Following his superb victory clinched in the streets of Long Beach teamed up with Bill Auberlen, Maxime Martin was enthusiastically looking forward to rejoin the BMW Team RLL this last weekend at the splendid Laguna Seca circuit, in California, to compete in the third meeting of the American Le Mans Series 2013. A circuit that the young Brussels based official BMW Motorsport driver was to discover … and immediately take a liking to! “A great circuit obviously, but not complicated to assimilate, Maxime commented. Apart from that renowned Corkscrew bend, characterised by such a gradient difference that you don’t know where you are going to end up!! But notwithstanding that after a few laps you get the hang of it. As for the rest it’s a track where the sand and the wind are permanently present, which rather limits the grip … “

The weekend started off rather well for the BMW Z4 GTE #55, with the Belgian driver clocking up the 5th best time in the qualifying sessions. “We were only 2 tenths of a second off pole position, which was a rather good sign, Martin continued. Bill Auberlen took the start, and lying in 5th place amongst the pack he was hit in the rear by … the other BMW ! We lost one lap trying to repair the bumper, but finally decided to rejoin the race without that rear appendage. Neutralisations are frequent in the United States, and when I took over the wheel we found ourselves back in the same lap as the leaders in LM-GTE. So I was fully determined to continue the offensive … when suddenly the differential broke! In fact I wasn’t even able to cover one full lap. Obviously this retirement is a bad deal for us in the championship, as we might have been able to take advantage of problems experienced by our immediate rivals. Enough said … “

Maxime will not have much time to mull over the incident seeing as from Thursday he will head off for the Eifel region, to compete on Whit Sunday and Whit Monday in the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring, defending the colours of the BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS. And on this occasion he will be sharing the Z4 GT3 #26 with the Dutchman Yelmer Buurman and the Italian Andrea Piccini. Definitely a homogenous and fast trio, who will be up against an impressive number of quartets. ” Circumstances made it so, Maxime explained. I believe we can take on these 24 hours in an optimistic manner, even though this is a circuit where anything can happen. We have prepared well, notwithstanding the rather wintry conditions which limited the number of races of the VLN competition, but let’s not forget that last year, when the Marc van der Straten team made their debut in the 24 Hours of the Ring, we finished 4th with Bas Leinders and Markus Palttala. If we don’t have any worries we can definitely aim for a podium place. With such teammates and the official support of BMW Motorsport, we clearly have some good cards up our sleeve. It’s up to us to take full advantage of these … ” All the more so as taking on the Green Hell remains a major challenge for any driver, even a professional …

Source : Maxime Martin