The Asia-based Eurasia Motorsport team will field a sole ORECA 03R Nissan LMP2 for mainland Chinese driver Pu Jun Jin and Nick de Bruijn from The Netherlands in the opening round of the 2015 European Le Mans Series (ELMS), the 4 Hours of Silverstone (10-11 April).
Eurasia is one of the most successful teams in South East Asia, having achieved multiple titles in both single-seaters and GTs. It ran cars in the past two seasons of the Asian Le Mans Series (AsLMS), winning a 24 Hours of Le Mans entry with an Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 in 2013, before finishing runner-up with an ORECA LMP2 machine last year.
Pu Jun Jin, a former Formula Masters China Series (FMCS) China Driver Champion, remained within the Eurasia fold for a season of AsLMS, which provided him with invaluable experience in Le Mans Prototypes prior to his maiden ELMS campaign.
De Bruijn, meanwhile, followed a prolific Karting career with seasons in Formula BMW and Formula Masters China, before turning his hand to GT racing.
The Dutchman proved to be a highly skilled and adaptable driver during an extremely impressive initial outing in Eurasia’s ORECA prototype at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit and Official Testing at Circuit Paul Ricard in the South of France.
As a result, there is a belief within the Eurasia camp that it can figure highly in the AsLMS’s European counterpart and Team Principal, Mark Goddard, said: “What makes this project unique is that it’s probably the first time an entirely Asian team, Japanese apart, has raced in Europe. We also have a genuine mainland Chinese driver in Pu Jun Jin and this year in ELMS is the beginning of a journey that we will take together to the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
“Official Testing at Circuit Paul Ricard went better than we had hoped and I’d go as far as to say it was almost perfect. We showed reasonable speed, the car was perfectly reliable and, while conditions were mainly dry, both drivers got some wet running in too. Our first target is simply to finish the 4 Hours of Silverstone, but a top six finish would be the icing on the cake. This is the first time Eurasia has raced in Europe with the exact same team that runs the cars in the Asian Le Mans Series (AsLMS).”
First practice will be held over one hour from 10.35, with the second 90-minute practice session at 14.10 on Friday (10 April).
The LMP2 and LMP3 runners will share the 5.9km Northamptonshire circuit for qualifying at 11.30 on Saturday (11 April), which precedes the start of the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) 4 Hours of Silverstone at 14.30 later that same day.
