Raggs Racers

**Founded:** .
2006 (original)
 **Ceased:** 2017 (original)
 **Headquarters:** .
***Australia:***
Brisbane, QLD, Australia (2006 - 2008)
Karumba, QLD, Australia (2008 - 2010)
***United States:***
Boston, MA (2010 - 2017)
 **Alliance:** PawPatrolracing
Ford Australia (2006 - 2010)
 **Fleet Size:** .
271 (unsupported)
 **Parent:** Independent (2 January 2006 - 31 December 2017. Independent under Blue Socks Media LLC starting January 2011)
PawPatrolracing (4 January 2019 - 7 May 2019)

Raggs Racers was an American competitive racing team owned by PawPatrolracing LLC and is raced against many of the other NASCAR teams. In 2019, it was revived by its now parent company PawPatrolracing LLC after Blue Socks Media sold Raggs Racers to PawPatrolracing in January 2018.

This team has a fleet of 42 Ford Fusions as well as an additional 24 Mustang GT cars acquired throughout 2019, all of them branded as Ford. This fleet has 271 unsupported Ford cars that began racing between 2001 to 2015 with the 2016 car fleet expected to retire at the end of 2019. One of the unsupported Fords (2001 Ford Taurus) that were part of the team was bought by Austin Holahan in 2018 and was the only American Ford owned by the team as the team had Australian Ford Falcons at the time they started their 2001 - 2005 fleet. Raggs Racers also had much of their old fleet dating back to 2006, which were sold between 2015 to 2017 (mostly due to financial difficulties since Barry was the only racer to win most races in the year with all other racers failing to reach the top 10.

Prior to the PawPatrolracing merger in the new year of 2018, Raggs Racers had the 8 year support lifespan with all their Fords (4 years mainstream and 4 years extended for vehicles from 2003 - 2009). Once Raggs Racers merged with PawPatrolracing, they changed their lifespan of their cars to three years. As a result, all the cars that made their debut between 2009 and 2014 were immediately unsupported. It was announced on February 2, 2019 that Fords added in 2020 or later will have the 8 year lifespan as opposed to the current three year lifespan or the proposed five year lifespan implemented for the PawPatrolracing fleet in 2023 and later.

## History

On 2 January 2006, as a promotion for Raggs airing on the Seven Network, Raggs Racers was founded by Austin Holahan (then known as Sam Wilkes). The team was successful throughout the late 2000s. The racing team only raced with Fords as Sam was the owner of the team and he disliked Holden with a passion. Three Raggs Racers drivers won several races in 2007 and 2009 and Raggs Racers became the winning racing team in 2007 and 2009. Throughout Raggs Racers lifespan in Australia, the team only consisted of Australian drivers and one American driver named Barry (born 1985). In 2010, Raggs Racers finished their V8 Supercars championship with the championship nicknamed "Farewell Australia" with their last race at Sydney Telstra 500 with the team driving the 2010 Ford FG Falcon. Blue Socks Media announced intentions of relocating Raggs Racers to the United States which means that Raggs Racers will also be departing from the V8 Supercars championship. The team then relocated to the United States following the brand being bought out by Blue Socks Media. All Raggs Racers drivers except Barry (the remaining original driver of Raggs Racers at the time and is from the U.S) had all departed from the team at the time the company relocated. For the next six years, they have held up really well in the United States. Throughout the late half of 2016 and in to 2017, Raggs Racers were losing their first position really fast, despite Barry being the sole champion in the team. As the team was continuing to its demise, in December 2017, PawPatrolracing announced that they would acquire the Raggs Racers team, car fleet and assets as Raggs Racers was nearing bankruptcy. The team was then dissolved in to PawPatrolracing, 13 drivers including Barry were transferred to the well established PawPatrolracing, while the remaining drivers were laid off and all former staff lost their jobs. In August 2018, PawPatrolracing's acting CEO Austin Holahan had announced that the last original Raggs Racers driver Barry had died on August 12 from a major car crash at Consumers Energy 400. PawPatrolracing now had no original staff of Raggs Racers remaining. In September, Austin claimed ownership of PawPatrolracing, this resulted in the defunct Raggs Racers under the original family tree again.

In January 2019, Austin and Ryder announced that Raggs Racers would be reinstated as a subsidiary of PawPatrolracing. Austin is the current and original owner of Raggs Racers and also co-owns PawPatrolracing. Austin attempted to time travel back to the day of Barry's death and rescued Barry before the car crashed in to the wall. Austin and Barry were found on the inside of the track. These two quickly moved off the race track and Austin went back to the present and was excited to see Barry again. Raggs Racers now had their original racer again. In an announcement made by Austin Holahan, Raggs Racers and PawPatrolracing will be in the hands of a new parent company named PawPatrolracing LLC on May 8, 2019.

Ultimately, this team (as well as PawPatrolracing, JC Racing, Caleb's racing team and Huffy Racing) will move to the ownership of PawPatrolracing LLC on May 8, 2019. Caleb's racing team was purchased by Raggs Racers and added "by Raggs Racers" to its name. Raggs Racers announced to keep the team name simply for brand recognition.

Raggs Racers was since dissolved as a team but PawPatrolracing still uses Raggs Racers as a brand from time to time.

## Slogans

* V8 Racing with Raggs (2006 - 2009)
* Farewell Australia! (2010)
* The paws of American racing in NASCAR (2011 - 2014)
* The paws of American racing (2014 - 2017)
* The Classics never die (since 7 January 2019)