Lanik finishes 3rd at Spa 24 Hours
GT race driver, Niki Lanik, made his debut at Total Spa 24 Hours this weekend with a brilliant result of 3rd in GT3.
This was Niki’s first outing at Spa-Francorchamps but got used to the track with in a short time. Prospeed Competition ran two GT3s and two GT2s, of which Niki’s car, #161, was the only car which made it on the podium. Oskar Slingerland (Holland), Belgian David Loix (Belgium) and Markus Palttala (Finland) shared the GT3 Porsche with Austrian Niki Lanik. Having had brake problems during testing, they were forced to miss the first of three qualifying sessions and ended up qualifying 10th in the GT3 class (34th overall), due to heavy rain fall.
Niki comments: “The free practise sessions went really well and I found the track very straight forward to learn thanks to my team and team mates. I had only around 10 laps in the wet and 7 or so in the dry, but I was on the pace very quickly which I was very happy about. In regards to the brake problem, lucky the team got this fixed and we were able to go out in qualifying session 2 and 3. This did not go to plan, but the positive factor was that there was no pressure. We kept in mind that the race was 24 hours, around 550 laps, and there will be plenty of overtaking that will take place.”
“My team mates and I really hit it off well when we all met on Wednesday. David Loix, having met him before in the season, is a very nice fellow and extremely quick too. Spa is his local track. Oskar Slingerland is an absolutely awesome guy and we really got along well and spent several hours talking and jogging together before the day of the race. He too was very quick in the wet and I am very excited to see him perform in the race, especially when it decides to rain. The man from Finland, Markus Palttala, also is a guy with a great attitude towards racing - he is based in Eupen, around 20 Km from Spa. Markus is extremely professional and fun to work with and I am very glad he joined us for the race. Just meeting my team mates and getting along with them straight away was great and made me feel very confident for the weekend.”
(from left to right: Oskar Slingerland, Markus Palttala, Niki Lanik and David Loix)
“Between the race in Oschersleben, 19-21 June, and this 24-Hour race I spent many hours in the gym with my trainer to get physically fit. This helped me a lot, not just physically, but also mentally. I was definitely prepared for the weekend.”
The race start took place on Saturday 25th July at 16:00. The team decided Niki should start the race on slick tyres in tricky damp conditions. The Austrian GT racer drove an excellent first stint and one and a half hours in the race pitted in for a driver change. Niki Lanik led the GT3 class at this stage. Car #161 then led the race for a further 4 hours until some problems came up. A broken rear upright cost them 20 minutes in the pit, followed by a broken gear linkage, a loss of a driver window, and a few other little mechanical faults. They then dropped to 10th in GT3, and this meant “catch-up” during the night. Markus Palttala set fastest lap through-out the night in the GT3 class, and all drivers made a great effort to catch up. They were overtaking cars over the night until Niki took the wheel at 6:00 in the morning to secure a safe position in 3rd in GT3. David Loix and Markus Palttala tried to catch the car in 2nd, but the 24 hour race was simply to short and they had to settle for 3rd place.
Niki comments: “All my team mates and I drove excellent stints making no major mistakes and no mistakes to damage the car. Unfortunately we had a few mechanical problems with the car as this cost as the win. I am extremely satisfied with 3rd place in GT3, as this was my first ever 24 Hour race. Propseed Competition did a great job and thanks to our engineer we had a well set-up car through out the entire race. I am looking forward to competing at the 2010 Total Spa 24 Hours.”
