Phil Barker – Team Manager & Race Operations Director

The RML Le Mans and Le Mans Series team is headed up by Phil Barker, whose motorsport career started 20 years ago in the World Sportscar Championship with John Fitzpatrick Racing.

Phil started as a motorsport technician in 1984 but, utilising his engineering qualifications, soon progressed to chief mechanic, developing a specialist knowledge of transmission preparation and development. His early assignments included the World Championship-winning Ecurie Ecosse C2 and Aston Martin C1 programmes before he joined Tyrrell F1 to manage its transmission department.

Phil returned to RML in 1995, where he race-engineered John Cleland to the driver’s title in the highly competitive British Touring Car Championship. He continued to engineer the Scot's car until 1997, when RML was retained by Nissan to run its BTCC programme. Phil then spent three years race-engineering another Scot, David Leslie, culminating in a championship runner-up spot in 1999.

Throughout his BTCC era Phil also worked as development engineer with particular emphasis on transmission, steering and damper development.

When RML returned to GT/Sportscar racing with the Saleen programme in 2000 Phil was a key member of the development team, and then went on to lead the championship-winning ELMS programme in 2001.

Over the last few years Phil has been running the majority of RML’s race activities, including entries at Le Mans, the FIA GT Championship, the LMES, Le Mans Series and winning the UK-based ASCAR oval stockcar series two years in succession in 2002/3. In 2005 he was mastermind behind RML’s successful LMES campaign, culminating in a class-winning performance from the MG EX264 in the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Back to Top

Adam Wiseberg – Motorsports Director, AD Holdings

AD Holdings is the principal sponsor of RML’s sports prototype programme. Within that context, Adam performs a complicated role, not only acting as the chief point of contact between AD and the race team, but also being the visible face of the squad as far as the team’s guests are concerned. During race weekends, Adam co-ordinates the links between the team garage and hospitality, organising pit visits, taking driver interviews, explaining the complexities of the car and ensuring that the day runs smoothly for the visitors. At other times Adam is responsible for all the team’s marketing and public profile – everything from taking the final decision on issues relating to the MG’s livery and sponsor placement, to merchandising, branding, negotiating additional sponsorship, and publicity.

This façade, however, hides a die-hard motorsport enthusiast – and not merely from the relative comfort of a hospitality suite! Adam is also an accomplished driver in his own right, and while his regular outings are at the wheel of a historic rally car or classic sportscar, like his favourite MGA, he has also competed at international levels in contemporary GT racing. He co-drove an RML Saleen S7R with Ray and Michael Mallock in the 2004 Spa 24 Hours, and in 2005 made his British GT debut with Emotional Engineering at the wheel of the team’s Monaro GT. Other outings are planned for this season.

Back to Top

Michael Jakeman (Jakey) - Chief Race Technician

Michael has a strong Formula 1 background, having worked for Williams, Benetton and Jaguar Racing. He spent nine years at Williams before moving to Benetton, where he became Michael Schumacher's Gearbox Technician during his championship-winning years of 1994/1995.

After six years Jakey moved to Jaguar Racing, where he became Car Build Manager. He joined RML in 2004 as Chief Race Technician working on RML’s sportscar programmes, and was anchor-man to the team’s pinnacle achievement of victory in LMP2 at Le Mans in 2005. Michael has a wealth of experience in hydraulics, gearbox and car build management.

Back to Top

Vince Mitchell (Vinney) – No 1. Race Technician

The MG’s No.1 technician joined RML six years ago and was part of the team that built America’s first supercar, the Saleen S7 and its racing version the S7R. When the team went on to race the S7R in the ELMS in 2001 Vinney was part of the crew that took all three championship honours that year with the Manufacturer's, Team's & Driver's titles.

When RML began oval racing in 2002/2003 Vince was again the leading technician who helped RML collect championship titles for both years. Since RML’s move into sportcar racing, with a first appearance in the Le Mans 1000 kilometers of November 2003, Vince has been a permanent member of the squad. He’s one of the few people, other than Tommy Erdos and Mike Newton, who spends time sitting in the driver’s seat.

(Vince now works in Spain, where he is the chief engineer for the Ascari resort racetrack.)

Back to Top

Rick Perry – Race Technician

Rick returned to RML this season after almost a year away from the company, but he’s been heavily involved in motorsport all his working life. At the age of 18 he went straight in at the deep end, joining Lotus Formula 1, and has followed a varied and interesting racing life ever since. Highlights include being Bernd Schneider’s No1 in the DTM with AMG Mercedes, and a stint on the flip-side at Le Mans with Mercedes in 1997. For some time he worked with Jakey, first at Stuart Grand Prix and then Jaguar F1, but moved to RML when Red Bull took over.

His first year with RML saw Rick working as No.1 Race Technician on the No 8 Saleen S7R of Miguel Ramos and Chris Goodwin in the 2004 FIA GT Championship. He took a sabbatical in 2005, but by doing so missed out when RML won LMP2 at Le Mans. Determined not to miss out again, he rejoined the squad in March 2006.

Back to Top

Paul ‘Chirpy’ Smallcorn – Fabricator/Race Technician

Paul, or ‘Chirpy’ as he is known by his team mates and everyone else in the pitlane, is married with four children. He first joined RML eleven years ago as a fabricator and has been part of the manufacturing team ever since, gaining the reputation for being one of the finest fabricators in the business.

In 1997 Paul became the race team fabricator with the Nissan BTCC programme and over the years has also become a very experienced mechanic. He began to multi-task as a mechanic and fabricator as part of the 2001 RML Saleen ELMS team - a role he continues to fulfil now that he’s working full time on the RML MG sports prototype programme.

Back to Top

Adam Hughes – Junior Race Technician

The youngster in the team, twenty-year-old Adam joined RML in 2001 as a trainee mechanic. He came to the team to fulfil an element in the diploma in Mechanical Engineering he was studying at the time, and he's been part of RML’s LMES, FIA GT, Le Mans and ASCAR programmes ever since.

If you see Adam during Le Mans week, you'll notice that he's gone blond . . . as part of a bet.

Back to Top

Teddy Pedersen - Sub Assembly Technician

Teddy has been with RML for twelve years, making him one of the longest-standing members of the squad. Originally from Denmark, Teddy started out as a mechanic, completed a stint as truckie between 2001 and 2003, and is now predominantly employed as Sub Assembly Technician.

Teddy was a Number One mechanic on the test team during the period when RML was running the Vauxhall and Nissan squad's in the British Touring Car Championship.

Back to Top

Andrew Ferguson – Electronics/Data Engineer
Andrew is new to sportscar racing, having moved straight into a single-seater environment on graduating from Cranfield University in 2001 with a Masters Degree in Motorsport Engineering. He joins RML after a season with Racing Engineering in GP2 and Spanish Formula 3.

Andrew performs a vital role within the team, collating and analysing the mass of data and telemetry coming from test and qualifying sessions. This also includes running computer simulations in order to predict the effect of changes to the car’s set-up under varying race conditions, and generally working towards optimising the MG’s handling and performance.

Back to Top

Mark Cowell – Transport
This is Mark’s first season with RML, but he has many years experience in motorsport, and sportscar racing especially. He career started in 1990 at TWR Jaguar, based in Kidlington in Oxfordshire, working with the Jaguar XJR-12 Group C cars. He stayed with Walkinshaw’s for eleven years, seeing the Jaguar programme through to its conclusion with the XJ220, and also assisting with TWR’s Nissan R390 involvement of 1997/98.

Mark followed TWR when the organisation moved into Formula 1, spending a season with Arrows F1, before crossing to the States for a season with Panoz and their exciting LMP1 prototypes. He returned to the UK three years ago to join BAR, and followed that with a season in MotoGP with Kenny Roberts before joining RML for 2006.

Back to Top

John West – ‘Jay’ – Transport
This is Jay’s fourth year in motor racing, but his first with sportscars.

He started with two years at Jaguar F1 in Milton Keynes, including a season under the “new management”, before going full-time at Allan Docking last year. He stayed with the team throughout the 2005 season, taking them around the international Formula 3 circuit, before moving to join RML at the tart ofm 2006.

Back to Top

Jason Stone – Aviation & Technical Support
Jason is a regular member of the squad, acting not only as pilot for the team's executive jet, but also turning his hand to many technical support issues. He has particular expertise with the car's TransVU on-board video capture system, yet his principal role during pitstops and driver-changes is to assist the drivers with their belts, radios and seat inserts.

Back to Top

Anne Morel - ACO & LMS Liaison

Le Mans in June would always be more of a challenge if it were not for the presence of Anne Morel. Able to smooth Gallic feathers with diplomacy and tact - she is French after all - Anne is totally invaluable. With the team competing in the Le Mans Series for the remainder of the season, Anne is also a key figure at other race meetings around the world, where her experience behind the scenes in motorsport and her contacts within the ACO and other organising bodies makes life a lot easier and avoids misunderstandings.

Back to Top

Michell Seaman - PR and Liaison

Michell is that vital go-between; the person who provides an essential link between the team and the media, and between the garage and the guests in hospitality. She prepares and distributes the team's media information packs, writes press releases, and makes sure the world knows what RML is doing from one week to the next.

Back to Top

Stuart Parmenter - AER Technical Support

In effect, Stuart is a full-time member of the squad, playing the important role of technical support on behalf of AER, the company behind the MG EX264's two-litre turbocharged engine.

Back to Top

Karl Duchesne - Life Racing Electronics Support

Karl is on permamanent secondment to RML this season from Life Racing, and has expert responsibility for installation and maintenance of the MG's wiring loom and all the car's electrical components and installations.

Life Racing is an affiliate company of AER Limited.

Back to Top