May 21, 2016

 

After a very successful career in the GPVWC, Midnight Motorsport have closed its doors, with the teams own Nick Rowland touching on the teams history and what has led to their closure.

It's the end of an era and quite a sad day for me.

"Today is a sad day as I announce that Midnight Motorsport will be closing its doors.

It is with a heavy heart that I make this announcement. I have worked extremely hard building this team since 2011. Our creation came off the back of CSG departing the league after DCS took a wise decision to focus on education and could not dedicate the same level of high dedication he usually would have.

2011 was a challenging season but we made it to the end and accrued development points and money that serves us to this day in 2016. Our glory days of 2012 and 2013 where Lukas Euler took two world titles and we took two constructors titles with myself winning a couple of races in the process. Our team was at full steam. Pure dedication, determination and just pure enjoyment at working for a common cause. To win!

2014 and 2015 became more difficult as our drivers started to chop and change. The endeavour and drive to keep people happy was becoming more difficult especially after GPVWC started to change. Since that point and going in to 2016 this has become even more difficult. We have taken numerous wins with multiple drivers and Rudy van Buren this season has been an absolute superstar that has been dealt some unbelievably bad luck.

GPVWC has changed extensively since 2011 and we are moving in to a new age now and the direction of the league is something I have personally questioned since 2014. I have worked tirelessly at trying to understand what the leagues identity is and still cannot be found. An incredible amount of time has been dedicated by myself and my work has continuously fallen on deaf ears and I believe now is the right time to close the doors.

Tom Parker and Rudy van Buren this season have been nothing but fantastic in the challenges that have been presented to us but even I know now enough is enough. After discussions with Rudy it became clear that GPVWC was about to lose the best driver on the grid. With no suitable replacement to be found across the league the decision was made by me to close our doors.

In closing I have to mention the countless drivers that have driven under the Midnight Motorsport banner: Dave Carr-Smith, Petter Kaasa, Adam Rouse, Lukas Euler, Alex Cooper, Jamez Shepherd, Simon Melhuish, David Fidock, Giuseppe Rainieri, Tom Parker, Pedro Melim, Tom van der Voort, Sandeep Chodha, Matt Strand and Rudy van Buren. We have had more drivers across other series that have served us well including Ben Warren's incredible win on the Indianapolis oval. Thank you all!

Finally, I wish to thank SimCraft. They have partnered us since 2013 and they have been nothing but amazing to us along the entire journey offering incredible support and promotion. They are passionate about sim racing and racing development and after being lucky enough to try a simulator at Road Atlanta in 2011 I can honestly endorse an unrivalled product that they make.

Thank you to all the drivers that have helped me along an unbelievable journey. I wish you nothing but success in the future. I have made some lifelong friends and one day I hope that our doors will re-open, until then goodnight from Midnight."

Nick