Grand Prix 1
(1993 - 1994)
Dave Gymer, Ivanhoe Vasiljevich, Max Galvin, René Smit, Simon Gymer
Team Shark first entered the world of online racing in the 2nd half of 1994 when Simon and Dave Gymer drove in the last 10 rounds of LF3000, a HOF championship for Geoff Crammonds's Grand Prix 1 game. During these early days the team recruited a small team to compete in various Grand Prix 1 online championships for which they gained a small amount of success, but more importantly the beginnings of a name in the early sim-racing community.
Indycar Racing
(1993 - 1995)
Dave Gymer, Simon Gymer
In 1995 Team Shark briefly flirted with competition using Papyrus's Indycar Racing 1 & 2 games. Although the foray into Indycar Racing competition, in the IICC Lites series, was a short one, the team had produced a more refined version of what would turn out to be the now traditional Team Shark colour scheme.
Nascar Racing 2003
(1994 - 2008)
Ali Topley, Ashley Teagle, Carl Sundberg, Clive Armstrong, Darren Tripconey, David McRoberts, George Sokolowski, Greg Bond, Jarmo Nordstrom, John Bayes, Mark Bayes, Michael Marchetti, Morten Straus, Neil Charlton, Nick Phillips, Peter Andersson, Randy Lawrence, Richard Crozier, Roly Williams, Sandy Wilkinson, Sawyer Reynolds, Scott Malcolm, Simon Topham, Simon Wareham, Tim Pankhurst
When Nascar Racing 1 & 2 were release, both Simon and Dave took part in a testing program with a Team
Shark NASCAR. Lack of sponsorship for the US domestic series prevented any
serious plans to enter IWCC or any of the other Internet NASCAR
competitions.
In February 2005, Team Shark formed a partnership with Team Phoenix
Racing to provide the NASCAR interest for Team Shark. Team Phoenix Racing had a
substantial and successful record racing in multiple NASCAR Racing leagues more
recently using NASCAR Racing 2003. In May 2005 Phoenix Racing officially took over all Team Shark
NASCAR interests, but in December 2005 a deal was struck that saw Team Shark
merging with Phoenix Racing and the team was officially rebranded as Team Shark.
All Phoenix drivers were retained as part of the takeover including team boss
Nick Phillips.
The team continued to grow after the merger and just as
the GTR drivers had done, the Nascar drivers gained a huge amount of success in
2005 and 2006. An amazing 6 drivers championship and 2 team championship were
won. However, in the Nascar Racing 2003 era finally came to an end in 2008 when the team's Nascar drivers changed simulation and to new challenges.
Grand Prix 2
(1996 - 1998)
Chris Meech, Chris Thompson, Christiano Dias, Dave Gymer, Doug Greer, Ivanhoe Vasiljevich, Juan Francisco Valero Car, Justin Dion, Mark Mann, René Smit, Simon Gymer, Todd Dry
In 1996, after some years competing with Grand Prix 1 and dabbling with Indycar Racing and Nascar Racing, Team Shark moved onto Geoff Crammond's sequel. Arguably this game set the benchmark for simulations to come and as fore-runner to the online multiplayer enabled games of the future.
This era in the team's history saw Team Shark really establish a name for itself, whist the team continued to grow by signing more drivers and expanding it's comeptition involvement.
Grand Prix Legends
(1998 - 2004)
Colman Carpenter, Dave Gymer, Eddie Urbanski, Peter Allnutt, Roy Bateman, Simon Gymer
In 1998 Grand Prix Legends landed and the birth of modern multiplayer online racing simulations started. With it's advanced physics engine Grand Prix Legends was to set the benchmark in the racing
simulation genre for years to come.
With a modestly sized
outfit Team Shark started competing in leagues like UKGPL, EuroGPLeMans and VrocF2. Being able to race people live across the internet was a great improvement to HOF type competitions and the odd LAN session. Grand Prix Legends also saw racing wheel peripherals really take off as it was the first game that almost required a racing wheel (although many played with a joystick). The level of competition and immersion really made this a great time to be in simulation racing.
After 6 years
and a reasonable level of success the team ended it's Grand Prix Legends
operations. The team remembers Grand Prix Legends as a defining moment in it's history and looks back with very fond memories of the fantastic racing all of it's drivers had driving in what will surely become a classic title.
GTR 1
(2004 - 2006)
Carl Parker, Dave Gymer, Duncan Miles, Gerald Greenwood, Jeffrey Ruskus, John Page, Jon Chadwick, Luis Branco, Michael Bennett, Nick Phillips, Paulo Costa, Pedro, Peter Allnutt, Simon Gymer, Vedran Sinclair, Whitham
GTR1, by Simbin, and subsequently it's sequal, was the next game after Grand Prix Legends to set a benchmark against which all future games would be compared. With an advanced physics, graphics, sound and multiplayer engine and it's offering of GT cars and tracks this brought the sim-racing community something it had been craving for years.
Due to a strong driver line-up in the inaugral season of UKGTR,
Team Shark gained major success across the board. The team who had been at the
heart of UKGTR since day once, took driver titles in the Division 1 GT Endurance
title (Simon Gymer), the Division 2 NGT Endurance title (Dave Gymer), the NGT
Sprint title (Simon Gymer) and the Division 2 G3 Endurance title (Simon Gymer).
In addition the team came had great success in the team championships with the
Division 2 G3 Endurance title, 3rd in Division 2 GT and NGT Endurance, 2nd in
Division 1 GT and G3 Endurance, 2nd NGT Sprint and 3rd in GT Sprint.
For
2 years, GTR 1 saw Team Shark drivers bring home unprecidented success. During
this time the team expanded greatly, although seeing a few drivers come and go,
the core of the team remained for GTR 2 (and even more success).
Team Shark drivers took home no less than 6 drivers titles and 3 team
titles in the 3 seasons of UKGTR (GTR 1).
GT Legends
(2005 - 2012)
Ali Topley, Brian Kerr, Carl Parker, Dave Gymer, Laurie Clemo, Michael Bennett, Morten Straus, Nick Phillips, Paulo Costa, Peter Allnutt, Simon Gymer, Tom O'Gorman, Whitham
Simbin's GT Legends was release in 2005. The game's content was based on the present
day historical 60s and 70s GT cars championships and it was a breath of fresh air
for all the Grand Prix Legends fans. Driving low downforce, powerful classic GT
cars from the 60s and 70s Team Shark engaged in the early conception of the
UKGTL league. In order to try and ascertain what the best format was to
run the more permanent GT Legends league, the league adminstrators embarked on
Season 1-ish.
Team Shark's new recruit, Jeffrey Ruskus, dominated season 1-ish sharing race
honours only with fellow alien driver Pero Grozni. This domination secured
Jeffrey's debut drivers championship for Team Shark and with other strong
performances from Carl Parker and Simon Gymer the team secured the team championship
trophy in GT Legends.
UKGTL then altered it's course to create a ladder style championship. A rolling
championship scoring system consisting of championships for all three of GTL's
classes, plus an overall championship. Once again Jeffrey Ruskus showed his
GT Legends prowess by being top of the ladder for some time with the team doing well in the team championship standings.
Eventually UKGTL changed it's format back to a traditional league format in which, along with the Historic championships at Race2Play, Team Shark has since gained high levels of success.
rFactor
(2005 - 2009)
Ali Topley, Ben Horrill, Brian Kerr, Craig Milne, Darren Tripconey, Dave Ellis, Dave Gymer, David McRoberts, Fred Joseph, Gerald Greenwood, Jeffrey Ruskus, John Bayes, Jon Moore, Jon Weal, Martin Buchan, Nick Phillips, Peter Allnutt, Rob Clenshaw, Roly Williams, Sascha Henken, Simon Gymer, Steve Davis, Tom O'Gorman
Hailed as the next big thing in online sim-racing, rFactor was
released to mild applause in the August 2005. With no licensed cars or tracks
the initial released provided fantasy tracks and cars, none of which really
captured the imagination and saw rFactor sit in the shadows for quite some time.
rFactor was no 'out of the box' ordinary game, it was a modding platform to invent
any kind of racing series, open wheelers, tin tops, heck even lawn
mowers.
With the increase in quality and with some exciting series on offer, mid 2006 saw Team Shark really start to get involved in racing with rFactor's latest mods. The team entered into ASRWC (a global nation
based formula, based on A1GP) as the British entrants and successfully pushed GBR up the
standings. Side-by-side with this the team entered into the Formula-Armaroli
championship at SimRacing.org.uk.
This was just the start of things to come. Nick Phillips, the then Nascar Racing 2003, took up the role of directing Team Shark's rFactor operations and quickly enroled the team firstly at BDR Motorsports Alfa 147 and subsequently in extensive operations at Race2Play. Moving into Race2Play helped to bolster the team's driver line-up and Team Shark enjoyed great success in many series at Race2Play.
In late 2008, Team Shark disbanded it's Team Shark operations to concentrate on other areas. At the same time many of it's drive lineup moved onto other things to create a more streamlined outfit ready to take on more new challenges.
GTR 2
(2006 - 2012)
Ali Topley, Brian Kerr, Busi, Carl Parker, Colin Hines, Craig Heslop, Dave Gymer, David Milne, Fred Joseph, Gerald Greenwood, Jeffrey Ruskus, John Bayes, Jon Moore, Jonathon Ball, Joss Piggott, Luke Mustoo, Martin Buchan, Mel Dixon, Michael Bennett, Morten Straus, Nick Phillips, Paulo Costa, Peter Allnutt, Rob Clenshaw, Robert Burton, Simon Gymer, Stephen Carr, Tel Gregory, Tom O'Gorman
Continuing the team's illustrious GTR history, in 2006 the team
expanded into two sub-teams, Team Shark, and Team Shark
Junior to compete in SimRacing.org.uk
's Season 4
of UKGTR utilising GTR2. With the expansion of the team
and signings of aliens like JonM, Jeffrey Ruskus and Leuven the team had one if
it's most successful trophy hauls to date gaining many drivers and team
championship titles. Eventually it was decided to re-combine the team's into one unit and now Team Shark continues to drive in UKGTR in continually successful seasons.
GTR2 also provided the team with an opportunity to get into more online leagues with drivers competing
in the both Sim-Challenge and Race2Play. These leagues were both very strong and competitive leagues, but Team Shark enjoyed great competition and success in both.
RACE 07
(2007 - 2012)
Brian Kerr, Carl Parker, Dave Gymer, Jeffrey Ruskus, Joss Piggott, Michael Bennett, Peter Allnutt, Simon Gymer, Stephen Carr, Tom O'Gorman
A fleeting venture into RACE 07 begain in 2007. Two seasons of racing at SimRacing.org.uk using Radicals, Caterhams and Formula BMW cars proved fun and very successful for Team Shark, but with poor race attendance the racing ended.
iRacing
(2008 - 2012)
Ben Horrill, Brian Kerr, Cory Kutina, Dave Gymer, Dennis Grebe, Derek Speare, John Bayes, Jon Moore, Martin Buchan, Mike Wrightson, Morten Straus, Nick Phillips, Peter Allnutt, Robert Burton, Simon Gymer
Papyrus's original founder Dave Kraemer finally guided production of a sequel to Grand Prix Legends and Nascar Racing 2003 by releasing iRacing on the public in the summer of 2008. iRacing arrived in cloudy storm of hype that swept many of the team's drivers into it's servers.
iRacing has captivated many of the team's drivers, spurring them on to success in a variety of series. Participation remains high as more content and series are added to the system every year giving drivers a chance to find something they like,
With the addition of hosted/league racing in 2009 the competition side of iRacing took a hugely upward turn and drivers from the team have competed in various leagues so far. From Oval Road Odyssey a Late Model series, the various offerings at SimRacing.org.uk, to the fast single seater experiences of Legends League.
Power & Glory
(2009 - 2012)
Dave Gymer, Jeffrey Ruskus, Laurie Clemo, Simon Gymer
In 2009, the GTL Workshop released the second version of their historic GT racing mod for GTR2. By producing many of the GT Legends cars in a packaged mod running on the better GTR 2 platform, perhaps this is a replacement for GT Legends?
Team Shark entered the inaugral Power & Glory clubmans series at SimRacing.org.uk and since then has continued with a small team of classic drivers in the following token based series.