Van Merksteijn Motorsport
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| Founded | 1985 |
|---|---|
| Team principal(s) | Gerard Grouve |
| Current series | World Rally Championship |
| Former series |
FIA GT Championship European Le Mans Series |
| Noted drivers |
Peter van Merksteijn Jr. Peter van Merksteijn Sr. |
Van Merksteijn Motorsport is a Dutch motorsport company active in both circuit racing and rallying. Established in 2008, under the ownership of Peter van Merksteijn Sr. and with Gerard Grouve as team principal, this motorsport company won both the LMP2 class title in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the gruelling the Le Mans Series in its first year of competition. Only one year later the team from Hengelo were again unbeatable when contesting the Dutch Rally Championship. For the 2011 season, the team has once more undertaken very ambitious plan: Peter van Merksteijn Jr. will compete in the World Rally Championship alongside Peter van Merksteijn Sr. driving a Citroën DS3 WRC.
Peter van Merksteijn Sr. has been active in motorsport since 1985. As of 2002, all international motorsport activities of van Merksteijn have been handled by System Force Motorsport, the predecessor of Van Merksteijn Motorsport. The newly formed team started their competition debut with a Porsche 911 GT3 RS in the FIA GT Championship with drivers Peter van Merksteijn Sr. and Phil Bastiaans and also participated in selected rounds of the Belcar Championship. The following year the team entered the 24-hour endurance races of Daytona, Spa-Francorchamps and Zolder. In 2005 it acquired a Spyker C8 Spyder GT2-R that debuted at the 12 Hours of Sebring only to retire one hour into the race due to a wheel coming loose from the car. As the Spyker factory was allocated only a single entry into the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year, the System Force Motorsport entry was placed on the reserve list with Peter van Merksteijn sharing the factory Spyker car with Tom Coronel and Donny Crevels.
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