who couldn't cope with the pressure and with the team's non-existent appearance in the media, all the sponsors left the sinking ship, eventually leading to Hydook's demise.
F3RWRS
As RoLFS campaign left Hydook disappointed, Bosevic brothers purchased Jean-Vincent Albertini's team, and shortly after Hydook announced their F3RWRS plans, with Macedonian karting racer Branko Ristic and ex-Alitalia protege Carsten Jancker as drivers.
Bosevic brothers also decided to build their own F3 chassis to compete in 2015 F3RWRS season. Despite no previous knowledge of constructing race cars and relying solely on their father's aeronautic experience, Hydook F3-1 was presented at the Grobnik raceway in the early days of February 2015.
As it turned out to be, Hydook F3-1 was a problematic car that lacked proper development. It was hastily built in a few weeks leading up to the first round. It couldn't compete with either Dallaras or Suzukis, and Fiat engine - in fact a last year's Lancia plant rebuilt to meet 2015 specs - turned out to be dramatically down on power comparing to the rest of the field. The only high point in the season was Carsten Jancker's top 10 finish at his home round, with Ristic and guest driver Colin Peynirci struggling to do better than the bottom part of the grid. With F2RWRS team's faltering performance and Ristic having to share his driving duties between the two series, Hydook F3 division withdrew immediately after this season.
RoLFS
Hydook was set to improve their performance, going as far as attracting Target sponsorship for the RoLFS team. Signing the 2011 F1RLFS driver Sebastian Groves to mentor the team's young Belgian protege, Alex Dorval, seemed like a good idea. However, Groves made a last-minute decision to fill in for Dean O'Lauchlan in F1RWRS, leaving the seat empty. With Hydook being unable to name a reasonable replacement for Graves, RoLFS Commission had to assign a driver for the team. Benoit Vockler drove Hydook's car at the first round of the season, but was out of his depth and Jules Vergne took over from him at Westhill. With less than favourable results from both rounds, this proved to be Hydook's last foray into RoLFS, as the team decided to pull out after this round.
Indy Championship series
Looking for a place for the other protege, young Croatian hill climb racer Goran Jordanovic, Hydook turned for America, and purchased two Reynard 15i chassis and fitted them with Infiniti engines. Employed to drive another car was a young engineer that had his internship with the team, then 24-year-old Dutchman Andries van Heel.
The team had a few strong points in the season, with Jordanovic finishing 8th in Montreal and Kentucky. Van Heel topped that with a 7th place finish in Michigan. Despite the promising results, Hydook decided to stop any racing activities after 2015.
2017
AR 2.0 North America
The North American racing operation will compete in the overseas AR 2.0 spin-off, with Fotis Iordanou and Josue Loyola signed to drive for 2017.
ARST
Hydook Racing entered the AutoReject Super Touring Championship with two manufacturer-backed Buick Lucernes with two ex-F1RICS drivers, Goran Jordanovic and Andries van Heel, driving. However, due to poor results from van Heel, he was replaced by Wojciech Cieslar from the French round onwards.
Formula Female
Hydook have announced plans to enter the Formula Female World Championship when it starts in 2017.
TRRC
With Toyota Rejects Racing Series announced as the new single-seater series for 2017, Hydook Racing submitted the entry and is set to return to motorsport, with drivers Iulian Pitea and Phil McCracken.
Le Mans Cup
Hydook Racing Team was the last announced LMP2 team to compete in 2017. The Nissan-powered Tiga LM214 will be driven by Dusan Borkovic, Alberto Lampredi and Branko Ristic.
Other projects
Street Racing League
Shortly after The Vanderbilt Cup Francois Albertini announced that after months of negotiations his team - Albertini Siderurgia GP - was sold to Hydook and renamed as Hydook GP. Unfortunately for Hydook, the series was abruptly cancelled, leaving the purchase of Albertini Siderugia GP moot.
Lotus Racing League
Hydook Racing expanded their operations with another series, entering the Lotus Racing League as Hydook Racing, running a car for Goran Jordanovic, Croatian driver from Rijeka, in three rounds - France, Netherlands and Germany. Series have never come to fruition and eventually Jordanovic turned for F1ICS.
TMRRC
Anton Bosevic decided to retire from track racing and was set to debut on rally stages with a new-born rally division of Hydook. However, with their expansion in open-wheel and touring car racing, their rally programme was put on hold.
Results
Complete F2RWRS results
Year | Chassis | Engine | # | Driver | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | CC | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | Lola F2-14 | BMW P87 | TUR | MON | FRA | GBR | AUT | GER | NED | BEL | HUN | CZE | ITA | POR | ESP | CAN | USA | 8th | 35 | ||
14 | Anton Bosevic | Ret | 7 | Ret | Ret | 9 | 9 | Ret | Ret | 6 | 7 | Ret | 8 | 12 | Ret | ||||||
Enrico Molinaro | Ret | ||||||||||||||||||||
15 | Johannes Rueckert | Ret | 5 | 5 | Ret | 15 | Ret | Ret | 8 | 2 | 17† | 6 | Ret | 5 | 6 | Ret | |||||
2015 | Lola F2-15 | Aston Martin AM-88 | TAS | RSA | TUR | MON | FRA | GBR | GER | NED | BEL | POR | ITA | SIN | JPN | USA | 100 | 11th | 20 | ||
16 | Johannes Rueckert | EX | 6 | Ret | 8 | Ret | 13 | DNPQ | 2 | DNPQ | 3 | ||||||||||
Phil McCracken | 17 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Branko Ristic | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | |||||||||||||||||
Anton Bosevic | DNPQ | ||||||||||||||||||||
17 | Enrico Molinaro | Ret | 12 | 10 | 10 | 7 | Ret | DNPQ | 14 | DNPQ | 13 | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ |
Complete Rejects of LFS results
Season | Driver | BL | SO | FE | KY | WE | AS | Points | CC | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | Anton Bosevic | 15 | 18 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 18 | 10 | 7 | 16 | 15 | 6* | 9th* |
Alexandre Dorval | 16 | 9 | 2 | 12 | 16 | 12 | 12 | 20 | 17 | 9 | 14 | 7 |