Relentless F3 Team

Did you know that we have our own Formula3 team? No, not as in “Iconic Concierge” - but a Canadian team established by two Canadian Entrepreneurs, Colin Colpitts and Ewen Dobbie who share a similar passion for competitive motorsports.

Based in British Columbia, Relentless Motorsports, will be the first Canadian owned and operated team to compete in the FR Americas Championship. They are launching their inaugural FR Americas season with two new Honda powered

F3 cars. The team has held multiple testing sessions in British Columbia, California and Arizona in order to get prepared for the season. As the team waits for a soft loosening of the Covid-19 restrictions and their season to begin, we took the opportunity to hop on a video-conference with drivers Mitch Egner (ME), Andrew Dobbie (AD) and one of the Team Owners, Colin Colpitts (CC). Iconic Concierge is proud to be a partner in this endeavour.

IC: How did the idea of a racing team start? And who initiated it?

ME: It started a few years back when Colin bought an F1000 at Area27 Motorsports Club in the Okanagan. That started the relationship between Colin and myself. From there I helped him run the car and work on it and he let me drive it on the track. So in a way, it started off as some fun track days. The conversation about other Formula cars came up and after some chats with people in the industry and my goals of having a career in racing formula cars, Colin ordered a new F3 car from Ligier North America.

IC: So the owners are ...

CC: ... myself and Ewen Dobbie. We have a small but highly experienced crew which consists of Nicholas Belling, our lead engineer and owner of XLR8 Racing Developments. Nicholas has many years of formula car experience including driving and engineering with top-level teams in North America and abroad. He has worked very closely with Mitch over the last 4 years and has been the lead engineer for Andrew for the past two years.

Next is Dave Caswell, who has worked in the Road to Indy program and many high-level formula car teams.

Jordan Evans is the lead technician on Mitch’s car – he has been helping Mitch in motorsports for the last 14 years, since mini stock days at Western Speedway. Trevor Scotten is the lead mechanic on Andrew’s car, with Sam Gerolf, who comes with a performance karting background, assisting.

Long time childhood friend of mine, David Benjamin also joins the team as our truck driver and ‘go-to guy’ for everything truck and trailer related and helping with car mechanics whenever required.

IC: You mentioned the drivers, Mitch Egner and Andrew Dobbie.

ME: Yes. I have been racing for 20 years. From Go-Karts, to circle track ministocks at 14, WILROC series winged sprint cars at Western Speedway on Vancouver Island before transitioning to Formula cars in 2016 which included a race win and a track record in my first novice race. From there, I set multiple track records across the US and won multiple championships including the Pacific F2000 Pro championship which earned me a spot in the Mazda Road to Indy shootout.

AD: I started racing competitively in 2017 in Formula 1600 here in BC, winning the Rookie of the Year for the SCCBC and CACC, which really solidified my decision to continue to follow my racing passion. From there I started travelling to the US to compete in higher profile races, and in 2019 I moved to the F2000 class where I met Mitch and Nicholas. We teamed up for a successful 2019 season winning the SCCBC, CACC and Zetec class of the Northwest FC Series. I also managed to travel to the US for four FRP Pro F2000 races and made the podium for each race. My Dad, Ewen, has supported my racing from day one and came onboard to became a co-owner in Relentless Motorsports with Colin to race in FR Americas (F3)

IC: That is quite an undertaking ...

CC: No doubt. It was a huge marketing play for us being the first Canadian owned F3 team with all Canadian drivers. We believe we are also filling a big gap that exists in Canadian racing, and hope that we can build a program that can help other Canadian drivers succeed in the future.

IC: Money rules the world. Who are your sponsors?

AD: Yes, and we have some amazing sponsors supporting this endeavour: of course, Colin’s Real Estate Company, Colpitts Real Estate, and Ewen’s Dowco Group of Companies, but also Wrap Holic/Studio3LC, Madison Street Capital, CUDO Collaborative, Worth a Squirt Hot Sauce, DS Tactical, Greater Vancouver Powersports, Trading Post Brewing, MK Technologies, Hermont Group, Taylor Law, The Chive ... and Iconic Concierge Magazine.

IC: Yes, and we are very excited to be part of this. It is the second time we see our logo on a Formula car. The first time was on a Formula E car ... even if only for a few minutes. Maybe tell us a bit about the Racing Series in general?

CC: The FR Americas Championship is the FIA accredited Formula 3 series held in North America. Already recognized in other parts of the world for its immense speed and agility, the F3 car was brought to North America in 2017 by the new owners of Formula 1 (Liberty Media), in an effort to expand their presence in this market. Essentially, FR Americas is a regional series aimed at developing career-minded drivers on the path to Formula 2 or Formula 1. Prior to 2017, there was only Formula 4 in the US, which meant drivers had to go to other parts of the world to compete in any sort of F3 Racing.

Honda provides a full scholarship to the winner of the series to compete in Indy Lights the following season. Indy Lights is the final step on the Road to Indy before reaching IndyCar. Winning in FR Americas will also open the doors to European F3 and other potential F2 teams.

IC: Unfortunately, due to the Covid19 crisis, this Racing Series is obviously affected as well. When do you hope the actual races can start?

ME: We are hopeful that the June event at Circuit of the Americas is rescheduled, but we predict our first event will be July 17 at Virginia International Raceway.

IC: Thank you - we can’t wait to watch the first race.