RonDen Racing Engineering

RonDen Racing Engineering is a team set up by drivers Ron Mignolet and Dennis Mignolet, based in Herstappe, Belgium.

Failures and the Lotus rivalry
Dennis has been trying to get Team Lotus Bakeries into a racing series for years, like the IRDU Rejects Cup However, every series the team entered seemed to die a sudden death. Instead - and also because of the rivaly with Group Lotus Professional - a deal was set with company Lotus Developments to drive in the F3RWRS. Lotus Developments didn't deliver the money, but thanks to a fusion with Team Lotus Bakeries and Group Lotus Professional, backing was secured. Group Lotus Professional was the main sponsor of driver Wouter Lamberigts, preferring to set up partnerships with existing teams, after running the works Wartburg outift in REECCS proved very difficult. RonDen Racing Engineering took over this entry bringing them in contact with Octan, who sponsored the Vaillante-Wartburg. The team is now located in a factory in the town of Herstappe which are remnants of a mysterious effort to enter F1RWRS.

F3RWRS
In F3RWRS, the team is currently known as The Team Formerly known as Lotus Developement With Group Lotus Professional and Team Lotus Bakeries featuring Scuderia Alitalia Together with Octan Driver Academy By RonDen Racing Engineering Vs The Cillit Bang Gang Simply Known As Lotus and started the Season with Dorien Lamberigts and the relatively unknown Simon Garfünkel. After dissapointing results of the latter, a deal has been made with Scuderia Alitalia to run one of its young drivers, Ragnar Larsen. The Octan partnership will start in 2015 and will give rise to many young talents. The 2014 was a frustrating debut year, but a convincing victory of Dorien Lamberigts in the second Shangai race showed a lot of promise for 2015. The deal with Alitilia will not be continued in 2015; instead the second driver will be Ugandese Kevin Bainomugisha, who drove a third car in the non-championship Surfers superprix, although he didn't qualify for the race. RDRE will run under the name Octan Young Drivers and will use Vaillante-chassis, coupled to a Geely-badged Volvo engine.

F2RWRS
RonDen Racing Engineering will make its debut in 2015 in the F2RWRS with Wouter Lamberigts being their main driver. For the second seat, Alitalia-backed driver Bastiaan Van Nieuwenhuijzen gets a chance. Thanks to this deal, RDRE will receive free latest-spec Lancia engines, which will be re-badged as Zastava.

Formula One Rejects Big Car Championship
RonDen Racing engineering is also active in FRBCC, driving himself. The second car is lend out to the 50 year old Erik Courbois. It is assumed that Courbois brings a lot of money, considering his age, and that he proved to be very slow.

Rejects Three Wheel extravaganza
RonDen Racing was also planning to enter this series, fielding Dennis himself and Gio Van Dycke. Dennis however gave away his seat because he didn't have time. Unfortunately the car, Reliant Robin, intended to be used by officials proved to be unable to finish races, so the series was cancelled. A partnership was made with Van Dycke's sponsor Cillit Bang before cancellation, leading to the Mignolet brothers and Erik Courbois joining Van Dycke in the REECCS with Van Dycke's team Cillit Bang!Gang! instead.

Donkervoort
RonDen RE often is partnered by Dutch car-manufacturer Donkervoort for chassis development, usually running under a Dutch license in these series. Currently, Donkervoort is entered in the 2012 Lotus Racing League season and 1994 Microprose Alternate Formula One season

Internal team problems
RonDen's transformation into a professional racing outfit has however not gone without struggles, as teammanager Dennis Mignolet proved to be tempered, which led to the threat of a national strike more than once. The combination of Ron Mignolet and Gio Van Dycke in the management looks to be asking for future trouble.