page_title: Van Merksteijn Motorsport
section_title: Rallying
hierarchical_section_title: Van Merksteijn Motorsport / Rallying
caption_attribution_description: Peter van Merksteijn jr. drives his Citroën DS3 WRC at the 2011 Rallye Deutschland.
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: Since 2007 Van Merksteijn Motorsport has once again been actively involved in rallying. Van Merksteijn, Jr., in his debut in rallying, won the 2007 Dutch Rally Championship’s group N class with the Belgian co-driver Eddy Chevaillier. In that same year the team from Hengelo, took delivery of a Ford Focus RS WRC 06, the first WRC car of the new generation Ford Focus to be delivered by M-Sport to a customer team. In the 2007 Rallye Deutschland, Van Merksteijn, Sr. made his comeback to the sport in the Focus RS WRC. During the same event Van Merksteijn, Jr. made his WRC debut with a Group N Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. Later that year father and son Van Merksteijn competed in the Rally Catalunya and the Wales Rally GB.
  Regardless of the activities of Van Merksteijn in the Le Mans Series with the Porsche RS Spyder, the team entered a select number of WRC events in 2008. Their rally campaign started in Karlstad for the 2008 Swedish Rally followed up in May, immediately after the Le Mans Series race at Spa-Francorchamps, with the Rally d’Italia Sardegna. In July the team took delivery of a second WRC car, this time the Ford Focus RS WRC 07, again the first new-generation to be delivered to a customer team by M-Sport. This enabled Van Merksteijn, Jr. to make the switch to the Focus that his father had previously driven. In this setup Van Merksteijn Motorsport started the Rally Deutschland and the Rally Catalunya.
  After achieving its sole objective of 2008 by winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Van Merksteijn Motorsport sold their Porsche RS Spyder to focus primarily on rallying. In 2009 the team was involved in the Dutch Rally Championship with Bernhard Ten Brinke. Van Merksteijn Motorsport trained the rookie rally driver and quickly prepared Ten Brinke to drive the Focus WRC with co-driver Hans van Goor at the front of the strong Dutch entry list. Once again Van Merksteijn Motorsport created a champion who would win the national title in his first year in the sport. Internationally the team was active but with a reduced calendar that only saw the team enter the Rally Norway and Rally Portugal.
  In 2010 Van Merksteijn Motorsport entered the Rally Sweden for the second time, the favorite event of father and son Van Merksteijn, where they both drove Ford Focus RS WRC cars. Later that year during the Rallye Deutschland Bernhard Ten Brinke made his WRC debut. The Dutch Champion driving the Focus with co-driver Eddy Chevaillier recorded an amazing result by finishing in 12th position overall in Trier. In Rally Sweden, Rally de Portugal and Wales Rally GB Van Merksteijn Motorsport was also present in a support role for Ipatec Racing as organizers and managers of their WRC activities.
  For the 2011 season the team announced ambitious plans. Van Merksteijn Motorsport will enter the World Rally Championship as a private WRC team with a Citroën DS3 WRC. Van Merksteijn, Jr. will start in ten rounds of the Championship and father Van Merksteijn, Sr. intends to drive in a second DS3 in three WRC events. It is unique that a private Dutch team will have the latest specification WRC cars from Citroën.
caption: Peter van Merksteijn Jr. at the 2011 Rallye Deutschland
exif: {"Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "160", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "20622"}