2^nd November 2011: MERITUS.GP started with the Thompson’s TMC Irish automotive manufacturing business in 1980. In order to focus on developing the Meritus race engineering services, the TMC project and designs were sold in 1988, creating the now-famous Panoz Automotive and Elan Motorsport Technology brands and thanks to the Panoz investment, the TMC/Meritus heritage now includes three Indy 500 wins!

The first Meritus formula car win was at the 1989 British Grand Prix when Anthony Reid (now a multi BTCC winner) won the Formula Opel Lotus series support races. Meritus went on to win European team championships and helping many of today’s top drivers.

In the early 90’s the team participated in F3 and F3000 and in 1995 expanded to Asia. Backed by Marlboro and Castrol, the team won its first Formula Asia championship in 1996, and our driver, Narain Karthikeyan became a national sports star in India. Another Meritus hero is Takuma Sato won his first formula race with Meritus at the 1999 Macau Grand Prix, we are very proud to have helped our Asian drivers achieve their F1 dreams with Takuma joining Jordan in 2002 and Narain followed in 2005.

Asian motorsport offers a very cost-effective and competitive step from karting to formula motorsport and provides all the career benefits for ambitious drivers focused on F1. The big difference is that these Asian steps are at least 30% cheaper than similar European formulae. Meritus champions have gone to win European podiums in the Renault Eurocup (Oscar Tunjo), British F3 (Jazeman Jaafar), GP3 Series (Rio Haryanto), World Series by Renault (Alexander Rossi) and GP2 Series (luca Filippe), proof of the training, coaching and competition that Meritus and Asian series provides.

The Arab/Asian owned Meritus team is headquartered in Malaysia, where Peter Thompson’s Asian partner Firhat Yuri Mokhzani manages race operations. The Arab link is via Saudi businessman Raad Abduljawad.  The successful partnership has seen the Meritus brand grow into the regions premier race-team brand, conquering Asia with 34 Asian motorsport titles in the past 15 years. Meritus.GP missed-out winning the 2010 GP2 Asia Series by one point, however we has won seven of the last eight Formula BMW team and drivers crowns. In addition Meritus has won the team and drivers’ titles in the 2007 and 2008 Formula V6 Asia Series.

Formula BMW; now Rebranded the JK Racing Asia Series

The Formula BMW junior driver development series has been a huge success. The BMW-FB02 car incorporates all the latest F1 technology and has helped many of today’s top drivers make the transition from karting to formula motorsport. Many F1 drivers are Formula BMW graduates, in fact the 2004 Formula BMW champion is now the 2011 FIA Formula1 double world champion! The youngest man yet to achieve the dream!

When BMW pulled out of Formula One, the series was rebranded the JK Racing Asia Series and continues to provide the same high-standards which BMW established, supporting Formula One and racing in Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, China, Korea and India and maybe a visit to Europe in 2012.

The JK Series is without doubt one of the best F1 junior driver development series in the world today, being part of the F1 environment provides opportunities for drivers to be linked to Formula1 teams, like the Meritus 2010 formula BMW winner Oscar Tunjo who was spotted by Lotus Renault driver development manager and is now a fully backed Gravity-managed driver.

Meritus Rotax MAX Challenge Grand Finals Scholarship

Meritus are proud to be associated with this prestigious event, we hope that our two-day test scholarship in a BMW-FB02 car on the Sepang F1 Circuit will help the Rotax World Champion to make a successful career move to formula motorsport.

Ends

For more information on Meritus and the JK Series please check our 2012

Drivers Guide at www.meritus.gp/sereis or contact Peter Thompson at

+601230274324 and peter@meritus.gp