Rene Recamier

Rene Recamier (born May 1, 1988 in Nimes, France) is a TM Master Cup driver and Rookie of the Year candidate for Majestic Motorsports, driving the No. 12 Gasnier Spahi. He was mistakenly billed as Rene Recarmier after a typo on his ARLA Elite Series application caused confusion.

Early life
At age three, Recamier's dad, Jacques, got himself a new supercar after winning the local lottery, only held every five years. As soon as the car arrived, Rene immediately got into the drivers' seat and was playing with all the controls. The Recamiers got their hands on a ride-on lawnmower when Rene was five, but, being an engineer, his father converted the lawnmower into Rene's first go-kart.

Single-seater career
Recamier entered the Nimes karting league at age six and took the league by storm, winning three of the five races en route to the title. He then joined the French Karting League. Things started off slow for him, as he was unable to get a win the next two seasons, but, at age 10, he found himself winning the 50cc category in stunning fashion. Still using the same lawnmower engine (albeit being tweaked for more horsepower), he took five victories and never finished lower than fourth. He moved up to the 100cc category, winning another four races and a championship.

In 1999, Recamier moved up to the European Karting Championship. He took another two years before winning the championship in 2001. At the age of 14, Recamier would be moving up to the single-seater category. After test-driving duties for Martini Racing, he stepped up to race driver at age 15. However, in his first race, his career would be brought to a shuddering halt. At the L'Ennau du Rin track, Recamier qualified an impressive fifth out of 20. He dropped back a bit on the start into sixth by the end of the first lap. By Lap 5, he was hounding Marco Lianni down the front stretch. As he pulled alongside, Recamier lost control and collected Lianni. Recamier's car rolled onto its side and hit the barrier roof-first at 150 mph (241.40 km/h) and the rollbar crumpled upon impact. The two cars kept on sliding for another 350 yards (320.04 m) along the barrier. R&eacute;camier was severely injured in the crash, and would be out of the sport for three years.

Move to touring cars
At age 19, now fully recovered, R&eacute;camier tested for the Simone Racing team for the European Touring Car Challenge. The next season, however, the ETCC folded, which meant he would have to race in France only. He dominated the touring car scene there, winning 28 out of the 39 races in the three years he raced there, taking two championships in the process.

When 22, he met Jerry Motta, co-team boss of ARLA team Team Whiper-Ildest and was offered a ride for the 2011 season. Recamier accepted the offer, and left his home to head to the United States and the world of stock-car racing.

Early success
Recamier took the helm of the No. 0 Gasnier Dragoon for Team Whiper-Ildest and got off to a flying start, finishing second in the 2011 ARLA Elite Series Rookie Shootout. A DNF in Fort Worth set him back, but he rebounded nicely at St. Petersburg, scoring a victory and kicking off a run of three-straight top 10's. The run ended at Alberta when he finished 11th. But he stepped back up taking a top-five at the 2011 Elk Ridge Ice Clash and scoring another win at Mosport, placing the Frenchman at the top of the championship standings. In the next race at Verdugo, Recamier was involved in several incidents yet still managed to find a way to finish third.

Things would take a turn for the worse at Buffalo Downs, when despite taking pole a flat tyre caused Recamier to fall way back down the order. He then lost the championship lead at Alberquerque, when he got into an incident with Allie Riggs and went barrel-rolling down the apron.

Disaster at Dwyer
Recamier was a heavy favorite to make the 2011 150 Laps of Dwyer, and things looked good for the Frenchman as he made it through pre-qualifying. However, he was involved in an accident not of his own doing in the main qualifying race and failed to advance. Many pundits believed that the DNQ dealt a death blow to his championship hopes. However, Gasnier started to put pressure on Whiper-Ildest Racing to get Recamier in the race one way or the other. Though neither he nor Whiper-Ildest co-owner Motta wanted to succumb to the pressure (Recamier himself said he wanted to be "the guy who won the championship on talent, not money"), the pressure from both Gasnier and Mark Ildest was too great. Gasnier bought out the starting spot held by Math Motors, and Recamier would be in the race.

He started third, but a dropped cylinder and a minor incident with Brenda Riggs caused Recamier to finish 13th, and tied in the points with race winner Allie Riggs.

Recovery
In his next race at Waltham, Recamier got penalized for a pit lane incident with Allie Riggs, meaning that he would start the next race at Watkins Glen from the back of the pack. Interestingly enough, Recamier won the pole for his round and was credited with it (and the five bonus points that go with it), but still started at the back. He managed to work his way up to 15th by Lap 11, but Derek Dudding was in the way and collided with Recamier, giving him enough damage to set his race pace back. In the end, a 20th was all he could muster.

A blown engine in the 2011 Digitickets Darlington Double, did little to bolster his effort, dropping Recamier to fourth in the standings. He managed to come up with 3rd place at Appleton Speedway in the next race which could show an increase in form. He later put up a good showing at the 2011 Decatur Dash, but fell off the pace due to a small problem on his car.

His final race of the season ended up at the 2011 Rockford 200. His race went pretty well, running in the top 10 for most of the time, eventually winding up in 6th place. He finished 5th in the fifth in the final points standings, notching two poles, two wins, five top-fives, and nine top-10s.

TM Master Cup
Recamier made his debut at the 2011 Round of Decatur, in a third car for future employer Majestic Motorsports. He started 41st on the grid and finished an impressive 21st, just missing the points.

2012
Recarmier will be racing the #12 car for Majestic Motorsports alongside Ryan Matthews in the Gasnier Spahi in this season. While his performances were respectful, his personal sponsorship was significantly lacking, causing him to be replaced by the TM Europe points leader, Mélanie Clévenot.