Gerard Grouve

Who is Gerard Grouve?

Gerard Grouve 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.

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.

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.

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.

From 2007 trhough 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.