Murphy accelerates with Asian Le Mans deal

Greg Murphy, a Dublin-based endurance motor racing entrepreneur, has struck a deal to supply a team in the Asian Le Mans series.

Mr Murphy's endurance racing team, Murphy Prototypes, has agreed to provide Eurasia Motorsport with a car, engineer and mechanic team to allow it compete in the Le Mans in Asia. Murphy, a former Formula 3 racing driver, has competed as Murphy Prototypes in the last three European Le Mans series.

“You just have to keep doing deals to stay alive in this business,” Mr Murphy said. “This is an exciting deal which will make a good profit.”

Mr Murphy said his team had a €2 million annual budget helped by sponsorship deals with Hertz Car Sales and Trend Micro, a Japanese security software company.

“Le Mans is the most attended sporting event in the world bar none, 268,000 people this year. 180 million people watch it across the world, so it gives sponsors access to a big audience,” he said. “We are getting there. We are working on some really large sponsorship deals but it is not easy.”

Mr Murphy said his team was one of 19 who failed to complete their race at Le Mans in France this year. "It was probably the worst weekend of motor sport in my life. Our goal is to move up to LMP1 [the elite class in Le Mans] and win. It is of a similar level to Formula 1 so it's not the work of the moment."