Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Brook Johnston


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   delete. King of &hearts;   &diams;   &clubs;  &spades; 00:06, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Brook Johnston

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Hoax, I have reason to believe this person does not exist, or at least does not exist as the racing driver in the article. All sources are from message boards or fabricated sites, and no reference to this person or his results can be found on any reliable motor sport website. Bretonbanquet (talk) 18:30, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
 * For instance, Formula BMW International and Sauber Red Bull Racing do not exist. If this series did exist, there certainly would not be a race weekend at Monaco, which only holds one weekend of motor racing per year. The ESPN Rookie Athlete of the Year award does not exist, and selecting randomly from the text, "Lord Thomas Johnston, Baron of Penzance" does not and never did, exist. Bretonbanquet (talk) 18:38, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Comment - Both BMW Sauber and Red Bull Racing are very real. SunCreator (talk) 18:47, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Indeed they are, but "Sauber Red Bull Racing" is not. The teams you mention are Formula One teams. If you google "Sauber Red Bull Racing" then all you get is the Brook Johnston hoax, no results, no other drivers etc. Johnston's supposed team-mate, Matt Jaskel, is also made up. There is a racing driver called "Matt Jaskol", however. Bretonbanquet (talk) 18:50, 18 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Delete: an elaborate hoax, but still a hoax. In addition to the points raised above, the website for "Sauber Red Bull Racing" appears to be provided by Moonfruit, a popular generic website builder, and this photo purporting to be of the subject is an obvious fabrication.--  Diniz  (talk)  18:43, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete Can't find one reliable source. it seems like the series names seem to be subtly changed in the write-ups to make it difficult to figure out. What is odd is the contributing to the article by so few. SunCreator (talk) 19:11, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete Cannot find any source of this name in any sort of racing series.  Series named in the article are very similar to actual ones, but nonetheless NOT real series.  The same goes for team names.  Consensus from motorsportforums.com in particular is in agreement with this - its a very elaborate and well-planned set-up, but still a hoax. Oli.meggitt (talk) 20:17, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete. Very elaborate hoax. Pburka (talk) 20:51, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete. Long established fabrication (some sources date to June 2008) but still a hoax nevertheless. Eddie.willers (talk) 23:12, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete. No reliable sources; hoax. Cs-wolves  (talk)  14:51, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Living people-related deletion discussions. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 00:02, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete. It is very clear that someone has been hard at works, creating this imaginary person, by building websties, writing to message boards and writing this wikipedia article which then references those message boards. This is a hoax. An elaborate one. But a hoax. 123.243.106.166 (talk) 00:43, 20 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete. Hoax - I moderate at Motorsport Forums and we've been checking all these 'articles' out, having a good old laugh and reminding everyone that someone's been oddly busy. Series doesn't exist, team is fictional, Monaco race 2008 supposedly took place on a weekend when the circuit wasn't there and it was a public road, etc... Patnicholls (talk) 14:36, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

There was a Formula BMW International series in 2008 and it was the first year they ever ran the series. However, it was intended to be more of a smaller entry series than the Americas or European ands Asian series. It was not televised and did not get much publicity, thus this season due to the economy it was canned and canceled due to the budget. This Brook Johnston guy is indeed a real driver after doing some research, however, he competed in many small club series, karting and this smaller unknown Formula BMW Series. As for his sponsorships, I know that Red Bull does do partial sponsorships with many athletes and it looks to me like this is what he had received. This is why he does not appear on the Red Bull site, etc. Sauber looks to be like a partial team sponsorship and Peter Sauber is known to have smaller sponsorships throughout auto racing on the side of his Formula One teams. As for the Formula One thing, I am not sure about but the rest seems to be true. I think it was just too hyped up, yet the series and the person does exist.


 * I note that the user providing the paragraph above claiming there was an International F BMW series has not provided a name! Patnicholls (talk) 14:38, 23 April 2009 (UTC)
 * So where are the sources / references? What did your research throw up? If the above were true then Autosport / FORIX would have something on this series, since they have plenty of information on series much smaller than this supposedly is. It doesn't follow that an International series would be smaller than regional series, why would that possibly be? Why would they fly drivers and cars around the world at such enormous cost for a series that nobody gave a stuff about? Even if hypothetically this driver / series did exist, he would still be nowhere near notable enough for an article. Bretonbanquet (talk) 22:34, 20 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Sorry, but there certainly has never been a Formula BMW International series. In 2008, the series were slightly re-organised from 'National' series into the 'Europe', 'Americas' and 'Pacific', all as detailed on Formula BMW, but no mention on any Motorsport or BMW site about an 'International' series.  I'm not sure where you've done this 'research', but to highlight a few obvious ones, there is no 'Indy Pro Amateur' series, and the Red Bull Driver Search officially concluded in 2005 (details at redbulldriversearch.com), 2 whole years before he was supposedly involved in it! Oli.meggitt (talk) 11:40, 21 April 2009 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.