The
beginning
In
the beginning there was one Arthur Barhorst, simracer and Formula 1 fan.
On July 19th, 1996 he came in possession of the grand-daddy of all Formula
1 games: Grand Prix 2 (otherwise known as GP2). After playing around
with this great game for a little while, he discovered that people from
all over the world were participating in simracing leagues on the Internet,
using this very game. He decided to start his own simracing team, then
called Gateway-Porsche, to participate in the GP2Racing League
and the "On The Edge"-League.
Jordan
GP2
In
1997, Arthur was astonished by the Jordan 197, the snake-nosed Formula
1 contender of the Jordan Grand Prix team. He even played Grand
Prix Manager as Eddie Jordan. Arthur decided it would be a good idea
to rename his team. So on November 12th, 1997, the Jordan GP2 simracing
team was founded as a tribute to both the dedication of a real-life Formula
1 team and the great game that simulates this on the computer. The team
grew quickly from its initial one man line-up. Arthur himself stepped down
as team manager on July 24th, 1998, with driver Richard Hasselt taking
over. Richard decided to continue the quest to take the team to the top
of the simracing scene.
Successes
The
first succes came soon after, when Canadian Mike Rocheleau became 1998
world champion F3 in the GP2 Championship, and, together with his
Lebanese teammate Rabih Habchy also brought home the constructors championship
in that class.
With a larger line-up, the team returned to contend the 1999 championship. Excellent driving by the entire team resulted in a remarkable number of Grand Prix wins and even more podium finishes. The end result were no less than 3 world championships: the F3000 constructors championship, the F3 constructors championship and the first-ever Overall Team Championship.
QuickSilver
simracing team
Near
the end of the 1999 season, the Jordan GP2 team was approached by its real-life
counterpart Jordan Grand Prix with a strict demand to cancel the team website
because it was too similar to Jordan's own. Richard Hasselt, with the help
of Herko ter Horst, countered with a proposal to cooperate and give the
simracing team a somewhat official status. While things looked good early
on in the negotiations, the Jordan Grand Prix team eventually dropped out
of touch, leaving the simracing team with a website it couldn't use. Richard
and Herko were prepared for this contigency, however. They decided to transform
the Jordan GP2 team into a brand new - but still the same - allround simracing
team. The team needed a name that emphasized speed and elegance, without
any references to real-life racing teams or a particular flavor of motorracing.
After some thought Richard and Herko settled on the name QuickSilver
simracing team, which was officially launched on July 1, 2000. Richard
stayed in charge of the team, while Herko was appointed assistant-manager
and public relations officer.