Progen Racing Team - statement
Woking, Surry, UK - Cloud Sports racing reporter Allen James interviewed Progen Group Chairman and team principal Dennis Ron about the company, working with Pfister, and signing a new driver.
Allen James: Dennis Ron, you've been involved with Progen for over thirty years. Going back to 1980, did you see yourself in this position now? Heading up a race winning team, selling countless T20 road cars..?
Dennis Ron: I think I always had a sense that we could push the company forward, yes. Back then, we were spending millions of dollars in R&D costs to be competitive in Formula 1, with our chassis and an engine supplied by Vapid. And to be very frank, most of that money was going towards the salaries of the two drivers - there wasn't much in the way of a strategy for the future.
I looked at what we were doing and said "I think we can monetise some of these costs"
How so?
Well, we were making all sorts of electronic innovations for the car and engine, and we were actually very good at it - much better than Grotti for example. So we thought, well, we know there's a market for these parts, we could sell them. From that, Progen's R&D division began to not just develop chassis for our Formula 1 motorcars, but to develop technological innovations we could sell to the market. We are, as a result, now known as a world leader in this regard - most racing cars to date are using Progen electronics, or benefitting from Progen aerodynamic analysis.
Is this how your entrant to the touring car came about?
Yes. We'd worked with Pfister before, at their request, helping to perfect some issues with their front canards. A simple thing, but we were using carbon fibre years before anyone else because it's incredibly strong but also flexible. From that simple beginning, our engineers - with all their F1 experience during the Progen-Dinka years, the Progen-Benefactor years, we ended up supplying most of the technical and mechanical personnel to their racing division. When BF decided to pull the plug, I sat down with Endersai and said "what do we do" and we decided to buy the assets off them and bring them to Woking.
Was Oh_Darn not part of the discussion?
Oh_Darn at that point was in a bit of financial trouble. We paid our drivers well, which meant they either invested it, or they spent it. Ender's older, he invested it; Darn, much younger and off the high of an utterly dominant season win, spent it on yachts and partying. When the time came he was serving a 1 week prison term and couldn't have participated if he'd wanted to.
The change disrupted your third season
Well yes, because we had our engine development scrapped. So we temporarily used Bravado machines, but their philosophy and ours was quite far from aligned. When we got the deal secured with Pfister, we had engines that were behind on the development curve. We could still push them to their limits but it wasn't good enough. This season will be stronger.
Pfister have relaunched a factory team. Is there any tension then with you as a supplier customer?
Not at all; we buy the raw engine platform and chassis from Pfister, take it apart, and rebuild it ourselves. They know that if it's a Progen victory in their car or a Pfister victory the image still shows that distinct profile so it's a win for them.
I think though at this point much of what we've done with air intakes, composite panelling, flexible wings is widely known so in pure setup terms we should be on par. We might have a minor horsepower advantage, I don't know.
Tell me about your new signing
This was mostly Ender's idea. He'd known Darn was looking to make his mark elsewhere for a while and contacted fab.ICEMAN when Iceman was still in New Zealand. He was interested in driving for us, we met on his return and found that what he expected from a team and what we offered were a perfect fit.
If I needed convincing, which I didn't, I think the fact that the guys went out with the T20 at Spa Short and that Iceman was able to lead for so much of the race and still keep a podium finish - that was amazing. The T20 is not really optimised for that track, and so we saw what happens when you give a guy of his talent a car he'll extract the maximum from it and then go further.
You've worked with champions before; how does Iceman stack up?
The name is not inaccurate. He's cool under pressure and I firmly believe he is champion material. I know there's some competition from Smithy and Doom, so it's our job to equip him as best as possible for this season.
If we don't make any mistakes in strategy or setup, and Iceman drives as he always does, I firmly believe he is the best placed driver to win the title.
When will we see your car for this season?
I'm not sure, I tend not to be involved in the marketing aspect. Soon, I believe.
Thank you
My pleasure
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