Dodgem (Formerly British Lions) were a British team who have raced in FF1M with a career spanning 22 seasons. The team was owned by ClarkF1 and its team principal is bumbling politician Boris Johnson. The team has a sister team, Super Dodgy, which has run in both FF1M and FF2M.
History
Dodgem's parent company Dodgy Racing Inc. LLC Ltd. began life in 1978 as Chas n' Dave's East End Karting Kompany with Ross Kemp at the helm. They held illegal karting races in Regent Street at night using the unique night life of Soho for corporate sponsorship.
After lots of entertaining and fine dining in the best strip clubs of London, in 1979 a Spearmint Rhino Championship run by Prime Minister-elect Margaret Thatcher was formed.
The team had managed to sign a couple of Karting superstars - young Jenson Button (aged -1) and Enzo Ferrari (aged 81).
In 1980 after the series failed, the team joined the Formula Junior Kart Management (FJKM) series run by intrepid entrepeneur Bing Crosby. They won the Formula Junior Kart Management (FJKM) "Michael Schumacher Is Teh Best" Marty McFly Time Travel memorial trophy at the first attempt.
After an acrimonious split with the series organisers, they set up the rival "Ralf Schumacher will never live up to his elder brother" Doc Brown Memorial Trophy. However the series was a failure due to no other teams competing and circuits made completely of gravel with tarmac run-off areas.
After this fiasco the driving side of the team was put on hiatus with the technical side known as Useless Sods F1 (USF1) providing poor technical support to other teams competing to take part in the inaugural FF1M season and conducting denial-of-service attacks on their rivals' websites.
The Team as we see it today started life as British Lions who were amongst the original 11 teams in the first season of FF1M, but changed their name to Dodgem Racing shortly before the Season 3. They have competed in every season of FF1M through 2009 and won the Drivers and Teams Championships in 1998. This was notable because coming into that season they were yet to win a race. This changed however when Michael Schumacher won the opening round of that years championship for the team. Schumacher went on to win the Drivers Championship with the most points ever scored by a driver in a single season.
The team holds the honour of being the only team in the history of FF1M to go through a full championship season without scoring a single point twice, a feat that it achieved during Season 3 and 2002.
On 14th December 2012, Dodgy Racing Inc. LLC Ltd. announced that their Super Dodgy FF2M team had completed its final season and that 2009 would be the final season for Dodgem F1 Racing.
After the first six races of their final season, Dodgem nobly decided to rely on old technology and withdraw from testing to avoid taking up a spot in races that could go to a team continuing in the FF1M championship next season. After talks with series guru Ajay, Dodgem were allowed to reinstate their 2009 technology for the final race of the season at Suzuka.
Nick Heidfeld did well qualifying in 10th with team-mate Giorgio Pantano not far behind in 13th. In the race the positions were switched with Pantano finishing a creditable 9th with Heidfeld finishing 12th after a suspension failure near the end of the race.
Results
FF1M
Year | Engine | Ch. Pos. | Races | Points | Wins | Drivers | Ch. Pos. | Races | Points | Wins |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Season 1 | BMW | 8th | 16 | 12 | Johnny Herbert | 11th | 16 | 6 | ||
Martin Brundle | 10th | 16 | 6 | |||||||
Season 2 | Ford | 9th | 16 | 10 | Mika Hakkinen | 12th | 16 | 7 | ||
Martin Brundle | 16th | 16 | 3 | |||||||
Season 3 | Ilmor | 11th | 17 | 0 | Ralf Schumacher | 21st | 17 | 0 | ||
Takuma Sato | 22nd | 17 | 0 | |||||||
Season 4 | Ford | 10th | 17 | 5 | Johnny Herbert | 25th | 15 | 0 | ||
Giorgio Pantano | 24th | 2 | 0 | |||||||
Giancarlo Fisichella | 17th | 17 | 5 | |||||||
Season 5 | Honda | 5th | 16 | 68 | Alain Prost | 6th | 16 | 55 | ||
Jenson Button | 13th | 13 | 13 | |||||||
Riccardo Patrese | 21st | 3 | 0 | |||||||
Season 6 | Ford (Works) | 10th | 16 | 17 | Nigel Mansell | 18th | 16 | 10 | ||
Martin Brundle | 19th | 16 | 7 | |||||||
Season 7 | Ferrari | 7th | 17 | 27 | Nigel Mansell | 13th | 16 | 23 | ||
Felipe Massa | 18th | 16 | 4 | |||||||
Season 8 | Mercedes (Works) | 6th | 17 | 56 | Gerhard Berger | 12th | 17 | 23 | ||
Damon Hill | 8th | 17 | 33 | |||||||
1996 | Ferrari | 10th | 16 | 18 | Martin Brundle | 13th | 16 | 18 | ||
Pedro De La Rosa | 22nd | 11 | 0 | |||||||
Oliver Gavin | 25th | 5 | 0 | |||||||
1997 | Ferrari | 8th | 17 | 17 | Olivier Panis | 12th | 17 | 10 | ||
Mark Blundell | 14th | 17 | 7 | |||||||
1998 | Ferrari (Works) | 1st | 17 | 173 | 8 | Michael Schumacher | 1st | 17 | 124 | 7 |
Mika Hakkinen | 4th | 17 | 49 | 1 | ||||||
1999 | Ferrari | 5th | 17 | 56 | Jacques Villeneuve | 8th | 17 | 36 | ||
Rubens Barrichello | 11th | 17 | 20 | |||||||
2000 | BMW | 5th | 16 | 74 | Jacques Villeneuve | 10th | 16 | 31 | ||
Mika Hakkinen | 7th | 16 | 43 | |||||||
2001 | Mercedes | 8th | 17 | 30 | Justin Wilson | 13th | 17 | 16 | ||
Giancarlo Fisichella | 15th | 17 | 14 | |||||||
2002 | Ferrari | 10th | 16 | 0 | Justin Wilson | 20th | 16 | 0 | ||
Giancarlo Fisichella | 19th | 16 | 0 | |||||||
2003 | Ferrari | 6th | 16 | 54 | Heinz-Harald Frentzen | 8th | 16 | 31 | ||
Rubens Barrichello | 12th | 16 | 23 | |||||||
2004 | Ferrari V10 | 4th | 17 | 67 | 2 | Michael Schumacher | 5th | 17 | 50 | 2 |
Pedro De La Rosa | 16th | 17 | 17 | |||||||
2005 | Ferrari V10 | 3rd | 17 | 93 | 3 | Sebastien Bourdais | 8th | 17 | 34 | 1 |
Michael Schumacher | 4th | 17 | 59 | 2 | ||||||
2006 | Ferrari V10 | 5th | 17 | 75 | 1 | Sebastien Bourdais | 3rd | 17 | 55 | 1 |
Rubens Barrichello | 12th | 17 | 20 | |||||||
2007 | Ferrari V8 | 9th | 15/17 | 24 | Sebastien Bourdais | 12th | 15 | 18 | ||
Ralf Schumacher | 17th | 15 | 6 | |||||||
2008 | Ferrari V8 | 10th | 15/17 | 10 | David Coulthard | 23rd | 15 | 0 | ||
Timo Glock | 13th | 15 | 10 | |||||||
2009 | Toyota V8 | 13th | 7/18 | 1 | Giorgio Pantano | 25th | 7 | 0 | ||
Nick Heidfeld | 24th | 7 | 1 |
Super Dodgy
Main Article: Super Dodgy