Prospeed Competition's pair of Porsche 911 GT3-R's produced some strong results in the second meeting of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Silverstone.
Marc Goosens, Xavier Maassen and Marc Hennerici brought the 'Pro Cup' Alcra Flash-MoWeKo car home in 14th place, the first placed Porsche in the race, while Paul Van Splunteren, Maxime Soulet and Dylan Derdaele finished 21st in the NEC-Soleco 'Pro-Am Cup' car. This was despite the 2010 European FIA GT3 Champions struggling to get the most out of the tyres in the climatic British conditions.
Technical Director Luc Goris said: “We were smart in Monza. We were able to camouflage our problems in these rather wintery conditions. Today, had it been eight degrees less it would have been snowing! It’s when it starts pouring with rain that we truly get our act together. When it’s dry Silverstone is not our track, but we can play up front in the middle pack. In these wintery conditions, permanently changing, we just could not get our tyres to perform properly. We know that there must be a way of improving, but in the meantime, this first Porsche position is thanks to our highly homogenous “Pro” team. Roll on Summer!”
Pro Cup driver Xavier Maassen commented: ”We can undoubtedly draw the same conclusions as those from our recent stint in Monza. On a greasy, yet drying track, we just could not find the ideal grip. We gave it our all at the wheel, the team performed perfectly during the refuelling, but conditions were against us. One just merely needs to accept it. It’s quite incredible that we should come across these for this second consecutive time. The Paul Ricard circuit and the south of France weather will definitely more our liking.”
Pro-Am Cup driver Dylan Derdaele added: “I carried out the assignment I was asked to perform. I learned a great deal, including how to drive in rather difficult conditions, without committing any errors. I was quite obviously hoping for a better ranking, but as Maxime Soulet confirmed, we could not have expected better under these conditions.”
