A mere week after the two rounds of the FIA GT1 World Championship at the Zolder circuit, Maxime Martin and the entire Marc VDS Racing team headed off for Monza, for the highly awaited launch of the Blancpain Endurance Series, the latest competition created by SRO (Stéphane Ratel Organisation), with the competition’s highlight being held in Belgium during the last weekend of July, namely the Total 24 Hours of Spa.
This last weekend it was a three hour long race on the programme, with a well filled grid of some 35 cars meeting the FIA GT3 and GT4 regulations. « We spent our first day reconnoitring the track, Maxime explained, seeing the team had never competed here with the GT3 version of the Ford GT. And quite clearly our efforts paid off, as during the qualifying sessions this Sunday morning I managed to register the 4th best lap time, putting our car on the second row of the grid. A pretty impressive performance taking into consideration the fact that Monza is not ideally suited to the Ford, where on the numerous straights it is some ten km/h slower than its nearest rivals … »
It was the Belgian based Finn Markus Palttala who took the start at the wheel of the #40. A perfect get-away as the Ford Marc VDS Racing was immediately up in 2nd place, prior to settling down in 3rd spot. Bas Leinders took over for the second stint, but after some twenty minutes he was back in the pit lane. … « He had in fact experienced a blown tyre, most probably running over some debris, Maxime Martin continued. We lost a fair amount of time unfortunately, and when Bas got back on to the track the car was down in 12th place. Prior to handing over the wheel to me he had managed to gain four places, allowing me to take to the track in 8th place, and attack the last hour of the race … »
Attack is a term which suits perfectly as Maxime once again showed his worth when it comes to top speed driving, moving up the field in a spectacular manner to finally take the chequered flag in 3rd place overall. And so the Martin-Leinders-Palttala trio headed off for the podium in this inaugural race in the history of the Blancpain Endurance Series. « Highly positive outcome, Maxime congratulated himself, because right from the start of this first race we have proved that we are on the right track. And seeing the next circuit to be visited is Navarra, the latter should be far more to the Ford GT’s liking than Monza, our optimism is therefore on a high. I believe we have a fair amount of assets up our sleeve in order to achieve some great results in this brand new championship. A good omen for the 24 Hours of Spa … »
Following on from Zolder and Monza, Maxime will now be rushing off to England, and more precisely to the Prodrive works, where the Lola Aston Martin LMP1 entered by Kronos Racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans is being prepared prior to the preliminary test runs being held on Sunday 24th April next. As from Wednesday a Shakedown is being organised on an English circuit prior to the entire team heading off for the Sarthe region. « I’m obviously impatient to get to grips with the Le Mans circuit at the wheel of an LMP1 prototype, Maxime Martin commented. But in all honesty I’m not quite sure what to expect. The only Prototype I have driven is the Formula Le Mans. Here everything is going to be far faster and with Kronos Racing and Marc VDS Racing joined up for the occasion, I think that Vanina Ickx, Bas Leinders and myself will have the ideal back-up to take on these preliminary test runs. Keeping fingers crossed for the outcome … »
Source : Maxime Martin