Zoom on Massive Motorsport from the GTC category

In order to get to know the competitors in the 2015 European Le Mans Series, we are presenting a series of portraits, one in each category, before the end of the year. The first one is a presentation of Massive Motorsport, the All Danish team entered in the GTC category with an Aston Martin Vantage GT3. The boss and driver, Casper Elgaard has already raced in endurance and participated eight times in the biggest endurance race The 24 Hours of Le Mans, which he won in the LMP2 category in 2009.

Massive Motorsport is a young team in endurance racing, with 2015 marking their debut season in the ELMS. Casper Elgaard drives with fellow Danes Kristian Poulsen, who competes in the World Endurance Championship with Larbre Competition and is the 2014 LMGTE World Champion, and rookie driver Simon Moller. From the drivers to the engineers the team is 100% Danish.

Until Estoril, the n°68 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Massive Motorsport was the only one representing the British manufacturer in the GTC category. Even though the team had a difficult start with two “Did not finish” results, the Danish crew started to get into the groove by mid season. They finish the season 5th overall in the general team classification, with the drivers finishing 7th.  A look back at the season and look into the future with Casper Elgaard.

Your 2015 ELMS season : “Our team came to ELMS in 2015 in order to learn, as it was our very first season in the discipline and our technical crew did not know what endurance racing is all about. We knew there was going to be a lot of learning, and it was confirmed right at the beginning in Silverstone where we had to retire, and in Imola with many problems. But we started understanding more and more when we got to the Red Bull Ring and then at Le Castellet. Unfortunately we had to retire in Estoril again. But in the end, it was still a great season, our objective in 2015 was to progress race after race, and that’s exactly what we did.”

Your plans for 2016 : “ We will definitely be in the GTC category again. We still want to do European Le Mans Series and Danish Thundersport Championship (DTC) in Denmark, but the two calendars have some date clashes. So we will have to think about what races we do and how we organise the season. But for sure we will compete in ELMS next year, we just don’t know yet if we will be able to do all the races.”

Your car(s) for 2016 : “As of today, we want to go on with the Aston Martin Vantage GT3.”

Your objectives in the future : “The ELMS is a great championship and thanks to the fantastic battles within the races, we are learning all it takes to achieve our goal : the 24 Hours of Le Mans with our own all Danish team. We would like to enter the race in 2018, but depending on how it goes in 2016, we could very well have to go earlier... In this case of course, we would have to climb up to GTE. It all depends on what we can achieve next year and the experience we gather. One of our drivers still needs to learn about endurance racing (Simon Moller), but we try to give him the maximum to collect as much experience as possible. One thing is certain, we will not do Le Man as long as we are not ready.”

Interview made by David Bristol for ELMS at the 4 Hours of Estoril

All our thanks to Casper Elgaard