Sylvain Fabron
Sylvain Fabron (b. 4th January 1977 in Marseille, France) is a French professional racing driver, well known from various French touring car categories as well as taking part in RTCC and its successors since 2016. He is the younger brother of former F3 and F3000 driver Sophie Fabron.
Early career
Like his sister Sophie, much of Sylvain's career has been financially backed by Alphonse, their wealthy uncle. He started his motorsport career in the early 90s, driving Renault Clios and later Méganes in the French national cups organized by Renault Sport. He won the championship once, in 2000, before moving to the FFSA GT Championship. After a few seasons of adapting to the much more powerful cars he eventually became an excellent driver in the series, winning the the title in 2008 and being a runner-up in 2006 and 2009.
Rejects Touring Car Championship/AutoReject Super Touring/International Pro Car
2016
After 2011 Sylvain's results started to worsen at an alarming rate, and by 2015 he had lost his seat in the FFSA despite still having considerable backing from his uncle. But he was not ready to retire yet, and kept himself fit just in case an opportunity arose. That happened in late 2015 when Sophie and Alphonse, now going under the name Ecurie Fabron, decided to enter the world of Reject Motorsport by buying out Nurminen Racing Engineering's RTCC operation. Sylvain persuaded them to sign him as their second driver, however he found out too late that the team had used up most of its budget for the buyout and the wage of Ryan Carlton whose 2016 contract came as a part of the deal. This forced the team to use the cheap Peugeot 405 Mi16, one of the slowest cars approved for use in the series.
Fabron did the best he could in the season opener at Bathurst, but couldn't manage better than 18th. However, this performance was enough for Davies Racing Team to sign him for their second car, replacing the lacklustre Tomasz Gabrysiak starting from the Brands Hatch round. Fabron did not disappoint his new team, as he scored both his first points with a 7th in the first start as well as his first podium with a 2nd in the second start. He would then take his maiden win in the series in Austria after a long duel with Koyomi Setou, scoring the fastest lap in the process as well. In Scotland he finished both races in 4th, although there would've been room for improvement as he was blocked by Ryan Carlton in the first start and by Erik Courbois in the second one. In his home round at Dijon he managed to finish 6th. The same result was repeated in the first start at Oschersleben, while in the second start he again scored the fastest lap en route to a second-place finish. After this his results started to falter, as while he was still able to score points in all remaining races he never finished in the top 6 again, eventually finishing 4th in the final standings.
2017
For the 2017 season RTCC adopted a completely new rules package and was absorbed under the AutoReject International brand, being rechristened as AutoReject Super Touring. Fabron was confirmed to continue as Paul Jenkins' team mate, now driving for Globex Scorpio Racing.
Although initially it would seem that Fabron would remain as the team's number-two driver, after two weekends the roles were reversed as Fabron adapted to the ill-handling Dodge Charger much better and started to consistently rack up points, taking the team's first podium finish of the season with a 2nd in front of his home crowd. After this he regularly finished in the top 10 and culminated his season with a win in Japan, something few could anticipate given the Dodge's lack of competitiveness against other models. Although he had a low-key exit to the season by retiring in both starts at Hong Kong, his overall performance was hailed by many and immensely helped Dodge in the manufacturers' standings.
2018
As the series endured another name change to International Pro Car, Fabron was retained by Scorpio Racing for another season following his excellent performance in 2017, and with Paul Jenkins leaving the team he was promoted to number-one status. He is partnered by Sandra Cessler.
Complete Reject Motorsport Results
Rejects Touring Car Championship
| Season | Team | Car | Class | # | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Points | DC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Ecurie Fabron | Peugeot 405 Mi16 | I | 89 | AUS 18 |
154 | 4th | |||||||||||||
| Twinings Davies Racing Team | BMW 318i | C | 2 | GB1 7 |
GB2 2 |
AUT 1 |
SC1 4 |
SC2 4 |
FRA 6 |
GE1 6 |
GE2 2 |
NED 10 |
BEL 12 |
SMR 7 |
JPN 7 |
GRO 10 |
AutoReject Super Touring
| Season | Team | Car | Class | # | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | Points | DC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Globex Scorpio Racing | Dodge Charger | C | 2 | AU1 16 |
AU2 19 |
BAT 13 |
GB1 6 |
GB2 8 |
FR1 2 |
FR2 8 |
ESP 10 |
CAN 5 |
UE1 11 |
UE2 6 |
USW 5 |
SA1 15 |
SA2 9 |
ITA 6 |
BEL 5 |
CZE 4 |
JPN 1 |
HK1 27 |
HK2 36 |
437 | 4th |