Restov Racing
Restov Racing is an auto racing team founded in late 1979, when Anglo-Russian motor enthusiast Edward Restov bought the remains of the bankrupt Jenkins Industries. The company entered the 1980 rFactor Alternate Formula One season, the 2015 Rejects Touring Car Championship season, the 2001 Prost GP season, the 2000 Alternate DTM season and the 2004 BTC Development Series Season, amongst other, less well-known series'. In their history, the team have also managed teams in various series', most notably Alex Morales Motorsport in the 1989 CART Indycar Series season, Edenbridge Racing in the BTCC from 2004 onwards and Arrows in GPM2 Chairman game from 1997 onwards, while owner Edward Restov was appointed team principal of Shadow in Pi314159's virtual F1.
Restov Racing in Formula One
In late 1979, Jenkins Industries announced their intention to withdraw from the rFactor Formula One series. Seeing his chance, Edward Restov organised a takeover of the struggling team, and completely restructured it, replacing the ageing Williams chassis' with 1979 spec Renault engines and chassis'. Restov also managed to secure lucrative backing from Soviet oil giant Gazprom, ensuring the team would have healthy finances. He also managed to pull off a coup by signing the highly rated Elio de Angelis alongside Beppe Gabbianni. However, after struggling with the new regime, de Angelis was fired after just two races, being replaced by Gianfranco Brancatelli.
Also, in 2001, Restov entered the start-up Prost GP one-make series. The team raced with some success, becoming podium regulars in the early part of the season before dropping back.
Restov Racing in Touring Cars
In 2000, Restov announced a works deal with Jaguar to run the S-Type in the resurrected DTM series. The team struggled for consistency in the topsy-turvy 2000 season, but still finished 5th in the teams championship, with drivers Erik Comas and Alain Menu finishing 14th and 17th respectively. 2001 marked an upturn in the teams fortunes, with Comas becoming a podium regular in the under-developed Jaguar, and the team was able to take the fight admirably to the far superior Mercedes' and BMW's. Alas, in 2002, with new regulations coming into play that could have worked out in Restov's favour, Jaguar announced their withdrawl from the DTM, and with Restov unable to find another works deal, he too pulled out of the series, preferring to withdraw from near the top than to carry on and slip down the order.
Restov Junior takes charge
In 2007, Edward Restov suffered a minor stroke in his home in Volvograd. Having spent a short time in hospital for precautionary reasons, Restov decided to scale back his teams operations, and for 8 years, the name Restov Racing was only seen fleetingly in domestic touring car championships.
However, in 2015, the racing bug caught up with Restov again, and he decided to enter the revamped RTCC series. Despite his early season optimism, Restov, at the age of 65, couldn't hack it anymore, and walked away from motorsport for good, handing over control to his son, Edward Restov Jr.
Despite many fears about how the headstrong youngster would fare, he proved to be a strong manager, with solid business acumen. His first move was to extend Gazprom's association with the concern until the end of 2030, with exclusive sponsorship guaranteed until the end of 2025. He then launched a Young Driver Program, with the backing of Gazprom, to try and find the spearhead for the teams entry into the RWRS series.
Sudden closure
In December 2016, shares in Gazprom dropped in value dramatically following several high profile scandals, most notably the continued protests and boycotts surrounding their continued drilling in the Arctic Circle. Following this, the company scaled back hugely on it's sports sponsorship programme, affecting the UEFA Champions League and Restov Racing, amongst others. Restov went into 2017 with a hugely reduced budget, but a larger scale of commitments than ever. The team stuck by Gazprom, due to their long-standing partnership, and as a result of the huge PR backlash that this caused, several of the team's smaller sponsors withdrew their support for the team. Despite a promising start to 2017 on the track, it was becoming clear that the off track issues were adversely affecting the team. Suppliers starting confirming that they hadn't been paid, the team's several drivers all confirmed that they too had been paid late, and Restov Junior allegedly relapsed back into alcoholism. The team struggled on, but by May 2017 it was clear that the writing was on the wall for the team, and on 31st May 2017, Restov Racing Ltd was wound up, and all assets were auctioned off to try and clear the team's debts.