Blog

April 15 2010

Thanks again to the guys at Hungry and Vire for their help to update the site to 2010 spec. I'm now in Abu Dhabi where the FIA GT1 World Championship series will start tomorrow with free practice, pre-qualifying and qualifying sessions. On Saturday, we'll have warm-up, qualifying race and the championship race at this magnificient new circuit.

We already got to know it yesterday when FIA held an extra Balance of Performance test. Unlucky for me and Renaud, our car was chosen for the test and we lost several hours of valuable track time while the others were able spend time out there to learn the track and work on their cars. However, it was just a small set-back and we will work the things out tomorrow in the official sessions. Today we'll have some meetings, study the data from yesterday, sign in, practice some pitstops, the usual stuff.

I'm really excited to finally start this new championship and it all looks positive. There's been a lot of promotion in the city of Abu Dhabi in the malls, TV and roads, so we might get a decent crowd on Sunday. We'll need to wait until the FIA does the last adjustments on the technical regulations before we really know where we are, but it seems that all 6 brands and 12 teams will be pretty close to each other and that means close racing! Our target is to score some solid points and keep working. Fingers crossed! Don't forget to sign in on my facebook site and twitter for more updates during the weekend.

March 9 2010 

My season started already in January with first the test weekend and then the race itself at Daytona. I'm thinking back with mixed feelings as we had a very good line-up and high expectations, but we had loads of issues to solve before the race even started. We finally got it going and had a good run until our engine failed and we had to retire. It's a cool event and I hope to be back next year.

The rest of season is looking extremely interesting, on paper the best program I've ever had. GT1 World Championship, GT3 European Championship, an outing or two in the Le Mans Series, 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Spa, most likely some appearances in the old/new Belcar, maybe again a race or two in Finland and so on. It seems that I'll be busy from now until end of the year, but that is a very positive problem. We've done a lot of testing with the GT1 team, Marc VDS, and also a few days in the GT3 Porsche of Prospeed and the test results have been more than promising. I'm looking forward to the 1st GT1 race in April!

This website will get an updated look in the next few days and more details concerning the 2010 plans are coming on the news section soon. 

April 28 2009

It's been a while, but it's time to get active again with racing stuff. The financial recession all around the world has affected also my plans for this season. The idea was for me to do the entire FIA GT Championship and Le Mans Series, but the teams are understandably struggling with budgets. LMS has already started in Barcelona and I wasn't there, but it looks very good for me to start the season in the 2nd round, the 1000km of Spa in two weeks time. I'm also in talks to do some stuff in FIA GT and I will be back on the Finnish circuits after a long brake, taking part in some of the Nordic GT3 races. More details will follow soon.

October 15 2008

As you can read on the News section, then next FIA GT round in Zolder will be very interesting. It's a shame that Mikko can't be there, but on the other hand, it's very interesting to get a chance to race with Marc Lieb. I'm really hoping that we can get on the podium for the first time this year in FIA GT. We struggled with many things in the beginning of the season, but have been in good form basically since Spa 24h end of July, but have finished only once in the last 4 races as we were 5th in Brno. It's time for our luck to turn this weekend. I live close to Spa and like to call it my home track, but in fact Zolder is the one circuit where I have done the most races of my sportscar career, so it's nice to do the FIA GT there this time.

I'll be in Zolder already tomorrow, Thursday, to coach a few drivers who want to learn the secrets of racing a Porsche. I'm not gonna do much driving, but it's good to be there in any case. You know, in case I've forgotten the right lines since doing those 10 hours of the 24h race few weeks ago... Nothing official will happen on Friday, but I'll drive up there again to meet the team and practice some stops with Marc. The action starts on Saturday. I just hope everything is well prepared and that we can use the practice efficiently. If everything is in order, we should have a chance to be on top. I will do everything I can to use this opportunity. Let's see how it goes!

October 7 2008

Still a few things need to be tuned in on this website, but most of the stuff are ready. Guestbook will be done later on and some videos will be added soon. Contact Form is already working so it would be great to hear what you guys think about this site. Of course, some criticism would help us make it better!

The race season will still go on for a couple of months, but discussions about next year are already going strong. There are a few options and I hope to know more within a month or two. Of course, I can't tell too much at this stage, but will write more here when possible. Let's see how it all will end up...

October 1 2008

Finally my new website is published. It has taken a few years, but here it is now. It looks cool and I hope you all enjoy reading it. We try to keep it up-to-date as frequently as possible, so that you guys can often drop by and always read something new. There will be a race report after each race in the News section and here at the blog, I'll speak about the stuff happening in between and during the race weekends.

Thanks a lot to the guys at HUNGRY and VIRE for creating this website!

I would also like to thank Yvonne and Ricarda for your great efforts to first build and then update my fansite www.markus-palttala.com. I hope you keep it up and I will surely continue helping you with it also in the future.