Team YRC are a very intuitive team which value it’s fans very much. So much so that without them there would be no Team YRC as the fan-based team are dependant on subscriptions to provide funding for the upcoming seasons. We caught up with Hannah James, the Team YourRacingCar Team Boss and asked her a few questions.

Q: When and how did Team YRC come about?

Hannah James: YRC started to take shape in January this year (2009) when it was becoming increasingly apparent that it was going to be seriously tricky for a new team to generate the kind of sponsorship that would get us to the grid. Taking it back to the fans gave us a fighting chance and something to build on for the future. There’s no Sugar Daddy at YRC – we were just desperate to race and wanted to find a way to do it without ‘selling out’ on the ‘fan-funded’ concept.

Q: Is Team YRC your first involvement in a motor racing team or do you have a history in motorsport?

HJ: I’m a relative newbie to motorsport but I’ve had some amazing experience – I certainly couldn’t have got YRC to where it is without it. My first foray into motorsport was many people’s dream job – I was the Event Coordinator for SEAT UK so from January to November 90% of my job was working at SEAT Sport UK on the Touring Car and SEAT Cupra Championship programmes. It was a baptism of fire but I was working directly for Scott Dennis (BTCC aficionados will know him as the head guy at SEAT Sport UK) so I had the best opportunity to learn fast. I guess I learnt a thing or two about racing drivers in that time as well with Jason Plato, James Thompson and Darren Turner all driving for the team during my time there. You could say I had a pretty amazing apprenticeship!

Q: You’re one of very few fan-funded racing teams and probably the one that’s been the most successful. Is it not a bit frightening to know that if you don’t get enough paying fans then you may not make it onto the track?

HJ: YES! With most teams at our level, it’s all or nothing – they either get all of the cash they need or none of it. With us, every single membership is vital and so we simply focus on doing whatever it takes to get the message about what we’re doing out there. Just to give you an idea, it takes 10 memberships to pay for just one single race tyre (G50) – if you do the maths then it does start to get scary. However, we didn’t get this far without positive thinking and a lot of slog. There’s a quote from a brilliant film, Field of Dreams “if you build it, he will come”. At YRC the ‘he’ is ‘they’ and they are the fans. They’re really supportive, we just need to make sure every last one of them jumps on baord to keep us racing.

Q: What made you make the decision to enter the Ginetta G50′s? Why not the Porsche Supercup or the Formula Renault’s?

HJ: That’s an easy one. First thing was that it had to be TOCA package for the biggest profile. Ginetta G50′s were new and something different for the fans to get behind. Porsche racing is great but it’s not popular with the fans because they see it as processional. As for Formula Renault – it’s not my bag. I think you’re either a tin-top or open-wheel kind of person and I’m the former. Plus, the ambitions for the team lie firmly in closed wheel formulas.

Q: Last season was very successful with Fulvio finishing 4th and your new driver Sarah winning the Ginetta Juniors last season. What are your goals for this season? (Surely it must be to win the title).

HJ: You’ve got that right! However, it’s not going to be easy. We’re competing in both championships against people who will have far greater budgets then us and that really makes a difference. I’m not complaining, it’s just the way it is. People say it doesn’t make a difference when you’ve got drivers as good as ours but that’s tosh! Saying that, we’ve got high expectations and we’re not to newbies anymore so we’ve got to deliver.

Q: What’s your ambitions for the team long-term? Do you intend to venture into the BTCC at any point?

HJ: There are two answers to that – one is to make sure that we keep our fans happy and coming back each year for more. Without them there’s nothing so that’s the number one priority. Second is to keep supporting talented drivers who might otherwise disappear from the grid. There’s a feeling that Sarah would be racing whatever next year and it’s simply not true. The budget has to come from somewhere and I don’t know of anyone who’s having their door beaten down by corporate sponsors – even the really big names in BTCC struggle.

To answer the BTCC questions – yes – I’ve never made a secret of the fact that we’re heading towards BTCC. The timing and funding has to be right but we expect to be there sooner rather than later.

If like us at BTCC Crazy you love what Hannah and the team at YRC are doing then head over to www.yourracingcar.com and follow them on Twitter at @yourracingcar and become part of the team and help them all the way into and through 2010.

James Mappin is the editor-in-chief covering the British Touring Car Championship. You can contact him at james@btcccrazy.co.uk, on twitter @BTCCCrazy or on his personal twitter account @jamesmappin.