Gerard Grouve (born 13-10-1961) is owner of Grouve Sports Management Group and specialized in driver and team manager. He is best known for his role as team director of the 2008 LMP2 Le Mans winning team of Van Merksteijn Motorsport and their involvement in the World Rally Championship.
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.
The World Rally Championship (WRC) is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver, co-driver and manufacturer. The driver's world championship and manufacturer's world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 14 three-day events driven on surfaces ranging from gravel and tarmac to snow and ice. Each rally is split into 15–25 special stages which are run against the clock on closed roads.
Grouve started his career in 1985 as co-driver for Peter van Merksteijn Sr. in the Audi 80 quattro and the Ford Sierra Cosworth in the Dutch rally championship. After retiring as co-driver he took the position of team manager until 1996 when Van Merksteijn switched to circuit racing.
Peter van Merksteijn Sr. is a Dutch racing driver and rally driver who drove for the Van Merksteijn Motorsport team in the 2011 World Rally Championship season with Citroën DS3 WRC.
The Audi 80 was a compact executive car produced by the Audi subdivision of the Volkswagen Group across four generations from 1966 to 1996. It shared its platform with the Volkswagen Passat from 1973 to 1986 and was available as a sedan, and station wagon) — the latter marketed by Audi as the Avant. The coupé and convertible models were not badged as members of the range but shared the same platform.
In 2000 Grouve ressumed his motorsport career as team principal of System Force Motorsport competing in the Porsche Supercup and from 2002 in Belcar, FIA GT Championship, Grand-Am 24 hours of Daytona and Le Mans Series with a Porsche 996 GT3 RS. The team ran in 2005 a Spyker C8 Spyder GT2-R during 2 races in the Le Mans Series and the ALMS 12 Hours of Sebring.
The Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup is the international motor racing series supporting the FIA Formula One World Championship organized by Porsche AG.
The Belgian Racing Car Championship was the national sports car racing championship of Belgium. The series was sanctioned by the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium and run by Kronos Event.
The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout the years has visited other continents including Asia and South America. At the end of 2009, the championship was replaced by the FIA GT1 World Championship, which morphed into the FIA GT Series for 2013.
In 2008, Grouve became director of the newly formed team of Van Merksteijn Motorsport which won the 24 hours of Le Mans and the Le Mans Series in LMP2 with the Porsche RS Spyder driven by Jos Verstappen, Jeroen Bleekemolen en Peter van Merksteijn.
The RS Spyder is a racing car designed by Porsche in conjunction with Penske to compete in Le Mans Prototype Class 2 (LMP2) racing. The car takes its name from the legendary 550 Spyder of the 1950s. The car marked Porsche's first return to the top level of sports prototype racing since the firm abandoned its Porsche LMP in 1999.
Johannes Franciscus "Jos" Verstappen is a Dutch former racing driver. After his F1 career Jos Verstappen has won races in A1 Grand Prix and Le Mans Series LMP2 races. Prior to his F1 debut in 1994, he was also the German Formula Three champion and Masters of Formula Three winner in 1993. Jos was the most successful Dutch F1 racing driver before he retired and started mentoring his son Max in Formula 1.
Jeroen Bleekemolen is a Dutch professional racing driver. In the Chrysler Viper GTS-R he drove in the FIA GT Championship, with great success. He competed in the very competitive German Formula Three Championship and drove a number of times at the Masters of Formula 3 at Circuit Zandvoort, the unofficial F3 World Championship. Together with Opel he raced in the DTM. In 2005 Jeroen Bleekemolen competes in the ELF BRL V6.
From 2007 through to 2011, Gerard Grouve was involved in the World Rally Championship as team manager for father and son Peter van Merksteijn. Having driven the Ford Focus WRC in 10 WRC events, the team switched in 2011 to Citroën where Grouve was responsible for their entry as an official WRC Team with the Citroën DS3 WRC.
Citroën is a French automobile manufacturer, part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group since 1976, founded in 1919 by French industrialist André-Gustave Citroën (1878–1935). In 1934, the firm established its reputation for innovative technology with the Traction Avant. This car was the world's first mass-produced front wheel drive car, and also one of the first to feature a unitary type body, with no chassis supporting the mechanical components.
The Citroën DS3 WRC is the World Rally Car built for the Citroën World Rally Team by Citroën Racing for use from the 2011 World Rally Championship season. It is based upon the Citroën DS3 road car, and replaces the highly successful Citroën C4 WRC. It is built to the new World Rally Car regulations for 2011, which are based upon the existing Super 2000 regulations, but is powered by a turbocharged 1.6-litre engine rather than the normally aspirated 2-litre engine found in Super 2000 cars.
Gerard Grouve has been involved in the start of the successful rally career of many Dutch drivers like Peter van Merksteijn Jr., Bernhard Ten Brinke and Dennis Kuipers. Under the leadership of Grouve, Van Merksteijn jr. won the Dutch championship group N in 2007, Bernhard Ten Brinke won in 2009 the Dutch championship in a Focus WRC 08 and was elected as Rookie of the Year in his first full year in the sport. Ipatec Racing with drivers René and Dennis Kuipers have called upon the experience of Gerard Grouve during their early years in the WRC for setup of their rally team and coaching of Dennis Kuipers during the start of his WRC career.
Peter van Merksteijn Jr. is a Dutch racing driver and rally driver who will be driving for the Van Merksteijn Motorsport team in the 2011 World Rally Championship season. He won the Dutch Rally Championship in 2007 in the Group N class with a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. He made his WRC début in 2007 at the Rallye Deutschland. He is the son of Peter van Merksteijn Sr., who raced in the WRC before and won the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class, using a Porsche RS Spyder.
Dennis Kuipers is a Dutch rally driver.
During the 2009 edition of the Dakar Rally Gerard Grouve took care of the team management for Peter van Merksteijn sr. and René Kuipers, both driving a BMW X3CC within the X-Raid team.
After parting with Van Merksteijn Motorsport as of January 2012, Gerard Grouve founded Grouve Sports Management Group, an independent management company that assist drivers and teams in motorsport with the realisation of their sporting dreams. The company also established a young driver program and is involved in sponsor finding in motorsport.
Gerard Grouve was Dutch national coach from 2013-2016. Started as national coach for Rally sport in 2013/2014, Gerard became in 2015 the national coach for Racing as well. In his function as national coach he has supported Dutch young talented drivers for the Dutch ASN (KNAF KNAC Nederlandse autosport Federatie) with chairman Huub Dubbelman.
Talents supported: 2013 - Leo van der Eijk, Mats van der Brand, Mike Veldhuisen (Rally) 2014 - Leo van der Eijk, Mats van der Brand (Rally), Max Verstappen (Racing) 2015 - Mats van der Brand (Rally), Larry ten Voorde (Racing)
