Under almost wintery conditions, the second meeting of the Blancpain Endurance Series was unable to bring the Porsche 911 GT3-R to its full qualities. Marc Goossens, Xavier Maassen and Marc Hennerici brought the Alcra Flash-MoWeKo car in 14th place. A first placed Porsche which is thanks to ProSpeed Competition’s highly homogenous crew entered in the “Pro Cup” category. The trio comprised out of Van Splunteren-Soulet-Derdaele at the wheel of the NEC-Soleco Porsche took the flag in 21st spot. Interestingly enough, the details offered by all the drivers during the after race debriefing is identical. Trying to get the most out of the tyres under such climatic conditions was quite a headache.
The Silverstone circuit, closely linked to aerodynamically supported cars is pretty feared by the Belgian Prospeed Competition team. As confirmed in the year 2012. Neither the race, nor the earlier qualifying sessions allowed the Porsche 911 GT3-R to truly come into its own. To actually bring the team’s two cars up amongst the three best ranked Porsches is a true performance. Unfortunately in no way does this satisfy the drivers, or the team.
Luc Goris (Technical Director):
“We were smart in Monza. We were able to camouflage our problems in these rather wintery conditions. Today, had it been eight degrees less it would have been snowing! It’s when it starts pouring with rain that we truly get our act together. When it’s dry Silverstone is not our track, but we can play up front in the middle pack. In these wintery conditions, permanently changing, we just could not get our tyres to perform properly. We know that there must be a way of improving, but in the meantime, this first Porsche position is thanks to our highly homogenous “Pro” team. Roll on Summer!”
Xavier Maassen (Porsche 911 GT3-R #75 – “Pro Cup”):
“We can undoubtedly draw the same conclusions as those from our recent stint in Monza. On a greasy, yet drying track, we just could not find the ideal grip. We gave it our all at the wheel, the team performed perfectly during the refuelling, but conditions were against us. One just merely needs to accept it. It’s quite incredible that we should come across these for this second consecutive time. The Paul Ricard circuit and the south of France weather will definitely more our liking.”
Dylan Derdaele (Porsche 911 GT3-R #74 – “Pro-Am Cup”):
“I carried out the assignment I was asked to perform. I learned a great deal, including how to drive in rather difficult conditions, without committing any errors. I was quite obviously hoping for a better ranking, but as Maxime Soulet confirmed, we could not have expected better under these conditions.”
Source : ProSpeed Competition