If one the one hand the first round of the German VLN had been cancelled due to snow and ice on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring, the kick-off of the Blancpain Endurance Series this last weekend in the Monza park was held under glorious spring weather. Some 60 cars were on hand, proof enough that this competition is in good health. On the rectilinear track in the region of Milan the drivers of the BMW Z4 GT3 were to suffer from a lack of top speed as compared to certain other competitors. Teamed up with Bas Leinders and Yelmer Buurman in the Marc VDS Racing Z4 GT3, Maxime Martin gave his all, and the results were conclusive.
« We produced a good qualifying time, seeing I found myself in 7th place, Maxime commented. When one sees that the second best BMW was in 29th spot one can be pretty satisfied. In the race Bas was unable to hold off the odd competitor, all enjoying a better top speed on the straight, but he managed to retain the car within the top-10. When it came to our first pit-stop there were two Porsche partially immobilised on our spot, as a consequence of the highly impressive pack. Outcome: 35 seconds lost! Yelmer put in a good relay, however a slow puncture handicapped him. He kept going as long as possible on a flat tyre, to allow me to finish off the last part of the race without having to re-enter the pits. I therefore set off for a 68 minutes stint, whereas in Monza a full tank of fuel only allows for a maximum of 63 … »
Maxime set-off with a double assignment; racing to make up lost ground whilst facing a race against fuel consumption! “Our problems were far from over seeing either a rear wheel hub or a bearing was playing up, making the car’s handling on the straight somewhat weird. But it held and I took the chequered flag in 6th position in the Pro-Class. Once across the line I stopped the car as the wheel problem was worsening. The marshals pushed the car through to the Parc Fermé, and they asked one of our mechanics to help them. A rival team reckoned this was a breach of the regulations and we were penalised, dropping us down one place in the rankings. Pretty frustrating … »
Following this emotional weekend in Italy Maxime Martin is getting ready to head off to the Unites States, where the second round of the American Le Mans Series will take place this coming Saturday on the Long Beach street circuit. On this occasion the young Brussels based official BMW Motorsport driver will be reunited with Bobby Rahal’s BMW Team RLL Z4 GTE. “Once again I’ll need to discover everything in a very short time span, Maxime smiled. Not only I am not acquainted with the Long Beach rack, but driving time will be very limited. The ALMS competitors will be kicking off on Friday morning, with two hours of free practice, mainly to help clean the track. Following this there will be one qualifying session for one single driver in the afternoon, just after the IndyCar qualifying session. So when it comes to grip one can expect a rather different track surface … Even though Long Beach has a long straight, there are numerous tight bends that should allow the Z4′s chassis to fully prove it’s worth. This promises to be fun, and I’m looking forward to discovering this track that welcomed the United States of America F1 Grand Prix between 1975 and 1983.”
The start of the second round of the ALMS will be at 16.30hrs, local time or namely half past midnight Belgian time. The race will be held over 120 minutes.
Source : Maxime Martin