Victory in round six of the FIA World Endurance Championship marked the 300th time that UK-based engineering and race team, Prodrive, had taken the chequered flag
When the Prodrive-run Aston Martin Racing team took victory in Texas in the latest round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) last weekend (September 16), it was the 300th time a Prodrive team had won a race or rally since the company was formed in 1984.
The Aston Martin Vantage GTE sealed the 300th win some 33 years after Prodrive’s first victory at the Qatar rally on 27 January 1984, when the Porsche 911 SC RS won the opening round of the Middle East Rally Championship. The event was also Prodrive’s first, handing it victory on its motorsport debut.
Since then Prodrive has competed in 1171 events, running cars for a wide range of manufacturers including MG, BMW, Subaru, Alfa Romeo, Honda, Ford, Volvo, Ferrari, Aston Martin, MINI and VW, and in national and international race and rally championships, including the World Rally Championship, British Touring Car Championship, Australian V8 Supercar Series, Global Rallycross and the World Endurance Championship.
As well as 300 event wins, Prodrive has won numerous titles including:
Six World Rally titles (three drivers’ and three manufacturers’), Five Le Mans GT titles, Four World Endurance Championship titles, Three Chinese Rally Championship titles, Four British Touring Car Championships Three British Rally Championships, Two Middle East Rally Championships, Five Asia-Pacific Rally titles, Le Mans Series, US rally championship, Two Belgian Rally Championships, Two French Rally Championships.
Today Prodrive runs the Aston Martin Racing team in the FIA WEC and the FAW-VW rally team in the Chinese Rally Championship. From 2018 it will also be competing in the FIA World Rallycross Championship with a Renault Megane RX it is creating for Guerlain Chicherit.
“I still recall that very first event in Qatar, with Saeed Al Hajri driving the Porsche,” recalls Prodrive chairman and founder, David Richards. “Then we were just a dozen or so people with tremendous enthusiasm and great ambitions. I don’t think any of us dreamt that more than three decades on, Prodrive would be what it is today; not just a motorsport business that in 2018 will be competing in two FIA world championships, but one that has diversified into so many technology sectors beyond motorsport.”
