24h Le Mans
For its début at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Eurasia Motorsport has not set itself any goals apart from learning as much as it can with a view to taking part in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in 2017, having already competed in the European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series.
EURASIA MOTORSPORT
Owner: Mark Goddard
Team Manager: Mark Goddard
Track engineer: Greg Wheeler
2016 ELMS results:
4 Hours of Silverstone: Rtd. Jun Jin/De Bruijn/Gommendy (CHN/NLD/FRA), Oreca 05 - Nissan #33
Imola 4 Hours: 5thJun Jin/De Bruijn/Gommendy (CHN/NLD/FRA), Oreca 05 - Nissan #33
Eurasia Motorsport, founded in 2004, is currently headed by Mark Goddard. The Philippines-based team started out as the Minardi Formula One Junior Team in the Formula BMW Asia Series. In ten years the team has bagged over 40 titles in South-East Asia in disciplines such as the Asian Le Mans Series, Formula 3, Formula V6 Asia, Formula BMW Pacific Series, Formula Pilota, Formula Masters China Series and GT Asia Series (with Ginetta GT3s and Ford GT3s under the name of Craft Eurasia. The team was also the first to work with a technical partner, signing a worldwide agreement with Aston Martin Racing (as Craft Eurasia).
Eurasia Motorsport also detects young talents, selecting go-kart drivers and introducing them to GT and LM P3 and then P2. The idea is to take drivers to the very highest level. The Philippine team has brought on talented drivers such as Daniel Ricciardo, the Formula One Red Bull Racing driver, Antonio Giovinazzi, vice-champion of Formula 3 Europe and winner of the last F3 Masters in Zandvoort, and Richard Bradley, winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in LM P2 in 2015. Eurasia Motorsport still has a junior single-seater team.
The team began an endurance campaign under the name of Craft Racing, fielding an Aston Martin in GTC. Having finished second in the Asian championship, they won an invitation to the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2014. But during the winter, the two entities decided to go their separate ways and Craft declined the invitation. In 2014, the team entered the Asian Le Mans Series once more, in LM P2 with an Oreca 03R-Nissan. The initial drivers were John Hartshorne, Richard Bradley and Tack Sung Kim, with the addition of Pu Jun Jin and James Winslow later in the season. The first attempt was conclusive: runners-up at Fuji, Shanghai and Sepang, the team were second in the championship.
Endurance featured heavily on the 2015 calendar, with another Asian Le Mans Series campaign plus the European Le Mans Series, this time with the Oreca 03R-Nissan. In Europe, the team was composed of Pu Jun Jin, Nick de Gruijn and Richard Bradley. They proved they had really got to grips with endurance racing with a fifth place at the 4 Hours of Silverstone. Eurasia Motorsport finished sixth in ELMS.
In the Asian Le Mans Series, Tack Sung Kim, William Lok and Tristan Gommendy took the wheel of the Oreca 03R. They came tenth at Fuji, second in LM P2 in a difficult race. Richard Bradley replaced Gommendy for the last three rounds and Nick de Bruijn stood in for Tack Sung Kim. They came third at Sepang. The #99 finished the 2015/2016 season in fourth place. At the same time, the team also fielded a second Oreca 03R-Nissan under the name of Jagonya Ayam with Eurasia, with drivers Sean Gelael and Antonio Giovinazzi. The pair got on very well and pulled off two wins with the #9 and finished third LM P2 team in the championship.
For 2016, the Oreca 03R-Nissan has been replaced by the Oreca 05-Nissan and the drivers are Pu Jun Jin, Nick De Bruijn and Tristan Gommendy. At Silverstone the #33 was plagued with electrical issues and had to retire. At Imola, the trio had an excellent race and finished fifth overall. Gommendy’s experience will be invaluable to the Philippine team at Le Mans. However, Eurasia Motorsport has not announced an objective other than to finish the race. On the other hand, we do know that they intend to run a FIA WEC campaign in 2017.
