Including the European Championship title in 2004, this is the fourth time in a row that Priaulx and RBM have won an FIA Touring Car Championship.
BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen says: “Although it’s the driver who is bringing in the biggest individual performance, motor racing is a team sport. The extraordinary success of the last few years just goes to show that Andy Priaulx and his team gel perfectly together. A driver cannot win the World Championship by himself. This is why RBM has earned the utmost respect.”
“Winning championships needs consistency”, says team boss Bart Mampaey. “Andy has now proved for the fourth year in a row that he has the ability to plan for a season rather than for race by race. I am obviously proud at how everyone at RBM coped with the pressure and made sure that given some luck Andy was able to complete successfully the job he came to Macau to do.”
The success has to be earned. Efficiency is an important factor in daily work for RBM. Mampaey always tries to use time and resources as efficiently as possible, in order to improve the performance of the BMW 320si WTCC. The team profits from the infrastructure needed to run BMW dealerships, which the Mampaey family manages under the name JUMA. Synergy effects in management or logistics make it possible for RBM to concentrate on the essentials: the performance on the track.
JUMA stands for Julian Mampaey. Today’s RBM boss inherited his love of motor sport from his father. The JUMA team made a name for itself in the 70s and 80s. Unlike RBM, which competes around the world in the WTCC, Julian Mampaey’s activities were concentrated on one race: the 24-hour race at Spa Francorchamps. JUMA’s success rate at this long-distance classic is worth noting: between 1977 and 1984, the team achieved three overall victories and five second places – always in BMW cars.
Nine years after the final JUMA race, Bart Mampaey stepped into his father’s footsteps in 1995. At first, RBM was responsible for the cars in the BMW Compact Cup in Belgium. Soon after that, the Mampaey family celebrated a successful comeback at Spa Francorchamps: The Group N double one-two in the 1997 24-hour race was followed by overall victory one year later. This was also the last overall victory for BMW to date at the “Ardennes Roller Coaster”.
Although this triumph definitively proved that he could lead a team to victory, Mampaey decided to gain more experience and broaden his horizons. He ventured to the USA, where he learned about the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and was present at long-distance classics, such as in Daytona.
Upon his return to Belgium, Mampaey set himself a new challenge: RBM sent a BMW 320i with Fredrik Ekblom to the European Touring Car Championship for BMW Belgium. One year later the team appeared for the first time in the colours of BMW Great Britain, and Priaulx was signed up to drive. “Andy and the team simply suit each other”, said Mampaey. After a year gaining experience in 2003, RBM achieved the sensation in 2004 when Priaulx claimed the ETCC title in Dubai. Three World Championship titles show categorically that this victory was not a flash in the pan for Mampaey and his crew.
“We still have many mechanics and technicians in the team, who have been there from the very beginning”, says Mampaey. This reliability is at least as important to the boss as developing new methods for tuning the car. The mixture of teamwork, innovation and tireless effort has ensured that RBM has become the benchmark for other teams in the World Touring Car Championship.
|
