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hen you reach the top of your game in the world of motorsport, finding a new challenge can be difficult. Oxford-based Chamberlain Synergy Motorsport moved on to keeping historic racers on track. Chamberlain Synergy is a racing team that specialises in running and maintaining Group C race cars. With previous history in the FIA Sportscar Championship, Le Mans Series and the Le Mans 24 Hours, the transition to historic motorsport in the late 2000s was timed perfectly. A highlight of the team’s time in ‘modern’ motorsport was its 2005 Le Mans Series success in the LMP2 category, where the team used a Lola B05/40 to claim both the drivers’ and teams’ championships. By this time, current manager Steve Briggs was well embedded in the team, having begun working there in 2002. ‘I started off in the industry with Jeff Goodliffe’s team in 2000. I was on a week-long placement as a mechanic there but quickly found myself working as the number one mechanic. Through that, I started working with racing driver Bob Berridge while he was competing in the Thoroughbred Grand Prix.’ The Thoroughbred Grand Prix was the predecessor to what is now known as the FIA Historic Formula One Championship, in which Berridge had taken three championship titles at the end of the 1990s. Competing with a 1982 Williams as well as a 1983 Ram, Berridge was racing relatively ‘new’ historic cars when he won his championships, and this would be a theme that would lead to Chamberlain Synergy’s well-timed move into the historic scene years down the line. Berridge – along with Steve Briggs – joined up with Chamberlain Synergy during the team’s campaign in the 2002 FIA Sportscar Championship. However, the championship was steadily shedding entrants and momentum, leaving Chamberlain Synergy to look for pastures new in 2004. The pastures in question: the newly formed Le Mans Series. The car: a TVR Tuscan T400R. Powered by TVR’s self-developed and slightly temperamental Speed Six engine, the Tuscan was a difficult project at times. However, a double-finish at the Le Mans 24 Hours in eighth and ninth in class proved the team’s ability to run a car effectively in endurance racing. During this time, Briggs was progressing through the ranks in the team. ‘I started at the
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Historic Nissans and Jaguars come in twos at Chamberlain Synergy Motorsport... bottom as the number two mechanic, progressed to number one and eventually chief mechanic in 2008. I then became team manager in 2012.’ After the successes of 2005 with the Lola and a few seasons in LMP1, the team began to focus on Group C cars. Many of Chamberlain’s fellow small teams from the Le Mans Series didn’t make it through the recession, though. While Briggs partially credits their survival to being a thrifty outfit – avoiding high-end transporters and expensive hotels, for example – Chamberlain Synergy’s new direction for 2009 was also a big factor. The decision to focus on restoring, servicing and running Group C cars just as the formula became one of the flagship historic categories was inspired. However, according to Briggs, the move away from modern motorsport was not made out of necessity. ‘We moved because we had hit our targets, and we didn’t see the point in continuing as Audi and all the
Engineer Andy Trim works on rebuilding a gearbox
big teams were in full flow. However, we knew our strengths lay in endurance racing. So Bob moved over to the Historic Group C/GTP series, and we now have three to five clients with several superb cars from Group C and similar categories.’ The focus in the workshop on a day-to-day basis is maintenance for the cars, ranging from standard checks and race preparation to full rebuilds and renovations. A recent ‘guest’ at the Chamberlain Synergy base in Oxford was a Toyota 92CV. ‘That Toyota was one of the more difficult ones,’ Briggs said. ‘It came with no engine. The customer bought one but changed his mind and bought another one for us to use. The car came in a box of bits and we didn’t really know where any of the bits went. The engine in it wasn’t the correct one, so we had to find adapter plates and stuff like that.’ The full-time team is surprisingly small, with just two other employees working to maintain cars that were at the very cutting edge