Marc VDS runs successful MotoGP and Moto2 teams, but their relationship with cars is more, um, love-hate-hate-hate-and-more-hate. Last year, they said they were done for good with cars with the best angry press release ever crafted, only to come back and attempt to run the ill-fated Renault Sport Trophy.
The Renault Sport Trophy spec series ran superlight carbon-fiber-tubbed RS.01 cars that made use of the 542-horsepower twin-turbo V6 from the Nissan GT-R. There was no roadgoing version of the mid-engine RS.01, which made it a glorious oddball with little relevance outside its own series. Despite running alongside the European Le Mans Series, Renault ultimately pulled the plug.
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Marc VDS doesn’t want to admit that running the chopped-off stub on the family tree of racing known as the Renault Sport Trophy was a fantastically iffy idea. No, they’d rather flounce out of the series with a glorious screed against all things four-wheeled and disappointing.
Just read and behold this work of madness. We’ve dropped it in here unedited—complete with angry typos—because it must be read. Take particular note of the parts we’ve bolded, PR wonks of the racing world. Yet again, Marc VDS put on a masterclass of getting directly to their point and wallowing in it a bit (emphasis ours):
Marc VDS Racing Team withdraw from car racing
Published: 8 Dec 2016
After a decade of adventure punctuated by many successes, but also disappointments and contradictions, Marc van der Straten decided to put a definitive end to his activities in car motorsport.
The famous feline Marc VDS Racing Team will therefore desert the paddocks of the GT and LMS championships to focus on the highest level of motorcycling sport with the MotoGP and Moto2 World Championships.
Last year, Marc van der Straten decided to end his involvement in car motorsport. The moral failures of certain managers of the Marc VDS Racing Team had led the President of the Belgian structure to pull the parking brake.
The decision was difficult to make, the Marc VDS Racing Team having nevertheless particularly shone during the last years. They were crowned in 2013 in the Blancpain Endurance Series as a “Pro Cup Team Champions” after twice appearing on the podium of the prestigious 24 Hours of Nürburgring. In 2015, the team had achieved the best result of its history in winning the 24 Hours of Spa, the world’s largest GT race.
Ultimately refusing to turn the page on a human failure, Marc van der Straten finally chose to keep a foot in the world of auto sport by mounting a new three-year project within the framework of the Renault Sport Trophy, running alongide the European Le Mans Series events. “An interesting formula in the sense that everyone has the same equipment,” says the owner and president of the Marc VDS Racing Team. “It’s up to the drivers and teams to make a difference.”
Proof of his competence and the talent of his troops, the Belgian team immediately won all the titles awarded in this discipline. It is this supremacy, but above all the decision of Renault to abandon this competition, which led Marc van der Straten to make the decision to definitely turn the page of his involvement in car racing.
“Car racing has long been my great passion. A passion that my father had conveyed to me as he passed on to me many values. For ten years, initially as a sponsor with Tony Gillet and his Vertigo, and then as a stable boss, I gathered around me different people from whom I got many successes including this fantastic victory at the 24 Hours of Spa in 2015. This year again, we shone in the Renault Sport Tophy.”
“Unfortunately, I have just been disappointed by what has become car racing. Rules that vary according to the whims of each other, competitions that disappear as quickly as they were created, sponsors who do not keep their engagements, people without morals, profiteers … I no longer recognize the spirit and the values that I knew and that I find today in motorcycle sport with the fabulous men who surround me.”
“That’s why I decided to put a definitive end to the commitment of the Marc VDS Racing Team in car motorsport to dedicate my activity in the motorcycle world championship. I thank all those who helped us shine on four wheels during these ten years, and I wish them all the best for the future.”
The Renault Sport Trophy wasn’t too weird to live. Marc VDS killed it with winning.
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