Highcroft Racing...what happened?

Danathar · 3 Jan 2014, 20:14 (Ref:3350124)

Did they just run out of money?

Seems strange that they were so dominant for a while then vaporized after the Delta wing thing.

Would sure love to see them in the new series.

deggis · 3 Jan 2014, 20:29 (Ref:3350140)

Website hasn't been updated for a year, and also twitter seems dead:

https://twitter.com/highcroftracing

Fogelhund · 3 Jan 2014, 20:38 (Ref:3350144)

No sponsor/benefactor, no race.

Didn't want to run on their own dime, can you blame them?

Danathar · 3 Jan 2014, 20:40 (Ref:3350146)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

No sponsor/benefactor, no race.

Didn't want to run on their own dime, can you blame them?

It's strange that they could not find a sponsor. They were popular, with popular drivers and won.

David Land · 4 Jan 2014, 05:28 (Ref:3350238)

I think their 2011 season is one of the greatest 'what ifs' in motorsport history. Their HPD was right on pace with the Audis and Peugeots, they were planning on heading to Le Mans. Who knows how that might have turned out.

Fogelhund · 4 Jan 2014, 07:09 (Ref:3350247)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danathar

It's strange that they could not find a sponsor. They were popular, with popular drivers and won.

Not really all that strange. There aren't many legitimate sponsors in Sportscar Racing, there just isn't very good ROI.

Fogelhund · 4 Jan 2014, 07:19 (Ref:3350249)

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Land

I think their 2011 season is one of the greatest 'what ifs' in motorsport history. Their HPD was right on pace with the Audis and Peugeots, they were planning on heading to Le Mans. Who knows how that might have turned out.

No, that car wasn't anywhere near close enough to challenge at LM. Outside of a rather fishy time in Qualifying at Sebring, it wasn't close at all. The car was done on the cheap, and didn't have the engine to compete at the bigger tracks... Oh, and it was 2009 that the car last ran.

truebeliever · 4 Jan 2014, 09:55 (Ref:3350269)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

No sponsor/benefactor, no race.

Didn't want to run on their own dime, can you blame them?

Don't see Duncan having run out of money! But clearly do see him not wanting to spend his own, ok for playing with his toys, but to run seriously ...........no way Jose.

Coach Ep · 4 Jan 2014, 10:21 (Ref:3350278)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

No, that car wasn't anywhere near close enough to challenge at LM. Outside of a rather fishy time in Qualifying at Sebring, it wasn't close at all. The car was done on the cheap, and didn't have the engine to compete at the bigger tracks... Oh, and it was 2009 that the car last ran.

I think David was referring to (Sebring) 2011 where their brand-new-out-of-the-box HPD ARX-01e came home in a close second at the ALMS season´s opening 12H - which was, let me remind you, still a combined ALMS/ILMC event with factories from both Audi and Peugeot present. The car was in with a very good shot at victory throughout the entire race, only to be beaten in the end by a small margin by Oreca´s semi-private Peugeot.

The car had the potential to upset the big boys if not for lacking major backing. It evolved into the HPD ARX-03 which was campaigned by Muscle Milk, Strakka and JRM in ALMS and WEC (P1) in 2012/2013.

gustavobamba · 4 Jan 2014, 10:46 (Ref:3350287)

Are they waiting some Brand (HONDA

) to come in and needing a good team?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Simmi · 4 Jan 2014, 11:02 (Ref:3350293)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

Oh, and it was 2009 that the car last ran.

Oh,

Obviously they were involved in the DeltaWing project. They clearly didn't get a lot of return from that. Not sure if that was because Nissan steamrolled through the project and lapped up all PR points.

Fogelhund · 4 Jan 2014, 13:03 (Ref:3350312)

Ok, my mistake... I thought he was referring to the Acura P1 car, not the P2 car that got legislated into P1... heck that thing was even further off the pace. Three seconds in qualifying at Sebring..... Nice result when everybody else had problems though.

Catingaround · 4 Jan 2014, 18:03 (Ref:3350376)

I would like to think they could return to sports car racing, maybe if the new series is successful. Highcroft HQ is still there and Duncan still runs vintage stuff. The building is very large and is mostly being used for car storage at the moment but Highcroft still has their garage and office space up front at the main entrance.

I was at Highcroft for a reception event before a prescreening of Rush this summer. I spoke briefly to Duncan but mostly about 2010 Le Mans and didn't get into any future plans. The building was designed by Duncan and is very impressive, so are the shiny things parked inside:

**FIRE** · 4 Jan 2014, 21:21 (Ref:3350411)

Nice cars!

RWill2073 · 6 Jan 2014, 02:08 (Ref:3350765)

That hpd in 2011 wasn't far off the pace. It even passed a Peugeot on track right after turn ten. It happened right in front of me. Then stayed in front for a few laps until (I think) a caution came. They then put Marino in the car and it seemed to lose some pace during his stint. But thejy were pretty close all race.

Nick Woodbury · 6 Jan 2014, 04:06 (Ref:3350780)

Quote:

Originally Posted by RWill2073

That hpd in 2011 wasn't far off the pace. It even passed a Peugeot on track right after turn ten. It happened right in front of me. Then stayed in front for a few laps until (I think) a caution came. They then put Marino in the car and it seemed to lose some pace during his stint. But thejy were pretty close all race.

And on top of that, they finished second overall behind the ORECA Peugeot! Not Bad.

Catingaround · 6 Jan 2014, 04:17 (Ref:3350782)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick Woodbury

And on top of that, they finished second overall behind the ORECA Peugeot! Not Bad.

They took delivery of the car, what, a week before the race or something?

carbon_titanium · 6 Jan 2014, 09:43 (Ref:3350838)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catingaround

They took delivery of the car, what, a week before the race or something?

Monday or Tuesday of the same Sebring week-end. Highcroft Racing achieved a great second place, but need to say that was a very lucky race for them. Number 1 audi R15++ suffered of 2 punctures in a row and spent some time to be repaired later, number 2 audi R15++ and number 7 peugeot 908 collided and remained n the reparation box too. At 3 hours to the end, the number 8 peugeot 908 was leading, but Lamy spun with cold tyres and was forced to pit again letting the Oreca 908HDi and the Highcroft arx to take the lead.

Maelochs · 7 Jan 2014, 12:09 (Ref:3351200)

Regardless of whether their 2011 last-minute Sebring entry could have beaten everyone else in the field for the rest of the season had they had funding ... they did win the ALMS title a couple times, and had always shown themselves to be tremendously well prepared and professional.

I think the same thing happened there which happened with P2 champ Adrian Fernandez a couple years earlier: the team principal went looking for serious money to find a winning effort, not just "Get us to the grid" money, and all the serious money sources said "No."

Duncan Dayton wasn't about to spend his own money to fund a team---he already gets plenty of pleasure spending his own money to drive historics, why pay big bucks for someone else to drive hi8s cars?

The DWing program was a chance to keep a couple employees on the payroll in exchange for management and set-up services--but when the cash there went away, so did Highcroft Racing.

Not sure if Dayton is even looking for funding any more---pretty sure a very large corporation would have to write a very large check to get him back in the game. He has no desire to do a cheap, cut-rate job after having been at the top.

Pandamasque · 7 Jan 2014, 18:10 (Ref:3351312)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

Not really all that strange. There aren't many legitimate sponsors in Sportscar Racing, there just isn't very good ROI.

That said, there aren't (weren't) many better teams to invest in. Meanwhile many rather cr**py projects just wouldn't die and keep finding sponsorship. Maybe Duncan Dayton is hard to deal with, or simply isn't very good at picking/managing sponsors and partners like Pescarolo seems to be.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gustavobamba

Are they waiting some Brand (HONDA

) to come in and needing a good team?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I've heard there's no team left.

Danathar · 7 Jan 2014, 18:51 (Ref:3351326)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pandamasque

That said, there aren't (weren't) many better teams to invest in. Meanwhile many rather cr**py projects just wouldn't die and keep finding sponsorship. Maybe Duncan Dayton is hard to deal with, or simply isn't very good at picking/managing sponsors and partners like Pescarolo seems to be.

I've heard there's no team left.

I doubt there would be, people have to eat and they need paychecks.

It's just that Highcroft leaving was so.....quiet. It would of been one thing if Duncan said he was closing up shop and had a party to shut things down and said "it was nice, thanks and goodby" but he didn't which leads me to believe he thought something would keep the team going, but it didn't.

The whole affair felt more like going out of business then Duncan deciding to get out of top tier sports car racing.

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