24 Hours of Nürburgring, 20/05/2013

Markus Palttala, Bas Leinders, Henri Moser and Richard Göransson were forced to retire when Leinders suffered a heavy crash with a slower car some 7 hours before the end of the race. Until the unfortunate accident, the BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS Z4 #26 was having a strong race and running currently on 3rd position. The sister car of Maxime Martin, Yelmer Buurman and Andrea Piccini joined by Göransson finished a superb 2nd, saving the day for Marc VDS and BMW Motorsport.

”The Nordschleife is always dangerous and even more so in such tricky conditions we had this weekend. Bas’ accident was a real shame as we were running in top 3 and our pace was very good both on wet and dry. We were ahead of the #25, which eventually finished 2nd, so there was more than a good chance to get on the podium. Well, that didn’t happen, but I’m really satisfied with how competitive we were and I’m real proud of the entire Marc VDS team. It has been great for us to act as an official BMW works team and I’d like to thank BMW for their support and confidence in us. Personally, I will go home empty handed, being the quickest BMW driver in qualifying the only small consolidation, but we all were cheering for #25 when Max got from 4th to 2nd during the last hour.”

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VLN, Round 2, 27/04/2013

Markus Palttala, Henri Moser and Richard Göransson finished 12th in the 2nd VLN race of the season. Having raced at Monza when VLN took off, this was the only opportunity for Marc VDS Racing Team to prepare for one of the highlights of this season, the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, and the team decided to run 3 cars in order to collect as much information as possible.

”It was great to finally get to race on the Nordschleife after the long winter. Chances to prepare for the big one were limited to this one-day event, so we really approached it as a test. All 3 cars were on different set-ups, strategies and even tyres, to make sure we learn as much as possible. The race started wet, went to damp and then dried up, so we got to run in all conditions. We struggled a bit on wet in these cold conditions, as we were unable to put temperature on the tyres. For the rest, the car ran well and it’s just awesome to push around this magnificent circuit in a BMW Z4. We finished 12th in the #26 car and ahead of the two other VDS cars, so it was a job well done. We’ll next do a 24h simulation at Magny-Cours and will be ready for the 24 Hours.”

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