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The man behind the P.D.B. Racing Team is 42
yr. old Peter DeBruijn himself.
Peter started racing karts when he was 11 yrs. old in 1968.
He began
working on kart engines when he was 12 because of his keen interest in
the
technical side of the sport. This also helped to finance his love
of
karting.
During his 20 year career as a driver, he achieved every major
championship
including the World Championship at Nivelles in 1980 where Ayrton
Senna
came in second. He won the European Championship in 1981 and1982,
the Asia
Grand Prix in Hong-Kong in 1981 and came in second in 1987. He
also won
the Dutch Championships 4 times from 1975 to 1978. In 1988, at the
World
Championships, he finished 4th, just 20cm. away from 3rd place.
During his career as engine tuner and mechanic, with the help of his
drivers, he managed to win all of the major championships. He won
his
first and only victory in the 125cc gearbox class in 1974 at the age of
17.
That same year, Dutchman Aad van Daalen won the European
Championship in
Germany using a Yamaha engine prepared by Peter.
After 1975 he focused his attention on 100cc and in the 1980's, the
135cc
direct drive engines.
Frank Eglem from Holland won the Junior World Championship with Peter as
his mechanic. It was at this time that a long term relationship
was
started with Indy car driver Paul Tracy and his father. Peter was
there as
a junior driver and contacts started with Tony, Paul Tracy's father,
which
ended with a deal for Peter to prepare Paul's equipment.
Unfortunately, at
Laval in 1984 where the Junior World Class was held, Paul was not lucky.
Paul and his teammate were in 3rd and 4th, when his teammate lost his
engine, taking Paul with him off the track. He had to fight to
come back
from the midfield, finishing 6th.
Peter finished his career as driver in 1988 and concentrated solely on
the
technical side. In 1989 his driver (Jos Verstappen) won the
European
Championship for Formula A, the Interc.A class and the Japan Grand Prix.
In 1990, again the European Championship was won in Formula A with
Martijn
Koene as driver.
In 1991 Swedish Lotta Hellberg came into Peter's team and life.
She
achieved 4th position in the World Championship Formula Super A Class at
Le
Mans. In 1992, again the World Championships FSA using CRG karats
and
Peter's Retax engines and also the Japan Grand Prix and the World Cup.
In 1992 Peter made an agreement with the CRG factory that he would be
their
"home" tuner, taking care of 50 to 80 engines every race to be
used by the
CRG team. We would use Lotta as factory driver.
For the next few years, little by little advances were made, until
January
1996 when Alessandro Manetti won the Australian Grand Prix as well as
the
Margutti race in Parma with Lotta coming in third. First round of
the
European Championship was a success with Lotta and Giorgio Pantano both
winning their classes. The World title was almost won by Manetti,
but he
was pushed off the track in the very last lap but still managed to come
in
third. Thomas Pichler finished third in the FA class. Jimmy
v.d. Ende
finished 2nd in the European Championship as well as Benjamin v.d.
Wakker
in the cadet class.
For 1997, new plans were made and Peter decided to start developing the
Gillard kart together with Lotta Hellberg to run their own team in 1998.
The Peter DeBruijn (P.D.B.) Racing Team was established at the end of
1997
and decided to use Gillard karts, Retax engines and Bridgestone tires.
The drivers chosen for the FSA class were Kimi Raikkonen who finished
second overall in the European Championship and first in the
Scandinavian
and Finnish Championships, Lotta Hellberg who was running her last
season
and Charrel Zwolsman. In the FA class, our colors were defended by
Benjamin v.d. Wakker who won the Italian Grand Prix and came in 4th in
the
European Championship.
In 1999, Lotta Hellberg has retired as driver and moved into the
position
of manager of the team, to give Peter more time to concentrate on the
technical side of the organization. Equipment to be used for this
season
are Gillard karts, Parilla engines and Bridgestone tires.
Kimi Raikkonen has moved to cars and Oskari Heikinnen from Finland has
replaced him in the FSA class. Because Ross Zwolsman moved to cars
also
and Benjamin decided to leave our team, new drivers were chosen for the
FA
class. Our choice was Nicke Petersson from Sweden. We have
been in
contact with Nicke for 3 year previously and have seen good results in
the
past. Last year, he had a lot of potential, but was using the
wrong
equipment. The tires he was using were not good and for the World
Championships in Ugento, Italy, he changed to Bridgestones and
immediately
improved his results. The driver we chose for the FA class was
Dutchman
Nicky Pastorelli after being very successful in the Int. c.a. class last
year in Holland and finishing 3rd in the European Championships in
Valence.
In the junior class, we will run new stars like Marco Asmer from
Estland,
Carlo van Dam, Bas Lammers and Nick deBruijn from Holland.
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