James Davies

''This page is about the F1RWRS driver James Davies. For the driver who competed in F1RGP2C and LifeGP series, please visit James Davies (F1RGP2C driver)'' James Davies (born 1983 in Monmouth, Wales) is a British racing driver known for his career in the F1RWRS and NASCAR. His cousin Jordan races in F3RWRS. After an unsuccessful attempt to establish a career in Formula 1, he moved to America and began his own NASCAR team, with which he attained considerable success, winning 4 Cup titles. However, with the establishment of the F1RWRS, and an offer to drive for Club Bangelia Racing, he moved back to Europe in an attempt to establish the single-seater career he never truly had.

In the car, he is known to be very spirited if he senses the chance of a decent result, though he becomes very passive if the car is not up to it. This has an effect on his demeanor out of the car - he becomes more highly strung and frustrated if he can't get any results.

Pre-NASCAR career
Born in the same town, with, coincidentally, the same name as F1RGP2C star James Davies, this James initially had no interest in motorsport, until hearing of his namesake's brush with death in early 1996. Although initially put off by the obvious danger, the fact that someone sharing his name and hometown intrigued the then 13-year-old, and he tried a few kart races. After meeting with some success, he continued with it, and by 1998 had already graduated from karting to Formula 3. Although he found the step up initially very challenging, he persevered and eventually became the British F3 champion in 2000, prompting a step up to Formula 3000.

Here James really made his mark, winning 5 races and capturing the championship in his first year in style. He impressed so much he was offered a seat at Prost for the remainder of the 2001 season, which he gladly took. However, his new car was a horribly unbalanced and off-the-pace mess, and was outshone by Heinz-Harald Frentzen in every single session. Nonetheless, he was to be retained for 2002 - until the team collapsed, and he had to find a seat elsewhere. Unfortunately, he could not find a seat - those with seats to give weren't interested, and those that were couldn't afford to take him on. At a crossroads in his career, James was unsure where to go. A test for Audi's Le Mans effort went nowhere, as did one for Team Penske, though, on a whim, he accepted an offer from Robert Yates Racing, and found that his style translated well to NASCAR, prompting a move there.

NASCAR Cup Career
James was quickly signed up to a developmental contract for Robert Yates Racing, and participated in a couple of NASCAR Cup races in early 2002. However, he quickly had a falling out with team management, and returned to the UK temporarily. Midway through 2002, he returned with some lucrative sponsorship deals, a crack team of engineers and mechanics, and a car purchased from a backmarker, with the intent of running the whole 2003 Cup schedule as an owner-driver, with some select events in 2002 to gain experience. Knowing the car at his disposal was not going to stand up to much punishment, James decided to focus entirely on qualifying efforts to try and get himself noticed. This worked very well, with him qualifying on pole twice; at Watkins Glen and Martinsville. On race days he would fall backwards in a hurry, but the qualifying results were enough to get him sufficient backing from his sponsors to be able to run the whole schedule in 2003.

When 2003 came around, he did not disappoint, winning his first race at the Daytona 500 from pole position. Despite starting 38th at the next race, he won that as well, and despite some early difficulties in finishing races, by the end of the year he had won 4 more races, and narrowly lost the title to Jeff Gordon. Enthused by his success, James won 8 races in 2004 and took the title with ease, before winning 11 races and securing his second successive title in 2005. By this point, Davies Racing Team had expanded to a 3-car operation, running cars for Davies himself, Roush Racing refugee Jeff Burton, and fellow Brit Paul Jenkins. Mechanical difficulties and bad luck meant that despite winning 7 races in 2006, he lost out on the championship to his teammate Jeff Burton. This bad luck extended into early 2007, and would prove cruicial when he came up against Jeff Gordon again for the title that year, with James losing narrowly. He more than made up for it in 2008, though, taking an incredible 18 wins and the championship by an incredible 700 points. Although he was unable to repeat this dominance in 2009, 10 wins was still enough for him to take his fourth Cup championship.

Club Bangelia Racing (2010-11)
By the end of 2009, James Davies was indisputably the best driver in NASCAR, and rumours suggested that he may be looking back to Europe for a challenge. While F1 teams were completely uninterested in him, several teams from the F1RWRS were. Eventually, James signed for American Dan BH's Club Bangelia Racing team, forming a team with high American recognisability. Although BH picked up several podiums, including a win, and challenged for the championship, Davies struggled, having not driven a single seater for a little over 9 years. Nonetheless, he put in some impressive drives, almost winning the Chinese Grand Prix before a tyre failure sent him back to 4th, and a podium at the season-ending Australian Grand Prix, leaving him 8th in the standings.

For 2011, BH promptly disappeared, leaving Davies to run the team in his absence. Although he was able to use his management experience from NASCAR to some success, a lack of development meant Davies again struggled to shine. Again he picked up a lone podium - this one at the Kent Grand Prix, though a lack of other results left him 18th in the championship. A pole position at the New South Wales Grand Prix and shot at his first race victory went unfulfilled as he made a poor getaway, fell backwards through the field, and after some late difficulties, finished out of the points.

Anglo-Manx Racing (2012)
After the overall dismal 2011 season, Club Bangelia's remaining backers pulled out, leaving the team with no money to continue in 2012, and James out of a seat. Although his two seasons at Club Bangelia were far from stellar, he was offered a seat at Anglo-Manx Racing, which he gladly took. In his first race for his new team, he narrowly missed out on his first win, as staying under the radar and pitting late for tyres put him in range of Darren Older Jr, but ran out of time. He was again fighting for victory at the the Saxon Grand Prix, but a pit stop mix-up left him a disappointing 8th. 2 DNPQs due to embarrassing errors left him unable to add to his points score, and after looking like AMR's chief title protagonist, let that mantle slip to his teammate, Pippa Mann

From this, however, Davies rebounded at the Dutch Grand Prix, winning his qualifying heat, and making the right pit call to give him a comfortable lead over Rhys Davies, allowing the Welshman to cruise home and take his first, and so far only, F1RWRS victory. The celebrations were short-lived, however, as Davies racked up another failure to pre-qualify at the next race. At the Kent Grand Prix, though, Davies put in another solid drive, finishing 4th and setting the fastest lap of the race. From here, though, Davies' championship challenge would stall out - chronic errors meant he only scored 3 more points, winding up 10th in the championship, and had to watch while his teammate sealed a championship that probably, if he hadn't made so many mistakes, could've been his.

Trueba Racing Team (2013)
With the F1RWRS' reorganisation for 2013, Anglo-Manx Racing and Manx-Anglo-Nippon Racing Team consolidated into Foxdale Auto Racing Team for 2013. Like 2002, Davies found himself in the unenviable position of being unable to find a seat for the coming season, and wound up returning to NASCAR temporarily. He had won 4 races and was leading the championship when he received a call from Trueba Racing Team to replace Tristan Jung after Jung was wanted for money laundering. Although Davies still ran NASCAR races when he was able, he was something of a revalation for the team, being much quicker than Jung, and even qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. Meanwhile, he finished a respectable 14th in the NASCAR Cup Series despite missing several races, with 9 wins.

Mecha Grand Prix (2014)
Towards the end of 2013, James received an offer to drive for the Mecha Grand Prix team in 2014. Hoping to establish himself as the team leader, he took on the challenge of driving for the tiny Indonesian team, but things did not go as planned. The car was far less competitive than initially expected, only getting out of pre-qualifying once. A lack of improvement and scandals surrounding the team made Davies reconsider his future at the team, with relations between himself and team principal Mahmud Effendi degrading rapidly and publicly. Davies left the team in disgust at the end of the year, but with a lack of immediate options meant his future was in doubt.

Sunshine Daihatsu (2015-)
Attempts to return to Foxdale led nowhere, and it looked like Davies would have to accept a testing role at ArrowTech to remain in F1RWRS; until he sent an application to drive for Sunshine Daihatsu on a whim. The whim turned out good, and Davies was back with a relatively competitive team. However, things were once again not as good as first expected. The car, expected to be a contender for points and maybe podiums, was only a solid midfielder at best. This resulted quickly in a deterioration of relations - this time between Davies' new teammate, Shinobu Katayama, and team principal Joao Lagos, which resulted in Katayama being suspended and eventually released from her contract, being replaced by Daniel Martins.

Davies himself was unhappy with the lack of place, even announcing he was going to leave after the team was relegated to pre-qualifying after Monaco. Although the team cleared the hurdle of pre-qualifying in Mexico, they were not so lucky for the US Grand Prix. At the Canadian Grand Prix, Sunshine showed up with vastly improved pace, and Davies took full advantage of this, being fastest in pre-qualifying by over half a second, qualifying a season-best 7th, and after significant attrition, managed to finish 4th - his first points score in nearly 32 months.

The following races in Great Britain and Germany held little for Davies, but he backed up his strong performance in Canada with back-to-back points finishes in Belgium and Austria. From then on, however, Davies closed out his season rather anonymously, failing to score another point whilst teammate Daniel Martins scored 7, including a podium in China. Nonetheless, Sunshine were hoping to hold on to the Welshman, which eventually came true after several talks with other teams fell through for Davies.

Complete F1RWRS Results
An * denotes current season.