Erebus Motorsport

Erebus Motorsport V8
Manufacturer Mercedes-Benz
Team Principal Betty Klimenko
Team Manager Ben Croke
Race Drivers 4 Ashley Walsh
9 Will Davison
Chassis Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG
Debut 2013
Drivers' Championships 0
Round wins 0
Race wins 1
Pole positions 1
2014 position 7th (3,357 points)

Erebus Motorsport is an Australian motor racing team. The team runs in the Australian GT Championship with a pair of Mercedes-Benz E63s and 2015 International V8 Supercars Championship with two Mercedes-Benz E63s. The team's current V8 Supercar drivers are Ashley Walsh and Will Davison.

It started life as Erebus Racing before changing the name to Erebus Motorsport in July 2012 to better reflect its overall long term strategy.

The team is owned by Betty Klimenko and is based in Melbourne along with the GT team. The V8 Supercar team is based out of its former Stone Brothers Racing home on the Gold Coast.

Multiple Australian Carrera Cup Championship champion Craig Baird is the GT team's lead driver. The team expanded to a second SLS AMG in 2012 which has become a rotating guest driver seat for various European drivers including Bernd Schneider and Christian Klien. Guy Stewart formerly drove the team's Aurion-Yamaha in the Aussie Racing Cars Super Series and the team is also involved in a V8 Utes team with Adam Marjoram driving and a Formula 3 Mygale labelled Erebus Academy racing in Australian Formula 3 with Jack Le Brocq driving. Currently the two drivers in the Erebus Academy development program are Le Brocq and Adam Marjoram.

History

A Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG prepared by Erebus Motorsport and driven by Thomas Jäger, Alexander Roloff and Bernd Schneider to victory in the 2013 Bathurst 12 Hour

The team formed in 2011 when the team's first Mercedes SLS GT3 car arrived from Europe. Early season problems, coupled with the car not being ready until Round 3,[1] limited Hackett's championship run and he finished fourth, although Hackett did claim race wins at Phillip Island and at Mount Panorama. Early 2012 provided the teams highlight to date, second place in the 2012 Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour with V8 Supercar driver Tim Slade and European GT racers Jeroen Bleekemolen and Bret Curtis co-driving with Hackett.

The team expanded to a second car for the GT Championship with former V8 Utes and Nations Cup GT racer James Brock (the son of the late nine-time Bathurst 1000 winner Peter Brock) added as the second driver.[2] After a crash in the opening round at the Clipsal 500 which put Hackett behind, he quickly got himself into the lead of the Championship. He led from round four through to the final round at Homebush, where he crashed in the opening race. He would go on to finish the Championship in second place behind Klark Quinn.

Brock started the season strongly with a podium in Adelaide. A heavy crash at Phillip Island slid down the order. After re-building the #62 from scratch, he suffered another crash at Sydney Motorsport Park, resulting in another write off. For the remaining three events of the season, Brock was replaced by a group of European-based AMG Customer Sports factory drivers. Maro Engel.[3] was the first, winning the round at Phillip Island, before FIA GT1 World Team Champion, Thomas Jager joined the team. At the final round, five times DTM Champion, Bernd Schneider joined the team and comprehensively dominated the weekend.

In February 2013, the team entered the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour event, with its two Mercedes SLS AMG GT3's. #36 was piloted by Bernd Schneider, Thomas Jager and Alex Roloff, while car #63 was piloted by regular driver Peter Hackett and V8 Supercars drivers Lee Holdsworth and Tim Slade. It was car #63 that would take pole position on the Saturday with Lee Holdsworth behind the wheel with a 2.06.22 but could only finish the race in 6th position, 5 laps behind the race winners after an incident late in the race.

The #36 machine took the first Bathurst 12 Hour victory and added this race to the Dubai 24 Hour victory for Schneider and the AMG Customer Sports program. They ended the dramatic race with a lead well over a lap on the second and third placed cars. Roloff had the honour to take the chequered flag surviving the mixed conditions without radio contact to the team.

V8 Supercars

The Mercedes-Benz E63 of Maro Engel at the Sydney Motorsport Park test day in 2013.
The Mercedes-Benz E63 of Lee Holdsworth at the Sydney Motorsport Park test day in 2014.

In September 2012, Erebus Motorsport announced it was in the process of purchasing Stone Brothers Racing and would enter the International V8 Supercars Championship in 2013, competing with three Mercedes-Benz E63s entered under the category's "Car of the Future" regulations. The sale was finalised in January 2013,[4] with the team purchasing one Racing Entitlement Contract (REC) and leasing a second from the Stone Brothers,[5] whilst operaing a third car on behalf of satellite team James Rosenberg Racing. With Shane Van Gisbergen leaving the team at the end of the 2012 season, Erebus recruited former Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters driver Maro Engel as his replacement, whilst retaining Lee Holdsworth and Tim Slade in the other two cars.

The team continues to operate the team from the former Stone Brothers Racing premises in Yatala on the Gold Coast.

For 2014, the team scaled back to a two-car operation with the James Rosenberg Racing REC and Tim Slade both moving to Walkinshaw Racing.[6][7] Will Davison replaced Maro Engel.[8] Lee Holdsworth scored the team's first race win at Winton in April 2014.[9]

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Mercedes GT3 undergoes parity testing Speedcafe 27 May 2011
  2. ↑ Brock & Benz ...A Dream GT Combo Spherix Management
  3. ↑ European drivers to bolster Erebus Motorsport Australian GT campaign Erebus Motorsport
  4. ↑ Erebus Motorsport completes SBR take over Speedcafe 8 January 2013
  5. ↑ Ross Stone says timing was right to sell V8 team Speedcafe 8 January 2013
  6. ↑ Bartholomaeus, Stefan (29 November 2013). "Walkinshaw confirms expansion four cars". SpeedCafe. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  7. ↑ Bartholomaeus, Stefan (29 November 2013). "Erebus confirms two-car structure for 2014". SpeedCafe. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  8. ↑ Bartholomaeus, Stefan (6 January 2014). "Erebus owner confirms Will Davison for 2014". SpeedCafe. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  9. ↑ "Holdsworth hands Erebus maiden V8 Supercars win". SpeedCafe. 5 April 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2014.

External links