Theodore TR2
The Theodore TR2 was a Formula 1 racing car that the British racing team Theodore Racing launched in the 1981 season . The car only appeared once in a race that did not have world championship status.
background
The Indonesian-born businessman Theodore "Teddy" Yip had been involved in British motorsport as a sponsor since the early 1970s. Since 1977 Yip maintained the racing team Theodore Racing, which participated unsuccessfully in 1977 and 1978 in the Formula 1 World Championship. Initially, Theodore Racing was a customer team that used purchased cars from other manufacturers. In 1978 the team launched a self-designed car, the Theodore TR1 , but almost always failed to pass the qualification hurdle. In 1979, the racing team was only involved in the Aurora series , a racing series also known as the "British Formula 1 Championship". At the same time, Yip supported the Ensign Racing Formula 1 team . In April 1980, Yip finally took over the troubled Shadow Racing Cars team . After two unsuccessful attempts to qualify, Yip stopped racing at Shadow in the summer of 1980. He took over parts of the infrastructure of the Shadow team and integrated them into his Theodore racing team, which he registered for the 1981 Formula 1 season. Yip had the intention to contest the world championship races of the 1981 season with a newly designed car; Appropriate development work for the car called Theodore TY01 had been running since the fall of 1980 under the direction of Tony Southgate .
The 1981 Formula 1 season began with the South African Grand Prix , which was held on February 7, 1981. For political reasons, the race did not have a World Championship status. Regardless of this, numerous Formula 1 teams used this event to prepare for the upcoming World Championship races. Theodore Racing was one of them. Since Southgate's TY01 was not yet completed at the time, the team reported a vehicle called Theodore TR2.
technology
The Theodore TR2 was a transitional model, the existence of which was due to the delayed completion of the Southgate car. In the nomenclature, it followed on from the - unsuccessful - TR1 from 1978 and suggested that it was an independent model. However, this is not the case. The Theodore TR2 was actually the first of the two Shadow DN12s that had been manufactured in 1980 and which had now been given a new name. Technically, the TR2 did not differ from the DN12. As with the DN12, an eight-cylinder naturally aspirated engine from Cosworth served as the drive .
Racing use
Theodore Racing registered the British racing driver Geoff Lees for the South African Grand Prix . Lees had already driven the DN12 three times for the Shadow team the year before. He qualified with a gap of 4.3 seconds on the pole sitter Nelson Piquet ( Brabham ) for the 17th and penultimate starting position. In the race, Lees (as the first driver) retired after 11 laps due to an accident.
The Theodore TR2 only appeared for this race. From the following Grand Prix of the USA West , the first run of the year with world championship status, it was replaced by the Theodore TY01.
literature
- Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing. Cars, tracks and pilots. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 .
- David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 .
- David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars. Crowood Press, Marlborough 2001, ISBN 1-86126-339-2 (English).
- Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1st 2nd edition. Chronosports, St. Sulpice 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 (French).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cimarosti: The Century of Racing. 1997, p. 308.
- ↑ Entry list for the Grand Prix of South Africa on the website www.racingsportscars.com .
- ↑ The Shadow DN12 on the website www.oldracingcars.com ( Memento of the original from November 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars. 2001, p. 224.
- ^ Starting list of the 1981 Grand Prix of South Africa on the website www.racingsportscars.com .
- ^ Result list of the Grand Prix of South Africa on the website www.racingsportscars.com .
