“ProSpeed Competition is also entering two cars in the FIA GT3, namely the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup S bearing start number #11 for the young Austrian Niki Lanik (22), up until now mainly competing in the British Clio Cup, and the Belgian old-hand and Belgian GT champion 2007 Bart Couwberghs (43). The car with start number #12 is in the hands of the former Belgian Porsche Supercup driver Geoffroy Horion (35) and in-house driver David Loix (35), who will also be competing in the 24 Hours of Spa and Zolder with ProSpeed Competition.”

READ FULL PRESS RELEASE:
English: http://prospeed.be/communiques/2009_04_30_preview_3_en.pdf
Nederlands: http://prospeed.be/communiques/2009_04_30_preview_3_nl.pdf
Français: http://prospeed.be/communiques/2009_04_30_preview_3_fr.pdf

NIKI Lanik, Austrian race driver, made his GT debut today, on Saturday 2nd May 2009, at Silverstone GP racing circuit (Northamptonshire). The double UK Clio Winter Champion has decided to move up from tin-top racing into GTs. For 2009 Niki is racing with a Belgium-based and official Porsche-supported race team – Prospeed Competition. The 22-year-old was invited down to Algarve (Portugal) at the end of April by team boss, Mr Rudi Penders, to test the brand new Porsche Cup S-spec racing car. (more…)

Niki comments: “It was not looking good at all for my 2009 racing career. It was beginning of April and I was starting to worry whether I will even be racing this season. In February and March I had several options to compete in British GT and a few other GT series in other countries, but none of these were really what I wanted to do. Most championships in England and in Europe had started between mid-March and mid-April, and I was still at home not sure what was going to happen.”

“Towards the end of March I signed a contract with Justin Keen - he is now my official and exlusive driver manager and driver coach. He raced for Lister Storm in the GT1 and LMP1 class for several years. He called me up on a Saturday and told me that we need to be in Portugal the following Wednesday to test a Porsche 997 Cup S with a Beglian-based race team. I did not receive more information about the test, and we simply booked some flights and made our ways to Faro in soutern Portugal.”

“I met the team on Tuesday the 15th April at the brand new Algarve race circuit. I got a quick tour of the Porsche 997 Cup S and the team, and I was soon out on wets on a drying circuit. The car had 460hp and weighed around 1,170Kg … it was quick. I certainly did not expect it to nearly pull 3-Gs in teh fast corners once the track dried and I had full slicks all around.”

“The team runs several GT3 and GT2 Porsches in the FIA GT Championship, and are extremely professional and had the cars set-up spot on.”

“Justin and I will be visiting them in Liege next week, and we will see how we progress from there.”