Fusion Motorsports

Fusion Motorsports is a racing team based in Bath, currently racing in F2RWRS. They became the high-performance arm of the Astro Racing Group after its formation in late 2015. They previously owned entries in F3RWRS and RoLFS, although these were handed to sister team Nebula Grand Prix since Nebula become the junior team.

History
Fusion Motorsports was conceived in the Caffé Nero in Bath, where Jake Legge pondered wistfully out of the window. He'd long dreamed of running a racing team of his own, and when vacancies appeared in the Rejects of LFS championship he remortgaged his house and began to plan out the team's structure. He purchased some lock-up garages in Bath, and took delivery of the team's Scaven S15 chassis for the RoLFS. Due to the small resources, only one chassis was purchased. Legge then began to attend some motorsport events within the UK, and found the young Finn Jari Lappalainen. He was racing in the British Formula Ford series, and impressed Legge with his tenacity and flair. They swapped phone numbers, but Lappalainen was unsure of longevity the new start up operation and hesitated to call.

Whilst on holiday in Barcelona, Legge watched a Spanish Formula Renault 2.0 race at the Circuit de Catalunya. The race that day was won by the young Spaniard Diego Álvarez Torrente, and Legge immediately made him an offer to drive in the 2015 Rejects of LFS season which he gladly accepted. Armed with a promising young driver, sponsorship deals were signed with Mad-Croc and GAC Logistics. Zytek engines were also brought to the team, which were rebadged as Toyotas. The car was presented neatly; predominantly white with grey crocodile skin sidepods. Lappalainen saw the press release by the team in Autosport, and was rather impressed. After calling Legge back, he was invited to look around the team's new facilities; the Bath City Council giving Fusion a grant of £1,000,000 to create a factory within the city on the proviso that they link up with the University of Bath's Engineering Department. Lappalainen later joined up as a test driver. The plan was for him and Álvarez Torrente to do half of the RoLFS season each, but the Finn was loaned out to Donkervoort in the inaugural season of the F1RDS.

F3RWRS Entry
As the F3RWRS expanded its grid for 2015, Fusion applied for an entry with drivers Leandro Moreira and Marko Jantscher, the latter having driven for Legge in another series. They were accepted into the sport with other newcomers Kamaha Motorsports, Foster's Good Call Racing and West Cliff Racing. Despite there being financial difficulties at the birth of the team, PepsiCo funded the RWRS effort considerably with its Gatorade brand. GAC also continued its support into a different series, as Stilo, Autobacs and ExxonMobil joined the team's new venture.

To power the team, Legge considered the Lancia engine as Parma Corse principal Alessandro Linari wished to allow some more customers. However, the greater reliability of the Audi engine appealed more to the Fusion boss, and thus he got into contact with Aeroracing owner Phoenix McAllister who controls the Audi supply. He was happy to not only allow the supply of engines, but to support the operation with its application.

Their solitary season in F3RWRS was a success; Jantscher in the hunt for the championship for most of the season and taking 5th in the Teams' Championship.

Handover to Nebula
As Fusion lodged applications into F1RWRS and F2RWRS, they handed their IFRC and F3RWRS entries to sister team Nebula Grand Prix, fronted by flamboyant Frenchman Jacques Couteau. This was done in order to let Fusion develop their facilities ready for higher formulae.

F2RWRS
Fusion found themselves on the 2016 F2RWRS grid after Michael Alexander, the owner of Kingfisher Racing, became ill and had to scale back his team's involvement in junior series. The contract for Dutchman Martin van der Maeyede was kept in place, although Mitchell Macklin was drafted into the second seat in place of Latvian Matthias Valsattis, since the team were after an experienced driver to lead the operation. Macklin brought the team their first win at Austria in a race that saw Astro Racing Stars Diego Álvarez Torrente and Marko Jantscher flank the Australian on the podium.

Related Pages

 * Astro Racing Group
 * Nebula Grand Prix
 * Pulsar Racing Team