User:AndrewJB/sandbox

Founded	2001
Team principal(s)	John Boardman
Current series	World Touring Car Championship
Former series	British Touring Car Championship
Noted drivers	Tom Boardman Daryll O'Young
Teams' Championships	2008 SEAT Leon Supercopa 2005 SEAT Cupra Championship 1999 T Cars
Drivers' Championships	2008 SEAT Leon Supercopa 2005 SEAT Cupra Championship 1999 T Cars

Special Tuning Racing(STR) are a Motor Racing Team from Preston,Lancashire. Founded in 2001 as Tom Boardman Racing Team and then changed its name to Special Tuning(UK) in 2003. For the 2011 British Touring Car Championship the team was rebranded as Special Tuning Racing.

British Touring Car Championship

Tom on the grid in his debut BTCC season

Tom Boardman would become the youngest driver in the history of the BTCC when he joined the Production Class of the 2001 with his family-run Tom Boardman Racing team.

Tom has always looked to compete in a large variety of machinery and took to the rally stages towards the end of 2003, with some success, and this led to the formation of Special Tuning (UK) Ltd. He has also competed in the Renault Clio Winter Series with TCR and has tested a number of BTCC cars including the VLR Peugeot 307 and the Seat Leon.

SEAT Cupra and Triple R

A late deal saw him enter the 2004 SEAT Cupra Challenge with backing from his father's Special Tuning operation. At this time the series consisted of identical cars prepared by a single team and, despite a total lack of any pre-season testing, Tom impressed many observers by shrugging off his previous reputation and demonstrating a new-found maturity. He would score a podium result first time out and a win at the second meeting. He was always up against it as many of the drivers were in their second season in the championship but he managed to stay in with a shout of championship victory right up to the final meeting of the year when a 'do or die' gamble on tyre choice saw him drop down to third position in the final standings.

2005 saw a rule change in the championship allowing independent teams to enter cars and the Boardman family, having enjoyed success on the rally stages, took the decision to reform the family team which had entered as Tom Boardman Racing back in 2001 and who had provided the infrastructure for the now defunct Team Varta operation. It was an impressive return to competition with Tom taking the championship crown and a cheque for £100,000. The team would also run a second car for Jonathon Young for the second half of the season with Tom taking on a 'mentor' role.

With the champion driver barred from returning to the championship, a strange situation engineered by Seat Sport UK, Tom decided to concentrate on managing the team for 2006. Triple R would also enter a car in the Spanish series for Tom himself to keep him 'match fit' and to give them experience of the new model that would not be used in the British championship until 2007. However, Boardman remained in the Spanish series for 2007.

For 2008, Boardman competed in the SEAT León Eurocup, and won the Spanish SEAT León Supercopa.

WTCC

Tom Boardman made his World Touring Car Championship début in June at the Estoril round of the series as a reward for his performances in the Eurocup.

Tom contested a full season in the WTCC for the SUNRED Engineering team in 2009. He finished fifth in the Independent's Trophy, taking one Independent win at the Race of UK. He contested his home round in 2010, for SUNRED Engineering.

Tom Boardman will return to the WTCC in 2012, driving for his own Special Tuning Racing team in a 1,600 cc (98 cu in) turbocharged SEAT León Mk2; the team's engine will be supplied by SEAT Sport.Tom will be joined by Daryll O'Young as a team mate.