Although they were fielding three competitive drivers, whispers were starting to be heard amongst the pro series paddock that Vermillion are about to make some big moves. Driver movement is unusual in the early part of a season, but with the collapse of Altus, Vermillion had secured almost the entire Altus lineup. It was a bombshell announcement at the time, with Vermillion immediately having one of the strongest driver lineups in the field.

It didn’t take long for Vermillion Motorsport to benefit from this strengthened lineup, securing a podium and featuring heavily at the pointy end of the early championship standings with Andrew Gilliam and Ric Kuznetsov. Rattray-White was also showing an improvement in pace and results with the arrival of some of the pro series biggest names at Vermillion. Jack Doohan’s brand became the new naming rights sponsors of the frontrunners, and the talk continued to come out of the team that they are on the fast track to success.

During this time, Vermillion Motorsports worked closely with Lobs eSports behind the scenes, in practice sessions and test sessions, forging an informal alliance of sorts, something team manager Ben Faulkner credits for their uptick in performance

“Regarding Lobs Esports, historically we have had a great relationship with them, they helped us massively with preparation for Pro Series races to date, which we were, and still are thankful for. We also got along with them well off the track outside of racing”

Seemingly out of the blue, and without any warning DoohanOK put a halt on their sponsorship deal with Vermillion Motorsports, Faulkner explains;

“At the beginning of June, DoohanOK contacted us and asked us to pause the sponsorship to reassess the relationship moving forward, which we were more than happy to comply with, given our positive relationship with Jack, and fast growth. It was a week or two later that we found out that Lobs had taken up DoohanOK as a sponsor. We can’t be certain regarding the circumstances of DoohanOK leaving us for Lobs, so we won’t make any accusations. Needless to say, we were pretty shocked, and feel like we were blindsided by the situation.”

The sponsorship shirt was only part of the story with some of their top stars leaving, Gilliam to Lobs eSport and Ric Kuznetsov back to 9ine 5ive.

Six months is a long time in Motorsport, and it has been a huge roller coaster ride for Vermillion Motorsports. Through it all, two stars are starting to emerge from the original squad, O'Reilly and Rattray-White are beginning to feature heavily at the pointy end, cementing Vermillion's long-term goal of being a championship contender. Rattray-white in particular is starting to lead this team back from a tumultuous time, back to the front with no shortcuts, a driver Vermillion Motorsports can build around.

Tune in to Round 7 at Monza on July 24th to see Vermillion in action, with their new “in your face” livery!