R4R today announces that they are in a state of turmoil with their sponsors, namely Grizzly Gas, Lotus and Sony, after last week's debacle at Barcelona. Team owner Scott Michaels revealed today that a week ago the team was in serious doubt about their financial ability to attend the remainder of the season, stating "our financial ability is in serious doubt", but continued to say that the team were able to broker a deal with the their three main sponsors to fund the team through the rest of the season on the #20 Scott Michaels driven car. The team were not, however, able to secure permanent sponsorship back on the #21 Sam Michaels driven car, with Sony saying that the incident involving the two brothers had given Sam an extremely poor reputation in the East (the incident had been described by popular members of the media as "attempted rape"), and Sony didn't want to be associated with the #20 car for the Chinese and Japanese Grand Prix, and the rest of the sponsors had followed suit. With their participation in the final two races in doubt, Scott Michaels had to make quick moves and secured two race deals with some local sponsors, including non-profit charity Taiwan EDACT and Japanese Anime producers UFOtable. Rumours say that an elderly Chinaman pulled out of paying for a personal ad on the rear wing at the last minute due to embarrassment, but Scott avoided confirming this story in the press meeting. Both organisations were ecstatic to take advantage of Scotts awful negotiation skills and get great coverage for ridiculously low prices, but Scott was just glad he can get both cars on the grid for the fly-away races while embarrassing Sam as much as possible. Sam denied comment.
The cars hit the track for early testing this morning but both failed to complete a lap. Scott's car suffered from fuel issues (the team denies rumours that Sam had spiked Scott's fuel with sugar), while Sam's car was found unattended around the back of the circuit. Sam was found hours later by the Chinese military trying to escape the country on a Phillipino fishing trauler.

lolol like a sim soap opera

"attempted rape"

thats wrong in like 6 different ways

>:(

hahah spiked his fuel with sugar LMAO

I personally like the Mugen power, I guess Sony isn't the only Japanese sponsor that is "pulling out" after the "attempted rape".

LMAO Kent! Thats pretty funny! Sam why a Phillipino fishing trauler????!!! lol

Actually the power plant hasn't changed, we've been Mugen all season. We managed to hold onto them by allowing them to tell their customers that the wreck was caused by Sam not being capable of controlling the awesome Mugen power
;-)

Actually they have consulted with me, they have moved all sponsorship to the CCWS LMTC MotorSports Super team, you know their reason...Well Ill tell you...they said they couldn't be affiliated with anybody who donned a Jenson Button Helmet, it was just bad luck :-)

"Sam why a Phillipino fishing trauler????!!!"

i was sure it was going to work at the time

The Saga Continues....

Today, R4R team owner Scott Michaels issued this statement to a few mildly interested members of the press:

"I would like to open by officially stating that the team strongly denies the vicious rumours surrounding Sam's reasons for skipping the Chinese Grand Prix. While his car was impounded prior to qualifying, the reasons for this will remain a matter between the team and the Chinese government and will not become public. I would like to say for the record that there were no 'bags' of 'illegal substances' that Sam was supposedly passing off as 'sherbert' stashed in his fuel tank. There is absolutley no evidence of these substances, despite what the Chinese government may say. Evidence like that doesn't suddenly 'disapear'....
"Anyway, we only got the car back from the impound on Sunday morning, hence the car ran as it should have done in China, and Sam did an amazing job putting the car up to the top of the time sheets in free practice at Monza for the vast majority of the session. He did so well infact, that a few new potential Japanese investors started bidding for the last race (Fuji) that the car would be open for independant sponsors, and the winner of the bidding was the Unofficial Super Aguri Fan Club! They requested a "Super Aguri Forever" design to be painted on Sam's car, and the new livery was shown to the fan club members at Fuji this morning and demonstrated by Sam with a few laps around the circuit.

"I regrettably was unable to attend the meeting as I missed my flight last night. I would like to take the opportunity to deny reports that I was "sitting in my car by the start/finish line on the Monza track poking needles into Heinz Petzold doll repeating 'its not fair' until the early hours of the morning." I respect Heinz and congratulate him on his 'well deserved' victory that he won 'fair and square'. Ehem."

The new skin will be on the FTP shortly.