Orient express

The boss of the Eurasia sportscar squad talks us through the pros and cons of running a race team in the Far East

- MIKE BRESLIN

Motorsport has always been a peripatetic business, one of trucks and trailers, and this is still the case in Europe and the US. When you start racing on a world stage, however, or competing in the vast and diverse continent of Asia, things are rather different. And in the latter, it’s all about big metal boxes.

Mark Goddard, team principal of Asian Le Mans Series (ASLMS) operation Eurasia, knows all about ‘container racing’ as he calls it, but having been involved in motorsport in the region for over 25 years this is no surprise. Goddard, a successful driver in the UK and Europe, came to Asia as a race driver and driver coach in 1994, and eventually found himself in the Philippines, after he was asked to set up a team to compete locally in Formula Toyota in 1996.

Goddard set up Eurasia, along with Martin Quick and Piers Hinnisett, in 2004, originally to compete in the Formula BMW Asia championship, but since then it has raced in over 40 series in the region. It now campaigns in ASLMS and TCR Asia, still from a base in the Philippines. Yet while the Philippines has been good to Eurasia, one glance at the map will show you it’s far from the rest of Asia – but then that’s the thing with the biggest continent in the world, you’re always far from somewhere. Which brings us back to container racing.

‘Basically, Asian motorsport is container racing,’ Goddard says. ‘As soon as it’s an Asian championship you’re racing in different countries, and you can’t drive to them, so everything goes in converted 40ft containers. And the big difference [from Europe] is, from the first race to the last the only time you see the cars is at the race meetings. So you basically open the containers on Monday, then you normally have three days to prepare the car, then you test, qualify and race. Then everything goes back in the container, and it goes off to the next race.’