Nurminen Racing Engineering

NRE
Full Name	Nurminen Racing Engineering
Base	Finland
Founder(s)	Niko Nurminen
Team Principal(s)	Niko Nurminen
Technical Director	Wilford Rench
Current Drivers	Tõnu Pykälistö Anu Võsu Stefan Kuntz Tommi Hämäläinen Nathan Nurmester Nikolai Nurmovitsch
Other Noted Drivers	Nick Nurmester
Debut	1998 Rejects Touring Car Championship season
Races	13
Constructors' Championships	0
Drivers' Championships	0
Race Wins	1
Podiums	2
Points	93
Pole Positions	0
Fastest Laps	0

Nurminen Racing Engineering is a team founded by former Formula One driver Niko Nurminen to compete in various motorsport series. The name was first used in the 1995 Duel in the Desert, when Nurminen entered the non-championship event as a guest driver under that entry name. The actual racing team, however, was founded as Nurminen Engineering for the 1998 Rejects Touring Car Championship season, but it was later changed to the current name to avoid confusion with actual engineering companies. Nurminen has also used the team name for running his cousin Nick Nurmester in Nordic F3 and Formula Two. Until 2010 the team's main sponsor was the mobile phone giant Nokia, but following a downturn in profits they decided to end their support for Nurminen. In 2015, Nurminen was one of the first teams to lodge their entry in the inaugural F1 Rejects Development Series season.

RTCC

The first season as a proper team saw Nurminen take part in the inaugural Rejects Touring Car Championship season, running two Volvos for Nathan Nurmester and Nikolai Nurmovitsch. The first race saw both cars just barely scraping it into the points, while in the second both cars collided with each other and were among the last finishers. At Donington, both cars were again on points in race 1, before a bad qualifying only allowed Nurmovitsch to get in the points in race 2. The series then collapsed due to the organizer being arrested, but it was revived again in 2015 and Nurminen re-entered with the same car and drivers as before. Title sponsor Nokia was replaced by an array of other Finnish companies, including the elevator company KONE which already sponsored the team in 1998.

Nathan Nurmester's #91 Volvo showcased in early 1998

F1RDS

After securing new sponsorship from a large number of Finnish companies, Neste Oil standing as their title sponsor, Nurminen were the the third team to lodge their entry into the F1 Rejects Development Series, a new championship aimed at bringing new junior talent into the world of RWRS and RoLFS. For their first season they've entered the Finnish Tõnu Pykälistö from Scuderia Alitalia's Giovanile Squadra and Estonian Anu Võsu, a talent they found from the Finnish Formula Ford series. The team originally intended to use Mecachrome engines before Opel-Spiess units became available. The pre-season Winter Cup showed some of the team's potential as Võsu was on points in the first two races while Pykälistö managed a 3rd at the last race. In the first race of the regular season in Australia, Pykälistö finished 8th while Võsu became the race's only retirement following a transmission failure. In San Marino, the team scored big by taking a 1-2 at the first race from 2nd and 4th on the grid, but failed to keep up the pace in the second race and only Pykälistö managed a 6th, while Võsu struggled and finished in 19th, the same spot where she started. However, this decent haul of points meant that both the team and Pykälistö were second in their respective championships after the first three races.

REECS

Nurminen has also entered Nurmovitsch in the 2012 Rejectful Eastern European Car Computerised Series season, this time in a Lada 2101 sponsored by Fazer Bakery and Koskenkorva Vodka. So far, the results have been mixed, with occasional points finishes every now and then being countered by sometimes being among the last finishers.

F3RWRS

With SAGS refugee Stefan Kuntz bringing in some cash from Vodafone, Nurminen could afford to enter a RWRS-sanctioned event the first time as they took part in the 2015 F3RWRS Monaco SuperPrix as a non-championship guest entry. Kuntz was partnered by Tommi Hämäläinen, a product of Fusion Motorsports' young driver programme.

Complete RTCC Results

Season	Car	Class	#	Driver	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		12		13		14		15		16		17		Points	TC
1998	Volvo	I			SIL		DON		COM		ROC		ZAN		IMO		HOC		NOR		OUL		SNE		THR		CRO		MAL		MON		BRA		BIR		ORA		29	=8th
					1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2
			91	Nathan Nurmester	13	35	4	22
			92	Nikolai Nurmovitsch	14	32	12	10
2015	Volvo	M			AUS		BIR		IMO		USA		MON		BRA		SIL		FRA		ITA		AUT		NED		JAP												0*	N/A*
					1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1	2
			91	Nathan Nurmester	Ret	29
			92	Nikolai Nurmovitsch	Ret	27

Complete F1RDS Results

Year	Engine	#	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	TC	Pts
2015	Opel-Spiess 2.0L L4 DOHC			AUS	SM1	SM2	MON	FR1	FR2	CZ1	CZ2	GB1	GB2	GER	BEL	ITA	NE1	NE2	2nd*	64*
		7	Tõnu Pykälistö	8	1	6	10	4	16
		8	Anu Võsu	Ret	2	19	19	18	3

Complete F3RWRS Results

Year	Chassis	Engine	#	Drivers	1		2		3		4	5		6		7	8		9		10	Points	CC
2015	Dallara F3R15	Zytek ZT288			AUS		USA		TUR		MON	GBR		GER		SPA	ITA		JPN		SUR	0†	NC†
			191	Stefan Kuntz							Ret
			192	Tommi Hämäläinen							21

* Season in progress
† Ineligible for championship