Difference between revisions of "Nathan Nurmester"

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Nathan Nurmester (born 24th June, 1972 in London, England) is a British racing driver. He has taken part in both of the seasons of the Rejects Touring Car Championship, having previously driven in various smaller series. He is the son of Thomas Nurmester and a half-brother of Nick Nurmester.

Early career

Nathan Nurmester is the son of now-retired FIA official and former Formula One driver Thomas Nurmester. Initially, Thomas was very eager to have his son racing, and supported him on his career. However, Nathan's progress was initially very slow, and Thomas started to have doubts about his son's chances. For the next few years Nathan drove in pretty much whatever series he was eligible for, until he was old enough to start driving in local touring car series. But just when things started to look bright for him, Thomas had another son who would take more and more of his time previously devoted to Nathan. This would eventually lead to Nathan cutting his ties with Thomas at the age of 20; they have not talked ever since. This sidetracked Nathan's career for a few years.

1998: Rejects Touring Car Championship

After a few years of trying to find a regular drive in various series, Nurmester was called up by family friend Niko Nurminen to drive for his team in the 1998 Rejects Touring Car Championship season. He was partnered by Russian Nikolai Nurmovitsch.

For the purpose of the series, Nathan gathered sponsorship money through Woolworths UK. However, the money wasn't much help, as the car was far off the pace of the frontrunners of Team Ultimate. Despite this, Nathan and Nikolai showed good pace in the first race at Silverstone and finished 13th and 14th, making for a double-points finish. However, in the second round, Nathan collided with Nikolai, and the two never managed to regain the lost ground.

For the second round at Donington, the car was much improved, and Nathan qualified in tenth position, driving a calm and clean race to finish in an excellent fourth position, though this turned out to be somewhat of a fluke, since he was 21st in the second round. Still, he had gathered a total of 17 points, enough for a provisional 12th position in the championship, and 6th in the Independent's Cup.

However, the series collapsed after only four races as Herrmann Mann the series' owner was found guilty of various drug charges. Nathan was therefore left without a competitive drive.

1999-2001: Out of the spotlight

Without a permanent drive, Nathan went on to experiment with single-seaters, but soon found stock cars to be his niche and he competed in those on amateur level while also working as a mechanic in his day job.

However, his talent was still showing, and in 2001, when the Prost Formula 1 team decided to build a whole fleet of their AP03s to create a low-cost high-performance open-wheel series, teams went looking for budding talent.

2001: Prost GP Series

At the age of 28, Nathan wasn't really advantaged by his age, yet FSK Racing came to him to drive the first car alongside former Life GP Series steward Dietrich Anger. The cars being equal, Nathan could show all his talent behind the wheel. Despite only a handful of previous open-wheel starts, he started the series' first race from ninth position, then avoided the massive attrition to finish in a brilliant second position, albeit over 40 seconds behind Jimmy Rosenforth.

In the second race in Mexico, Nathan was again in the points, but his engine failed with just two laps to go. Two more retirements followed in Montreal and Mugello, before another points finish in 7th at Jerez. Another retirement followed in Austria, while in Scotland he lost a bit of ground after excellently qualifying in second, eventually finishing 6th.

2001-2015: Back to a normal life

After the demise of the Prost Grand Prix Series, Nathan was again left without a full-time drive, although he eagerly continued to race part-time in local stock car and touring car championships with moderate success.

Things changed once more 14 years later, in 2015, when RTCC founder Herrmann Mann was released from prison. He promptly decided to revive his championship, inviting former competitors back as well as new faces.

2015: Rejects Touring Car Championship (part 2)

Family friend Niko Nurminen was still very much in the racing business and managing both his team and his drivers, including Nathan's half-brother Nick Nurmester. Keen to re-enter touring cars, Niko accepted Mann's offer and rolled the old Volvos out of the garage for the now-42-year-old Nathan and his old team mate 48-year-old Nurmovitsch.

With the series gaining widespread attention, Volvo decided to get involved more than in 1998 and awarded Nurminen works status, although the result was pretty much the same as it was in 1998, with the team stuck in the lower midfield.

At the first race at Oran Park, Nathan couldn't let his driving do the talking, as he was involved in the lap 2 accident involving Sebastian Prost and Pieter Kickert. In race two though, he clearly lacked pace and finished in an anonymous 29th position.

Complete RTCC Results

Complete Prost GP Results

* Season in progress