In the first of a series of exclusive columns on Crash.net, members of all-new British F3 outfit Ultimate Motorsport take us behind the scenes at a squad embarking upon its maiden campaign in motor racing. On the eve of the new season at Oulton Park this weekend, team owner Barry Walsh tells us how the whole idea came about...
The story of how Ultimate Motorsport came into being is rather an unusual and interesting one. We started talking about it last September, and since then it’s been a whirlwind experience putting it all together.
I was racing in Formula Palmer Audi at
Snetterton, and British F3 was on the same programme as us. I was walking through the paddock with my brothers Jim and Mark, and they said to me ‘you would do as good a job as these lads at running a team’, and that was it. I found out Alan Cornock – the UK representative for Mygale – was there that day, and the two of us got chatting and said we would set up a racing team.
Then one day my wife was picking the boys up from school and one of the other mums came up to her and said ‘I hear your husband is starting up a racing team’. She happened to be the wife of Simon Armstrong, who was the project manager at Ilmor in
Formula 1 when Mercedes joined them. We got together, and one of his colleagues at the time was Jonny Ostrowski, who is now our team manager. He has been fundamental in helping us put the whole package together.
Simon is from an engine background, so Jonny and I have probably worked together the closest. I also know Bertrand Decoster, who owns Mygale, going back nearly 20 years when we used to race against each other in Formula Ford, so we had an existing relationship there. We then started looking around to put our workforce together. I kept on two of the mechanics who had run me in FPA, and was also fortunate to have close contacts with Ange Pasquali, the former Toyota Formula 1 team manger who runs Quadra Sports.
