Profile: AG Systems F3600 Anti-Gravity Racing Team
RELEASE DATE: AUGUST / 12 / 2065
DOCUMENT COMPILER: DAMON FAIRCLOUGH (COMMISSION ID: LIVUK32.2), UNDER AUTHORITY OF THE F3600 PUBLIC RELATIONS DIVISION.
AG Systems are currently based in Japan and employ a largely Japanese engineering and research team. Its roots, however, are European, and it is still widely identified in the public mind with Pierre Belmondo himself. The team’s board of management would be the first to admit that their racing successes have been rather few and far between, largely because they have never lost the pioneering spirit engendered during Belmondo’s tenure and tend to value technological experimentation over all-out racing prowess.
John Dekka from the United States flies their lead craft, while the Chinese defector Daniel Chang takes the second ship. Both are competent if unexciting pilots, though the number of experimental changes made to their craft over the course of a season makes consistent performance all but impossible.
AG Systems was originally the commercial arm of the Foundation For European Anti-Gravity Research, the prime mover in anti-gravity development. It was established in 2040 with Pierre Belmondo as Director, and was responsible for overseeing the distribution of anti-gravity technology while protecting it against exploitation. Belmondo was assisted by two headstrong individuals who began to obstruct what he saw as valuable work - one was Delia Flaubert, founder of Auricom Research, while the other was Holst McQueen who went on to work with Qirex Industries.
Their disagreement began while both were working as research assistants in Belmondo’s office. As the anti-gravity franchise increased in value and more commercial concerns declared an interest in adapting it for their own ends, both Flaubert and McQueen were handed greater degrees of responsibility by Belmondo. Unfortunately, while Flaubert shared her employer’s belief that the technology should be free to those who were committed to using it for the common good, McQueen insisted that the profit motive should rule their decisions. He believed AG Systems were turning down the chance to make large amounts of money and that by denying the profit motive, they were actually holding back progress.
Following a number of high profile public disagreements between the pair, Belmondo called them together and asked them both to resign. His sympathies lay with Flaubert, but the feud had become so personal and vicious that he had no choice. He had to get rid of both.
Belmondo was always keen for AG Systems to be included in the nascent F3600 championships and for a time, he turned his attentions to the design of race craft. However, his reputation was such that he remained the team’s figurehead for many years, even when it was bought by a Japanese consortium who wanted to help take anti-gravity racing into the Far East. Belmondo remained as Director until the early 2060’s when he made a formal break with the team so as to move closer to the F3600 Race Commission.
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