Pinnacle Motorsport (formerly PRT Racing) is an Irish licensed, Philippines based motor racing team founded in 2016 by Irish former racers John O'Hara and Gary Thompson. Both have experience at Formula 3 level, the former a race winner in the Asian Formula Three series, and had tested for the A1 Team Ireland, the latter featuring in the Japanese F3 and 2013 F3 European series. While the team began using the PRT Racing name in the 2016 Formula Masters China series and 2016-17 Asian Le Mans Series sprint and endurance LMP3 events, they adopted the Pinnacle Motorsport name from the 2017 season onward. Further involvement in open wheel racing came in China F4 and F3 Asian series. However, both prior to their official formation and throughout their continued operations, Pinnacle have partnered with KCMG to operate many of their motorsport programs across Asia including the Blancpain GT Series Asia GT3Am, Audi R8 LMS Cup, FRD LMP3 Series, Asian Le Mans Series, Asian Formula Renault Series, and the aforementioned Formula Masters China series. A similar partnership also existed in F3 Asia with B-Max Racing.
History Formula Masters China For the inaugural season using their own name, the team ran as Cebu Pacific Air by PRT, with three cars initially announced for the first round of the 2016 season driven by Kim Jeong-tae, Nick Rowe and "Jeffrey" Ye Junhui. They would take all 3 victories at the opening round at Shanghai, as well as further podium appearances at Zuhai, Buriram and Sepang. Rowe would only partake in the opening round due to illness and scheduling conflicts, being partially replaced by Thomas Swift, and Ye would leave after the two Chinese rounds, leaving Kim Jeong Tae as the team's only full time driver. He would achieve three more podiums at the final round at Penbay, ending the season 4th in the drivers championship and 2nd in the team's championship, before tragically losing his life in road accident in South Korea.
The 2017 season would see the rebrand to Pinnacle Motorsport, retaining the Cebu Pacific Air sponsorship, and again beginning the season with three cars piloted by Taylor Cockerton, Antolin Gonzales, and Ben Grimes. Cockerton started the season strongly at the first Sepang round with a win and two podiums, and was a consistent podium finisher throughout the second Sepang and both Zuhai rounds, whereas Grimes and Gonzales were often point scorers, the former also grabbing a double podium at Zhuhai. Gonzales would not return for the second Zhuhai round, and a three car entry was restored for the Shanghai finale with the addition of "Billy" Zheng Jiannian. Here, Cockerton clinched the driver's title, winning three out of the four races that weekend as well as four fastest laps and two poles, to overturn his closest rival Daniel Lu by a margin of three points.
Asian Le Mans PRT Racing entered into both the 2016 Asian Le Mans Sprint Cup, and the 2016-17 Endurance Series, with team owner Ate de Jong and Ginetta factory driver Charlie Robertson driving the #67 Ginetta in the LMP3 category. In the three rounds and six races held at Sepang in the Sprint Cup, the team achieved a win and two other podiums, finishing 2nd in the LMP3 standings. The same car and driver lineup was retained for the Endurance Series, with the addition of Martin Rump for the first two rounds. The team would not have much success, with a retirement at Zuhai, points finishes at Fuji and Buriram, before another retirement in the final round at Sepang ended their campaign.
China Formula 4 Championship Having contested the first round of the 2018 US F4 Championship with two retirements and a DNS, Jordan Dempsey made the switch to China F4 with Pinnacle Motorsport. Despite another retirement in Race 1, he achieved two second place finishes at Zuhai, before going on a run of seven wins in nine races at Chengdu, Ningbo and Shanghai. Points and a podium at Wuhan, before another win and two podiums at the final round back at Ningbo sealed the driver's title by 50 points even after missing the first round.
F3 Asian Championship Following the replacement of the Formula Masters China series with the F3 Asian Championship, Pinnacle were one of several teams to sign up for the inaugural season in 2018. The team announced Daniel Cao for the first round at Sepang, as well as collaborating with B-Max Racing to provide a car for "Dragon". This collaboration would continue at Shanghai and again at the final round returning to Sepang, where he was joined by Tairoku Yamaguchi, as well as Liam Lawson driving the Pinnacle team branded car. Lawson would take the final round’s three wins, and the team would finish 5th in the standings.
In 2019, F3 Asia ran two championships, the winter series and the main championship in the summer. Pinnacle’s line up for the former was David Schumacher, Amaury Cordeel and Akash Nandy. Schumacher and Cordeel would leave after the second round, being replaced by Victor Martins and Christian Lundgaard. Season highlights included a Schumacher podium at Buriram, and two podiums for guest driver Martins at Sepang ending up 3rd in the team standings. The relationship with B-Max and "Dragon" continued, alongside Tairoku Yamaguchi, as well as Motoyoshi Yoshida and Miki Koyama.
The summer series line-up consisted of the team’s Chinese F4 champion Jordan Dempsey and Tommy Smith, with Ayrton Simmons replacing Dempsey for round 2 and driving alongside him in round 4. Highlights for Dempsey would be two podiums at Suzuka and Shanghai to finish 7th in the standings, along with the points finishes of Simmons and Smith to help the team to 4th in the teams’ championship.
With F3 Asia fully committing to a winter series format for 2019-20, the team contested the season with 2019 Summer series runner up Jack Doohan and Pietro Fittipaldi as full time drivers. Sebastián Fernández would appear in the third car at both UAE rounds, and Dominic Ang entered for the fourth round at Sepang. Doohan would pick up a win at Sepang and Dubai, as well as all three wins at the second visit to Sepang, ultimately finishing as championship runner up. Fernandez also had success in his brief time with the team, taking two podiums in Dubai and a race win in Abu Dhabi, Fittipaldi was a consistent point scorer, clinching 5th, and Ang retired and failed to start in his entered races. For the 2021 season, all rounds were held in the UAE because of travel restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lineup for the condensed season would be rookies Pierre-Louis Chovet, Alexandre Bardinon and Matthias Lüthen, and returning to the championship to join Pinnacle would be Alessio Deledda. Chovet would be the surprise package of the series, picking up 6 wins and finishing 2nd in the standings. Deledda would record two points finishes, both at Dubai, whereas Bardinon and Lüthen did not score.
F4 Spanish Championship For the 2021 season, Pinnacle announced they were joining the F4 Spanish Championship grid with Alex Dunne. Together, they achieved a pole and podium in their opening weekend at Spa, though prior to round 4 Dunne announced he had parted ways with both Pinnacle and KCMG due to circumstances beyond his control.
Current series results Formula Regional Middle East Championship Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.Laps Podiums Points 2023 Tatuus F3 T-318 Pepe Martí 12 2 0 0 2 79 7th4th Rafael Villagómez 12 0 0 0 1 44 13th Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak 14 0 0 0 1 19 19th Niels Koolen 15 0 0 0 0 0 31st Ayato Iwasaki 3 0 0 0 0 0 37th2024Tatuus F3 T-318 Mari Boya1500231125th4th Alexander Abkhazava1500002015th Giovanni Maschio150000221st Finley Green110000034th2025Tatuus F3 T-318 Ernesto Rivera1500011019th6th Jesse Carrasquedo Jr.900014115th Hiyu Yamakoshi900002916th Giovanni Maschio60000123rd Yuanpu Cui60000028th Finley Green150000033rd2026Tatuus T-326 August Raber120000036th6th Alex Powell120113764th Formula Trophy UAE Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.Laps Podiums Points 2024Tatuus F4-T421 Gustav Jonsson71003664th Davide Larini300001015th Wang Yuzhe70000022nd2025Tatuus F4-T421 Niccolò Maccagnani70002782nd Jorden Moodley70000034th Putera Hani Imran70000025th Kaylee Countryman40000029th
Formula 4 UAE Championship / F4 Middle East Championship / UAE4 Series Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.Laps Podiums Points 2022Tatuus F4-T421 Robert de Haan120000030th12th Jules Castro80000033rd Jef Machiels120000039th2023Tatuus F4-T421 Brando Badoer90011696th6th Hiyu Yamakoshi60000822nd Jack Beeton150000623rd Kai Daryanani150000036th2024Tatuus F4-T421 Kai Daryanani150000225th10th Hiyu Yamakoshi30000032nd Yuhao Fu150000037th2025Tatuus F4-T421 Kyuho Lee60000420th8th Yuta Suzuki†120000222nd Georgy Zhuravskiy30000028th Wang Yuzhe150000029th2026Tatuus F4-T421 Rowan Campbell-Pilling1200012413th9th Vladimir Verkholantsev90000029th Ryusho Nakazato120000036th Sun Anzhe60000042nd Kaylee Countryman90000045th
† Suzuki drove for Akcel GP / PHM Racing from round 3 onwards. Formula 4 South East Asia Championship Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.Laps Podiums Points 2023Tatuus F4-T421 Kai Daryanani600013610th7th Liu Kaishun600002017th Yuhao Fu600001023rd "Dragon"30000227th10th2025Tatuus F4-T421 Niccolò Maccagnani633361584th3rd Kareen Kaur30000716th
Former series results Formula Masters China Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.Laps Podiums Points 2016 Tatuus FA010 Kim Jeong Tae 18 1 1 1 8 134 4th 2nd Nick Rowe 3 2 2 1 2 38 9th 'Jeffrey' Ye Junhui 6 0 0 0 1 34 10th Thomas Swift 9 0 0 0 0 8 11th 2017 Tatuus FA010 Taylor Cockerton 18 5 4 5 13 221 1st 2nd Ben Grimes 18 0 0 0 2 75 8th Antolín González 11 0 0 0 0 27 11th 'Billy' Zheng Jiannian 4 0 0 0 0 6 14th
Asian Le Mans Sprint Cup Year Entrant Class Car Drivers SEP1 SEP2 SEP3 Points 2016 PRT Racing 67 LMP3 Ginetta-Juno P3-15 Ate de Jong Charlie Robertson 3 4 3 1 4 Ret 86 2nd
Endurance Series Year Entrant Class Car Drivers ZHU FUJ CHA SEP Points 2016–17 PRT Racing 67 LMP3 Ginetta-Juno P3-15 Ate de Jong Charlie Robertson Martin Rump (1-2) Ret 5 4 Ret 22 8
F4 Chinese Championship Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.Laps Podiums Points 2018 Mygale M14-F4 Jordan Dempsey 18 8 3 14 14 320 1st 2nd
F3 Asian Winter Series Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.Laps Podiums Points 2019Tatuus F3 T-318 Akash Nandy 9 0 0 0 0 62 7th 3rd David Schumacher 6 0 0 0 1 43 8th Amaury Cordeel 6 0 0 0 0 22 10th Victor Martins 3 0 0 0 2 0 NC† Christian Lundgaard 3 0 0 0 0 0 NC† † As Martins and Lundgaard were guest drivers, they were ineligible for points.
F3 Asian Championship/Formula Regional Asian Championship Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.Laps Podiums Points 2018 Tatuus F3 T-318 Liam Lawson 3 3 2 3 3 75 8th5th Daniel Cao 3 0 0 0 0 7 19th 2019 Tatuus F3 T-318 Jordan Dempsey 12 0 0 0 2 83 7th 4th Ayrton Simmons 6 0 0 0 0 40 10th Tommy Smith 15 0 0 0 0 11 18th 2019-20 Tatuus F3 T-318 Jack Doohan 15 5 4 5 10 229 2nd 2nd Pietro Fittipaldi 15 0 0 0 1 119 5th Sebastián Fernández 6 1 1 1 2 96 8th Dominic Ang 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC 2021 Tatuus F3 T-318 Pierre-Louis Chovet 15 6 2 3 7 241 2nd 4th Alessio Deledda 15 0 0 0 0 9 15th Alexandre Bardinon 15 0 0 0 0 0 20th Matthias Lüthen 9 0 0 0 0 0 26th2022Tatuus F3 T-318 Pepe Martí1500251582nd3rd Dilano van 't Hoff1201015113th Ayato Iwasaki150000027th Salih Yoluç150000036th
F4 Spanish Championship Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.Laps Podiums Points 2021 Tatuus F4-T014 Alex Dunne 9 0 1 0 1 30 17th 8th2022Tatuus F4-T421 Ricardo Escotto170000422nd9th Anshul Gandhi120000028th Nelson Neto30000033rd Gianmarco Pradel300000NC Francisco Soldavini300000NC
Timeline Current seriesUAE4 Series2022–presentFormula Regional Middle East Trophy2023–presentFormula 4 South East Asia Championship2023, 2025–presentFormula Trophy UAE2024–present Former series Formula Masters China 2016–2017 Asian Le Mans Series 2016–2017 F4 Chinese Championship 2018 Formula Regional Asian Championship 2018–2022 F4 Spanish Championship 2021–2022
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