Maurice Elenbaas

Maurice Elenbaas (born May 21, 1977 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands) is a Dutch semi-professionalauto racing driver currently living in Amsterdam. In 1997 he began his racing career on dirt tracks in an old and beaten up Fiat. Although underpowered, he managed to regularly perform well. In dirt track racing he learned his ability to control the car in very difficult circumstances. In 1998, he moved from the dirt tracks to the normal race tracks. He was 1998/1999 Dutch Racing School championship runner up and has finished Top Five in various DNRT and national championships since then. In normal life, he is a corporate tax accountant working for one of the big four accounting firms. |

Early years

Elenbaas was educated at the HES School of Economics and Business, Amsterdam, higher education for economic studies and the Leiden University of Law, Leiden, The Netherlands. After success in dirt track racing he raced in various Dutch touring car series and tested Formula Arcobaleno in 1998 and the ASCAR Stockcar series in 2004. In 1999 he entered the DNRT Touring series and in a field of 35 cars finished his first race ever in fourth. His first season was one of ups and downs. Plagued by technical difficulties, he could not maintain his strong debut. In 2001 he switched to a single make series V(olvo) 360 No Modena class of the DNRT. With several top 5 and top 10 finishes, he was a strong competitor. After graduating the University in 2004, he decided to temporarily retire from racing to focus on his social career but maintain ACTIVE as the teams testdriver.

DNRT part 1

He made a sensational start in ford Sierra Group A, qualifying in the top 10 his first time out and finishing in fourth place at his first ever meeting. Ultimately, he finished four times in the top 6 that time but had the same amount of DNF’s due to technical difficulties. He was back in contingency in 2000 when he obtained his first podium place with the DNRT and finished fourth overall in 2000. For 2001 Elenbaas (still a student) was forced to look for a more cost effective series to compete since the 1999 and 2000 series were way over budget. He decided to join the one make class of V360 No Modena. In this series he competed for two years with various result. Due to various struggles within the series trying to maintain equality, he ultimately decided to leave the series and return to the series in which he was most successful: the DNRT Touring.

Supercar Cup and Stock cars

With an ambition to move up, Elenbaas races three of the seven races of the 2000 Dutch SuperCar Cup (now know as the Dutch Supercar Challenge) With only 3 out of the seven starts, Elenbaas managed to take third, fifth and seventh place during the races, securing him a seventh place in the overall standings. In 2004, Elenbaas had the ambition to get into NASCAR racing. He tested one of the British ASCAR stock car cars in 2004 with very good results (only a second of the pole position time earlier that month). Unfortunately, he was unable to obtain sufficient sponsorship in order to run this championship in 2004/2005, returning to the Dutch national racing series.

DNRT part 2

In 2008, Elenbaas announced his return to the Dutch national racing series with a new and unique racecar: the Ford Sierra XR8-R. Due to various technical difficulties while building this unique GT car, the car was not finished on time to be raced in 2008. Elenbaas's plans for 2009 have been unchanged. In 2009 he will compete in the fastest DNRT championship: the Supersport Series. This time the team (Aerone-Racing.nl) has teamed up with Tazman Autosport, known for their race-winning cars in the VEGE Sierra Cup, Yountimer trophy and Alfa Romeo Trofeo. The first two events (April/May 2009) will not be raced as the car will be tested extensively before its racing debut in June/July 2009. The 2009 season will be the test for the ultimate goal in 2010, the championship!

The Ford Sierra XR8-R

This car is very unknown in Europe and not without a reason. In 1984, the XR8 was developed in South-Africa to become the top of model line and challenge the domination of BMW and Alfa Romeo in the South-African Touring Car Series. The car actually went in production but the production number stopped at 250 cars due to export limitation imposed as a consequence of the apartheid regime. There were only two “stock” XR8’s built for racing, clinching the title in 1984. After 1984, the car was never raced again. The original XR8 was a five door saloon with a 200 BHP 302 V8. The XR8-R the team is running is a three-door shell running a 500+ BHP 351 V8. The chassis and bodywork has been modified to IMSA XR4TI specifications tocope with the increased horsepower and torque. The most distinctive features are the wide body and various radical aerodynamic adjustments. Despite these radical changes, the car has maintained its original look although upgraded to a RS500 look. The car will be competing with well known GT cars like BMW’s, Saker Sportscars, Porsche’s and Marcos Mantis’.

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