Craft-Bamboo Racing is an auto racing team. It was founded in 2014 after the merger of Craft Racing from Hong Kong and Bamboo Engineering from the United Kingdom.Craft and Bamboo Merge to Form Craft-Bamboo Racing - Jake Handley, The Checkered Flag, 8 April 2014
Craft Racing was established by Frank Yu in 2009 and was a front running team in Asian Championships for five years.
Bamboo Engineering was formed in July 2009 in Silverstone following the departure of team director Richard Coleman from Tempus Sport. It finished third in the WTCC drivers championship in 2013, and also ran in the GP3 Series.
Richard Coleman was removed from the team in 2017, and was sued in 2020.Weekly Racing Roundup (7.27.20) - Daniel Lloyd, Sportscar365, 27 July 2020
British Touring Car Championship
Bamboo ran former Tempus driver Harry Vaulkhard in the 2009 British Touring Car Championship season, scoring several top 10 finishes to finish 16th overall in the championship.
European Touring Car Cup Bamboo entered a pair of Chevrolet Lacettis in the one off 2009 European Touring Car Cup as a prelude to the 2010 entry in Braga, Portugal. Vaulkhard entered alongside Duarte Fèlix da Costa. In qualifying the pair locked out the second row of the grid with Costa 3rd and Vaulkhard 4th, eventually finishing race 1 8th & 5th respectively. In race 2 Vaulkhard led the race in what would have been a championship winning position before spinning out of contention and ending up crossing the line in 6th place. Da Costa inherited the lead which would have also sealed the title for him and also spun out, ultimately finishing 7th.
World Touring Car Championship
Chevrolet Lacetti (2010–2011)
In 2010 the team entered the World Touring Car Championship, initially with Vaulkhard and Darryl O'Young as drivers. Bamboo Engineering step up to the WTCC Vaulkhard took the team's maiden WTCC Independents victory at the 2010 FIA WTCC Race of Italy. Harry's Monza Magic O'Young followed that up with the first ever victory for a Chinese driver in an FIA event at the 2010 FIA WTCC Race of Portugal; Podiums aplenty in Portimão which he followed up with victories in Rounds 13 & 14 in Brno, earning the team's first pole position after finishing 8th in race 1 to secure reverse grid role for race 2. O'Young was later given a 30-second time penalty in race one, demoting him down the field and stripping him of his victory. Darryl Czechs Box for Pole at Brno Funding issues saw Vaulkard's season cut short and Yukinori Taniguchi stepped in to replace him for the latter part of the season. He claimed a class victory in the first race at his home event in Japan, and that success was quickly followed up with a victory for O'Young in the second. O'Young entered the final races in Macau as the only man with an outside chance of taking the title from Sergio Hernandez; after a crash with Tom Coronel in race 1 putting him both out of the race, Hernandez took the title and O'Young dropped to 4th in the standings. At the end of their debut season the team claimed second place in the Yokohama Teams' Trophy standings.
Bamboo retained O'Young and Taniguchi for the 2011 season, continuing with the Chevrolet Lacetti for the 2011 FIA WTCC Race of Brazil.
Chevrolet Cruze (2011–2013) The team switched to the Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T for 2011 FIA WTCC Race of Belgium, replacing the Chevrolet Lacettis they ran in the opening round. O'Young took the Yokohama Drivers' Trophy victory in race two. That was to be the only independent victory for the team in 2011, the team ended the year fifth in the Yokohama Teams' Trophy standings.
For 2012 the team had agreed a deal with RML Group which would see them run the same specification of car as the factory Chevrolet team. They signed former BTCC driver Alex MacDowall and Formula Renault 3.5 race winner Pasquale di Sabatino in an all–rookie lineup. The team left the opening round of the season at Monza with MacDowall tied at the top of the Independent Drivers' Trophy with Stefano D'Aste and Pepe Oriola. MacDowall was the fastest independent driver in qualifying for the Race of Austria and took his first WTCC independent victory in race one, the first of the season for Bamboo. For the Race of Brazil, di Sabatino was recovering from bronchitis and pneumonia was ruled out of competing by doctors with Michel Nykjær substituting for the Italian driver for the weekend. Nykjær took the independents' pole position and then the independents' win in race one by finishing in fifth place. The team signed Robb Holland to race their second car at the Race of the United States. O'Young returned to the team for the Race of Japan for the remainder of the season. MacDowall finished fifth in race one having started on the second row of the grid to take the independent drivers' victory. Both drivers were involved in a first lap pileup at the Race of China in race one with both drivers eventually retiring due to race incidents. The team went to the season finale in Macau with a slim chance for MacDowall to take the independent drivers' title. The weekend got off to a bad start when O'Young collided head on the barriers at the Mandarin Oriental corner in Thursday testing. O'Young took the independents' pole position in qualifying and then the independents' victory in race one after being the last car to escape the pileup at the Lisboa corner. MacDowall starting from pole position in race two was quickly passed by Norbert Michelisz at the start. He retook the leader later on but then the pair of them were passed by the works Chevrolet of Alain Menu. MacDowall's race ended when he was tapped from behind by Yvan Muller and collided head–on with the barriers on the exit of the high speed Mandarin bend. O'Young took his second independents' victory of the weekend.
Bamboo engineering stayed in the WTCC for the 2013 season with James Nash joining from Team Aon. The team retained MacDowall in their second car. The team left the Race of Italy with MacDowall having claimed his first overall podium result and Nash leading the independent drivers' trophy, the team were second in the teams' trophy behind RML. Nash secured his first podium finish at the Race of Morocco in race one when he finished third. Nash took the independent driver's victory in race two, the two Bamboo drivers then shared the independent victories at the Race of Slovakia. Bamboo took their first overall victory in the WTCC at the Race of Austria when Nash held off the advances of Yvan Muller in the final laps of race two to finish on the top step of the podium having started from pole position. Nash followed this up with a second victory of the season in Race 2 in Portugal with a lights to flag victory from pole position 5 seconds ahead of reigning World Champion Rob Huff. MacDowall and Nash continued to trade independent class victories throughout the remainder of the season, with MacDowall victorious in the United States & Japan, where he also took an overall an podium for second, and Nash took both wins and an overall podium for 3rd in China. The pair went into the finale at Macau both with a chance of taking the independent crown. Nash sealed this in race one by following MacDowall home and then sealed 3rd in the World Championship with a 4th place whilst main rival Tom Chilton crashed out of both races. Nash & MacDowall shared 12 independent race wins between them in a dominant year for bamboo.
Chevrolet Cruze TC1 (2015)
After the sabbatical in 2014 whilst the squad competed in the World Endurance Championship, Bamboo returned to the World Touring Car Championship in 2015 continuing their relationship with RML and Chevrolet by competing with the Chevrolet Cruze in its new TC1 format. The team signed successful GT driver Gregoire Demoustier for the season which begun in promising fashion with the Frenchman scoring on his debut in Race 2 in Argentina with a 10th place. Another good result for Demoustier and a 10th place was secured in Race 2 at the Hungaroring. Following a major upgrade for the Slovakia round, Demoustier narrowly missed out on a reverse grid pole position at his home race in Paul Ricard, France by 0.015 seconds, after running in the top 6 in both free practice sessions. The Frenchman put on a similar competitive display in China running high up in the practice sessions and again just missing out on Q2.
GP3 Series In 2013, Bamboo joined the GP3 Series as the replacement for Atech CRS Grand Prix. After testing with the team at the Autódromo do Estoril, Venezuelan Roberto La Rocca became the first driver to join the team. Following the death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and the changing political situation in the country, La Rocca was forced to exit the team and he was replaced by Carmen Jordá. The team signed British drivers Melville McKee and Lewis Williamson to drive their other two cars. McKee took his and the team's first victory in race 2 at the Nurburgring. At the end of the season the team was sold to Russian Time.
FIA World Endurance Championship
For 2014 Craft-Bamboo secured a technical partnership with Prodrive run Aston Martin Racing to run an Aston Martin Vantage V8 GTE car in the FIA WEC in the GTE Pro category. Alex MacDowall made the jump from the WTCC with the team as one of the drivers along with long term driver Darryl O'Young. The third seat was filled by Brazilian Fernando Rees, a previous champion in the series. Steady progress was made through the season with the #99 car battling for the class lead during the early hours for the 6 hours of Spa and the Lone Star Le Mans at Austin Texas. A crash in the first night session of the Le Mans 24 Hours with Rees behind the wheel left the Aston unrepairable, which unfortunately meant the team failed to take the start and compete in the flagship event for the series. The breakthrough came at the 6 hours of Fuji, with MacDowall and Rees qualifying the Vantage in pole position. After a tense 6 hour long battle during the race, the #99 ultimately missed out on the race win to the two Ferraris by 30 seconds — about the amount of time lost in the re-fuelling during the race. Competitive showings at the Chinese and Brazilian rounds showed the #99 had made progress and finished the season with a strong 4th place in the 6 Hours of São Paulo.
TCR International Series
Seat Leon (2015-2017)