January 15, 2013
Published on tags: Superleague
Halcyon Racing is proud to showcase its first Superleague car, codenamed the HR1, at the Brands Hatch circuit.

Following a year that saw the team promoted from its original slot in Formula Challenge to finishing third in the Supercup, the team is making the jump up the Superleague for 2013. The rapid rise in the team?s short history is thanks due to the efforts of GPVWC veterans Adam Rouse and Philip Cullen at the helm. The pair have a combined 16 years worth of experience in the league and will lead the line for the forthcoming season.

The team made the short trip down to Brands Hatch to officially launch the car after securing a bid on MartexTechnologiesMX-01 power unit. The engine deal was the final piece of shrewd business preformed by team owner Rouse throughout the Superleague?s bidding process.

While official expectations remained tempered amongst the team?s hierarchy, the general feeling at the team?s base in Brackley is that the idea of simply making up the numbers is ?not an option? for them. Despite many learning curves ahead in the coming months for the outfit, challenging for points is the goal for the team from early on. ?Why not?? commented the team?s commercial manager, Onni Juuskunen. ?There is a buzz going around Brackley right now that is building with each day. Australia cannot come soon enough!?

The teams lead driver, Philip Cullen, was confirmed back in December. Cullen raced with the team throughout 2012, finishing third overall in the Supercup standings. The 2012 season marked a return for the Irishman who had been absent from the GPVWC since 2009. Cullen spoke at length about his own quest for redemption following his below average Superleague career spanning from 2005 to 2009.

?Let?s be honest,? the affable Irish driver said to present journalists, ?my first career at the GPVWC was pretty shit by all accounts. There are very few positives looking back. Last season began my second career and yeah, I have to admit, stepping back up to the Superleague I can?t help but feel I have a point to prove.?

?Last season was brilliant by all accounts, both on a personal level and on a team level. If you had told me I would have been third overall in the Supercup last year, I would have said you were having a laugh. Securing third in the teams championship, despite the carousel we ended up having in the second car was quite an achievement given we weren?t a team with a lot of history or ties with bigger teams.?

?Make no mistake about it. This is going to be a challenging year. We could have easily stayed in the Supercup and probably easily been the second best team, maybe challenged for top honours. But the only way is up and we are in this for the hard slog. The way we have gone about acquiring the different elements for the team throughout bidding has proven just that.?

Partnering Cullen will be team owner, Adam Rouse. The English driver returns to the Superleague after last competing at that level in 2011 for the now defunct Triple-Double Racing. Rouse has two Superleague wins to his credit back in the 2009 season with Nordsjoen Racing. He finished fourth overall in the Supercup in 2012, following a season long tussle with his new team-mate Cullen for third.

Doubts had been raised as to whether Rouse would be back in the cockpit for the upcoming season after the team cast a net for potential drivers to partner Cullen. The lack of currently available options sees the GPVWC stalwart return to competition.

"It's great to be back on the Superleague grid after a fun debut year for the team in the Supercup. We are extremely happy to have been chosen as one of the three new teams for the 2013 season. First of all its great to secure Philip again as our lead driver, he did an excellent job last season and his consistency is exactly what we need as a new team entering a highly competitive grid and I have little doubt he can carry that over from last year."

"I'm really happy with how the new livery looks on a Superleague car and I'm happy to bring onboard our first outside sponsor in Brodi Studios. I'm also delighted to have secured the Martex engine for our debut Superleague season, not to mention I think we did a nice job securing all our targets throughout the bidding process."

"We will see what the season brings for us, I think it?s too early for us to worry about setting targets or goals but we have all the tools to be successful both in the short and long term."

Completing the line-up is Georgios Davakos as the team?s test and reserve driver. The Greek native has competed in the Supercup over the past two seasons and is due to compete this season in the competition with Centurion Racing.

e team ended the day with performing a brief shake-down of the new car by Cullen and Rouse before the team packed up in preparation for the first pre-season test in Valencia next Thursday.