Starting out...
Richard's experiences with sim racing started with Grand Prix 2, it was the catalyst that lead to modifying the game and also eventually creating custom teams for GP2. Simply replacing the default helmet designs with his own helmet design just for offline play and immersion. The helmet design has had many variations but essentially remains the same design from 1997 As his involvement with racing sims grew from casual modding in the early days of GP2 (most notable of which would be the 2 seater arrows model and a version of Martin Brundle's race school mod based on the 1999 Jordan and the TV coverage at the time), to running a game/mod development team, working towards bringing it's own game to sim racers based on the 1977 formula 1 season using the original netkar engine, the predecessor to Assetto Corsa, to the present day running and competing online.
Early years
2000/2001
Vermin Racing Team was born under a different guise. TK Racing. Our first sim driver signed on board as a team mate to Richard. The decision was taken to race with Grand prix 3. Racing in a "online league" submitting hotlaps and full length replays then compared to all the other drivers in the league who also submitted their rplays. First time out was Monaco, with Richard managing to win the full length race by over 40 seconds to his nearest rival, The system was open to some cheating which would eventually cause the team to be pulled out in protest. Not before scoring another victory in the series, and with Richard competiting in 8 races that season. scoring many more podiums and good points in most of them, which left the team finishing runner up and Richard 3rd in the championship standings.
Foundations
2000-2010
Racing online was infrequent due to time and other commitments. and slowly TK Racing became just an effort to casual online races. It was Nascar 2003 that Richard nearly entered Vermin Racing into a league, Now called Vermin Bristol Racing and a striking orange, black and gold livery and new team mate on board, Setting competitive times in pre-season testing, the team had to pull out last minute as the driver line up fell apart. This left Richard to remain the sole representative online for Vermin Racing for many years. Trying to compete with serious competitors online with the excellent Grand Prix Legends game. racomg against some of the best in the world and some who have since found fame through sim racing and are widely regarded as the best in current times. Richard learnt a lot about the online ettiquete and race craft which he would later ensure would be one of the primary foundations for Vermin Racing Team to build upon. Recruiting a young driver called Owain Shaw and establishing Vermin Racing Team as it as known today.
Seeds
2011 - 2013
The decision to return to full competitive online racing. Netkar Pro was the logicial next step due to the historical connections with the original sim, and Netkar Pro impressing with the realistic physics engine and excellent online code and had a strong racing community who were friendly and competitive. Herman Hermansen was signed to race for Vermin Racing Team alongside Richard. After a good competitive year of close. fun and exciting racing in the Radiator Springs Racing league, Vermin Racing was already making a name for itself. Herman departed at the end of the league season to create his own team and we assisted his efforts and remained friendly racing rivals in the next series Competitive Online Gamers Series (C.O.G.S. for short) Gustavo Silva joined the team to race in the C.O.G.S. series and the team again proved it's competitive nature and took the championship to the final round and just missing out on the team championship. Gustavo sadly had to stop racing due to time comitments and lead to the seat being filled short term by Tudor Morris. With C.O.G.S. completed, the plan was to return to the Radiator Springs league, Entering with a new driver and our long term driver, Vyacheslav Potapenko and competiting in what was considered the premier championship with the KS2 car and attacking the championship for the All series with another new signing Kristian Kibokin, Unfortunately due to personal circumstances at the start of 2012, The team was forced into hiatus and missed out on racing in 2012.
2013 Saw a return to the virtual race track for the team, coming back into action quite late into the season, narrowly missing out on the final round of the Radiator Springs championships. A decision was made to compete in the Race 2 Play Showcase Sim Series, which ran four events in one of the most challenging cars, Formula Ford 1600. With only Richard returning to compete in these events, he managed a very good string of results with limited practice, finishing runner up in the 4 round series final standings, against very fast, high caliber drivers. The team planned to use this momentum to propell them into 2014.
Blossoming
2014-present
Vermin Racing transistioned from Netkar to to Assetto Corsa in 2014. The team again remained fairly inactive. opting to test various elements and versions of Assetto Corsa. We produced the setup guide for rookie and veteran racers in a hope to encourage new drivers not only to the team but also to the sport. 2018 saw former Vermin Racing Team driver Vyacheslav Potapenko entering into the Race Department formula 3 Assetto Corsa and Sim Racing Online FKR championships as an independent driver. Slava had remained in contact with Vermin Racing Team and seeing him return to sim racing prompted to support his effort, producing a 2018 livery and custom helmet design.
This soon expanded into a full return to racing for the team as Richard returned to support Slava in the championships and we started to attract other drivers to the team to race for us. Christopher Holman was signed for onboard but sadly retired from sim racing due to his health. Before his departure from the team two very taleneted drivers were signed on to the team, Oscar Williams and Jack Smith. Both had previously impressed with their results in other series and in testing.
Oscar and Jack both managed to get multiple podiums, fastest laps and several wins for the team and boosted our season and saw us crowned 2018 SRO FKR Euro F3 Team champions.
Roel Postma became our latest driver, only racing for one event before leaving the team later in the season. We looked to compete in what many consider the most competitive Assetto Corsa league, Formula Trout. with excellent team work and perserverance we managed to make a huge impact on the championship and the season came down to the final race with Oscar competing for the championship crown, sadly just missing out on the title.
2019 has become a year of success throughout the team. Welcoming a partnership with Dragon Spirit at the start of the season and the arrival of Maxi Junger, Heigo Poom and Niko Anders. We have been competitive in every race so far managing to score points. Our partnership was terminated mid season with the departure of Heigo who has gone on to start a career path outside of our team, we wish him luck. The positive to come out of losing Dragonspirit as a sponsors has allowed us to bring a new sister team called, Vermin Development Team, The aim being to train new inexperienced drivers, backed with our knowledge and skills and help guide them on a virtual career path. Alex Cochrane has made a very valuable and welcome addition to the driver line up. Our performances have secured us 2019 Formula 3 Team champions and we continue to be strong contenders for the Formula Trout championships in both the Hybrid and Formula 3 series.
We have also made the virtual become reality and have embarked on a new exciting venture called Vermin Formula Experience. Please click the link to discover more.
Vermin Racing is sponsored by
VerminArt
