24 Hours of Le Mans

Going Dutch…driver updates (1)

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

With 2007 almost coming to an end lots of teams and drivers are finalizing their plans for the upcoming race season. While most of the plans remain secret until a deal is signed there are some reports in Holland about the local drivers.

One week ago Dutch websites reported that Jan Lammers would abandon his Racing for Holland Le Mans Series team and would  join Horag Racing for the Sebring 12 Hours and the Le Mans Series. Planetlemans contacted Jan Lammers and he confirmed that he was getting close to an agreement with the Swiss team to drive their Porsche RS Spyder in 2008. According to Lammers there were only a few minor issues to be resolved, but it all looked very promising.

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

From Lammers to Bleekemolen is a small step. The 26-years old Dutchman is the A1GP driver for Lammers this year again and did compete in the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Racing for Holland in the Dome S101.5 in. For 2008 Bleekemolen is a strong candidate to take one of the available Van Merksteijn Motorsport Porsche RS Spyder seats. No deal is signed at this moment but it would be no surprise to see Bleekemolen racing the car in 2008 when Van Merksteijn Motorsport will have their first test.

Peter van Merksteijn himself will also be testing the car he owns. Peter has been involved with motorsport since the 1980’s and has been competing in several classes. In 2007 he bought a Ford Focus RS 06 WRC in which he competed in national and international (WRC) rallies. Should the test have a satisfying result we could see Van Merksteijn racing the car throughout the season, but at this moment no decision has been made.

One name that was linked to the Van Merksteijn Motorsport Porsche for quite a while was that of Peter Kox. This season the 43-year old driver from Eindhoven raced a Spyker C8 Spyder GT2R , an Aston Martin DBR9, a Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 and a Lamborghini Murciélago GT1. For 2008 Kox is set to return to the FIA GT Championship with the Murciélago. Next to the FIA GT Championship there are also plans to race the Murciélago in (selected rounds of) the Le Mans Series!