Team Ecosse was set up in early 1996 by Alan Strang from Dundee in Scotland as a team to run in the single-seater Internet Amiga Formula 1 GP Championship. In its first year it managed 4th in the Constructors Championship and went one better in the 1997/98 series with third. For the 98/99 season a large budget went behind the effort and its three drivers, yet results were lacking and a disappointed Strang pulled the plug on the operation before the end of the season, with a final Constructors position of 5th. The large drain on funds and the disappointment of failing to get the first race win for Team Ecosse prompted Strang to retire from racing and the assets were sold to fellow Scot Michael Hogg (who had previously run in the series as an independent entry), who was keen to keep the Team Ecosse name alive.

There was a dream start to the following season when Hogg won the opening round of the Championship in Australia to record the first victory for a Team Ecosse car followed by three fourth place finishes in a row and a pole position at San Marino. A podium finish for 3rd in France kept him at the lead of the Driver's Championship but something of a slump in form over the remainder of the year buoyed only by a 3rd place finish in Germany left the team in 3rd place in the Constructors Championship and the second single-car team behind the drivers' champion Jan Svehlik's Bolgani.

With two-car teams the way to go for the 2000/2001 season, Team Ecosse and Bolgani joined forces in order to go for the Constructors crown. The team was listed as Bolgani although the second car was effectively run by Team Ecosse. The season started promisingly with Hogg 3rd on the grid in Australia where he ran comfortably until retiring followed by 4th in Brazil. The next four races were a dead loss however, with two retirements and two 7th places the only results to be had. Pole position in Canada was a bright spark in a dark season but it could only be converted into 4th in the race. Relations between the Bolgani and Team Ecosse staff were strained at best by this point and following 4th place in round 8 at Portugal the two squads split company. Bolgani had brought the engine deal to the joint squad so this left Team Ecosse out in the cold for the rest of the season. The Bolgani partnership still won the Constructors Championship in the end however. With the IAF1GP Championship shutting down at the end of that season Team Ecosse was left to contemplate it's future.

Deciding to head Stateside early in 2001 in search of a new challenge in the form of Stock Cars, Team Ecosse registered for the brand new European Challenge Series being run by ESCORS under the name of Ecosse Motorsports, procuring a 2001 spec Pontiac Grand Prix to run. Having taken part in numerous tests and qualification races, the team was selected as one of those to be placed in the ECS - the large number of entrants requiring two ECS divisions to be created under the names of North and South, the latter of which Ecosse Motorsports was to run in.

Enough funding to run in just over half of the 22 races that season was brought together in association with Bits Computer Entertainment and the team acquitted themselves very well to learning an entirely new discipline, finishing in the top ten of every one of the 8 races they finished and failing to finish 4 others. The best result of the 8 was 5th place at Watkins Glen in which Hogg's road course experience showed, holding 4th place until the last few laps when an off dropped him to 5th. 12th in the final standings for the year was just reward for a good debut season.

At the very end of 2001 the team entered into a sponsorship deal with Pennzoil with the intention of running the same Pontiac for a further season in the ECS and as such it was painted in a new colour scheme. The Pennzoil money also allowed them to enter a Nissan Skyline in the Watkins Glen 600 Endurance Race and despite some mechanical gremlins they were delighted to finish 10th after 6 hours and 45 minutes of hard racing.

After the promising results that had been shown, the team was approached prior to the start of the 2002 ECS Season by 2001 ECS North Champion and team owner Clive Armstrong who was looking to swell the ranks of Armstrong Racing. A deal was struck to have Ecosse Motorsports run one of his brand new 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix machines under the Armstrong Racing banner and as such the 2001 Pontiac was sold on though Pennzoil stayed on as the car's major sponsor.

The ECS season started with a battle scarred 21st 6 laps down at Phoenix and an engine failure before the green flag at Daytona. Things got better at the Atlanta 150, having started 25th, Hogg found himself in 8th place at the flag following a chaotic last couple of laps that included a number of multi-car accidents. This was followed by a solid 12th place finish at New Hampshire. At this point however, Clive Armstrong pulled his team out of ESCORS following a number of bust-ups with the race officials. This led Ecosse Motorsports to look at various options for the remainder of the season given that a split was now inevitable. Eventually it was decided they would continue to run the car under the Armstrong Racing name for the remainder of the season whilst planning a route for 2003.

On track, meanwhile, the team were struggling with a couple of DNFs and a tenth place finish at Sears Point being the only results. Without adequate funding, the squad missed six of the seven races through July and August, only making it out for the ESCORS 125 at Michigan for a distant 14th place 2 laps behind.