THR

**THR**
THR Official Logo
Full name	THR
Owner/s	Toby Davis Chris Butcher Robert Wiesenmueller
Base	Leeds, UK
Competitions
Superleague Team	None
Début	-
Supercup Team	None
Début	-
Formula Challenge Team	THR
Début	2014
World Sport Series Team	None
Début	-
International Touring Cup Team	None
Début	-

THR is a team steeped with history, who are competing for the first time in the GPVWC in the 2013/14 International Touring Cup season. Team owner Toby Davis and Swedish driver Adrian Holm are competing in this championship, whilst the team are also entering the Formula Challenge with Toby Davis and David Jundt.

History

THR was originally founded prior to the 2010 RDCAT league, with the drivers Toby Davis, Chris Butcher and Adam Vaughan entered to race. Initially the name 'THR' stood for Tard Helmet Racing, as this was a nickname given to Toby and Chris when racing in RaceDepartment club events - we were the 'Tard Helmets'. Inevitably, the moniker has since been dropped and we are now known only as THR.

Since the RDCAT league and our subsequent dominance of the early rounds, we have built our team gradually, recruiting drivers initally for our early forays into the Touring Pro Series, and for the first season of the Virtual Clio Series, we had 5 or 6 drivers, and it was at this time that Adam Vaughan took our first championship driving in a blue THR machine.

We also entered 4 cars into the Virtual V8 Supercars 2011 season, whilst also entering RDLMS (an endurance league) with a multitude of drivers.

By the end of 2011 we had signed William Levesque and Jesper Taulborg to the team, who were to become two of our strongest drivers. By this point, THR was becoming a serious organisation, but we never lost sight of the fact that fun can be had between events, having played various other games as a team, and also organising a trip to Oulton Park for that year's round of the BTCC.

2012 saw the birth of our identity. Yves Larose designed us a new logo, and a method of fitting it into our car design, which rapidly became the recognised 'THR brand.'

At the same time, we took the three colours for which we had become so synonymous thanks to various championship wins, which were orange, red and blue, and turned them into three teams for the 2012 edition of the Virtual V8 Supercars. We also linked up with Precision Motorsports and Nocturne (with Peter Duivelaar and Tom Eley respectively) for our attempts at the second season of the Virtual Clio Series and 2012 Virtual V8 Supercars. Red and Orange became our two leading teams, whilst Blue turned into our development team.

William Levesque ended up winning the second season of the Virtual Clio Series with a dominant performance, whilst Jesper Taulborg ended up taking the Virtual V8 Supercars title. After RPM dissolved, we acquired James Johnson and Robert Wiesenmüller, who have since become two of our most committed drivers. We were forced to expand our teams to 5 recognised outfits, with THR Green and THR Purple coming in to bolster our entries. THR Orange has been the most successful colour, and has won every championship it has entered, but recently THR Red has been catching up and has also won two team championships.

2012 also saw THR break through into real-world gaming competition, with Chris Butcher competing against 15 of the top UK racing gamers, in the Red Bull Gridsters competition, held at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Chris dominated the event, willing an all expenses paid VIP trip to that year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In 2013, Chris will visit the Red Bull Racing factory, including a 1-on-1 Q&A session with triple and current world champion Sebastien Vettel, plus a training session in the RBR simulator.

THR Red gave the team a bumper start in 2013, with both Chris Butcher and Robert Wiesenmüller both fighting tooth and nail for the drivers title. Both were the class of the field, and were keen to seal their maiden drivers title on the Touring Pro Series. Unfortunately, fate came into play, with hardware failure preventing Chris taking the title fight to the final race. That cleared the way for Robert to take a commanding victory, with THR Red still easily claiming the team's title.

Then in the summer it was onto the Tom Onslow-Cole Clio series and the 2013 Virtual V8 Supercars. With the amazing prizes on offer, this saw the action on track taken to a new level, with Precision Motorsports committing to the Touring Pro Series. TOCCS saw one most fierce rivalries to develop within the TPS between THR and PM. The intense racing ultimately saw THR lose out in the drivers title, but still manage to take a convincing team title. Elsewhere, the VV8S championships had all the hallmarks of a classic, with the fight between THR's Taulborg and PM's Rietveld sure to go down to the wire, until Precision inexplicably retired from the season, handing the title to Jesper and THR Orange.

For 2014, THR are competing for the first time in the GPVWC in the 2013/14 International Touring Cup season. Team owner Toby Davis and Swedish driver Adrian Holm are competing in this championship, whilst the team are also entering the Formula Challenge with Toby Davis and David Jundt.

With a stable of 6 TPS race winners, THR has become one of the strongest simracing teams in touring car racing.