In between the practice sessions at the Monaco track, Scott Beck, team owner and driver of Rothmans Racing joined us for a welcome drink and a small interview.

Q: Scott, it is a priviledge to be sitting here with you in Monaco. How do you experience theatmosphere in the Princedom?

SB: Well it’s always fantastic to be here in Monaco. We look forward to this race every year. As you know, it is Formula 1′s crown jewel of the season.

Q: As perhaps not everybody knows, Rothmans Racing is an old team by means of saying, can you tell us something about the history of the team?

Rothmans Racing was founded by me in 1996. From my small hometown of Sunland California I formed a team that would go on to last for 13 years, and is still going strong. Rothmans started out using the PC racing sim named GP2. Using today’s standards, GP2 was just the bare basics. But at the time it was like nothing we’d ever seen before.

Over the years racing sims have evolved to what we have today and Rothmans Racing has come right along with them.
From Rothmans meager beginnings of a single car team, it has grown to a team consisting of 17 drivers competing in GP-O and SimCar.

From 1996 to 2007, all aspects of the team were run by me alone. Then in early 2008, Chris Griffin contacted me about joining the team. After just a few minutes of talking to Chris, I knew we had to have him join Rothmans. I could see that Chris was a natural leader and his knowledge about car setups was second to none. Today Chris is the Rothmans Team Manager and IT specialist. Chris basically runs the day to day business concerning the team. I also have my long time friend Chris Phillips on the team as a consultant. CP and I  spend countless hours discussing team strategies and various other aspects of sim racing.

Rothmans Racing has a long history in sim racing and has no plans of stopping anytime soon. With the current drivers we have now, Rothmans is as strong as it’s ever been

Q: When did you decide to come to GrandPrix-Online? And how do you look back  at it since the start at the season?

SB: As you may know, Rothmans was involved with FSR for years. Infact we were racing in FSR before it was actually named FSR. Over the years FSR has moved in a direction that we at Rothmans didn’t see us going in.
Then finally another league emerged that looked like it could rival FSR. It is GP-O. The decision to join GP-O was an easy one.
GP-O has come along very fast and I must say it is working out better than we ever could have imagined. Rothmans is proud to be a part of this league.

Q: Your drivers are performing well in the Challenge Series, whilst the  results in the Sprint series have yet to come it seems. How do you see the progress the team is making through the season?

SB: I think both divisions are preforming very well. Yes it is true Challenge is doing better, but the Sprint guys will come through as the season goes on.

Q: Can you shed a light on how you make sure the team is ready on raceday?

Sure. As you may know we have our own server. We encouage all our drivers to practice there so they can share setups and talk about race strategies. It’s all about teamwork and preperation.

Q: Now we are in Monaco, having a drink whilst watching the famous Loews  hairpin, what do you think will be most important in this race?

SB: The most important thing for this race is to finish.

Q: How do you feel about the track in person? You like it, or isn’t it one of  your favourites?

SB: I’ve been here many times over the years and I still get that same feeling of excitment everytime. It’s the most wonderful place to be. It is my favorite track.

Q: Can you see Rothmans grabbing her maiden victory in GPO at this track?

SB: I can see it, however doing it is another story. Brian Oates, Keith Doherty and Drazen Cokor will all be there fighting for the win. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if one of them pulled off a win. I have total confidence in all 3 of them running a good race this weekend. DC is in 2nd place in the drivers points and Rothmans Canon Racing 3 is leading the Team Championship by 15 points.

Q: Thank you for your time Scott, good luck this weekend.

SB: I would encourage everyone to visit our website. Thank you for having me.

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