The 2011 racing season is now running at full throttle for RJN Motorsport. The first event left the grid at Zandvoort in Holland, and at the team’s headquarters at Denchworth, near Wantage, cars have been prepared for events this month at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France, Monza in Italy, and at the Nurburgring, Germany.

RJN will be running the latest of the Nissan cars which it has developed for championship racing, in association with the manufacturer, over many seasons.

The company was founded by Bob Neville 11 years ago, with the aim of designing, building and preparing cars for circuit and rally competition. Mr Neville raced in the earlier days of his career, which began straight from school when he became an engineering apprentice at MG in Abingdon.

“Following the completion of my apprenticeship, I worked in the racing and competitions department, and then in the development department,” he recalled.

“I started driving MGs myself in the late 1960s and continued until the 1980s. My most valued success was in gaining MG’s only world championship points in 1976.

“This was in the six-hour manufacturers’ event for sports cars at Silverstone, in which my car was an MGB V8.

“I had numerous other wins in races throughout the years, driving MGs and Porsches.”

Some of Mr Neville’s drives were on courses that no longer exist, such as Phoenix Park, in Dublin.

He said: “Some people lament their passing, but they were quite difficult and dangerous.”

From driving, he moved into racing car production.

Mr Neville added: “I had my own company in the 1980s and early 1990s, firstly in London, and later in West Hanney.

“Then, in the mid-1990s, I went to Nissan Motorsport Europe, which was then at Didcot, and I became team manager for its European operations.

“When Nissan closed the facility in 1999, I set up RJN Motorsport, building and preparing cars for racing by my own team.

“We were fortunate in having immediate success in the FIA European Touring Car Championship, with our Norwegian driver, Tommy Rustad.

“We had four wins and three podium finishes in the 2001 championship, in which he finished third in the drivers’ championship and RJN took fourth place in the team championship.

“In 2002, RJN Motorsport was incorporated into the Nissan Rally Raid team. At that time I took one of the larger units at the White Horse Business Park in Stanford-in-the-Vale, in addition to retaining the Denchworth premises.”

This team took part in the Paris-Dakar rally in two seasons, with the late Colin McRae, Ari Vatanen and Giniel de Villiers as drivers.

Nissan pulled out of rally racing in 2004 and early in 2005 RJN was asked to develop the 350Z model for Nissan Europe for TT racing.

The first race was the 24-hour event at Spa in Belgium. In 2007, the 350Z was developed for the GT4 category.

Mr Neville said “This is where we have been the most successful team for a manufacturer to date, despite being up against Aston Martins and Porsches. Our drivers, Alex Buncombe and Joe Tuckey, had two wins and two second places, finishing third in the drivers’ championship.”

The Nissan 370Z was developed for the 2010 season and this is the car which will be raced this year.

Many famous names have driven for PJN over the years, among them Johnny Herbert, the former F1 driver and British Grand Prix winner, and Oxford-based touring car driver Anthony Reid.

RJN’s contracted driver for 2011, as he has been for several years past, is Alex Buncombe. His brother Chris, who was a winner of the 2008 IMP2 at Le Mans, has also driven for the team.

An alternative route in motorsport in which Nissan and RJN are involved is the Nissan PlayStation GT Academy.

The first two winners, Spaniard Lucas Ordonez, 25, and Frenchman Jordan Tresson, 21, have already driven for the team and taken places on the podium.

Mr Neville explained: “It involves young men — as yet there are no women — from all over Europe playing each other online.

“In the final stage, the national winners go to Silverstone for a week where judges Johnny Herbert and Eddie Jordan select the winners.”

The GT Academy 2011 will reach its final stage in two months’ time.

The two who display the most talent and determination to succeed in motorsport will go on an intensive driving and racing programme to prepare them to qualify for an international racing licence.

For both, there is the ultimate prize of driving in the 24-hour race in Dubai in 2012.

Mr Neville is now hoping a young British star of the future may emerge from this year’s academy and go on to share in more successes with RJN Motorsport.