24 Hours of Le Mans

van Merksteijn Motorsports passed scrutineering and is ready for Le Mans

© Planetlemans – Marcel ten Caat

By passing technical scrutineering, traditionally at the “Place des Jacobins” in front of the cathedral in the historic city centre of Le Mans, the team Van Merksteijn Motorsport by Equipe Verschuur has made the final step for its participation in the 76th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours. With the team’s Porsche RS Spyder, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Peter van Merksteijn and Jos Verstappen will be taking part in the two qualifying sessions and the race. For Jeroen Bleekemolen and Peter van Merksteijn, it will be their third participation in Le Mans while ex-Formula 1driver, Jos Verstappen is making his Le Mans debut this year.

For the team Van Merksteijn Motorsport, that is running the Porsche RS Spyder in Europe for the first time this year, racing at Le Mans will be the highlight of the season. “Le Mans is just unique”, says team owner, Peter van Merksteijn. Jeroen Bleekemolen speaks about “one of the biggest challenges in motorsport”. Although the team is being considered as a pre-race favourite for a class win in LMP2, following its good results with the Porsche RS Spyder in the Le Mans Series (two victories and one second place from three races), the old motor racing adage “to finish first, first you have to finish” is true in Le Mans probably more than anywhere else. The race at Le Mans is four times longer than the maximum duration of a 1000 kilometre race in the Le Mans Series. Top teams in Le Mans are completing a distance of approximately 5,000 kilometres in normal conditions, almost the same as the total number of kilometres in a full season of Formula 1 racing!

The official Le Mans test day on June 1st already gave the drivers a taste of the difficult conditions that are by no means an exception in the city in the west of France. “So much rain, just incredible”, said Jos Verstappen after the eight hours’ test, during which he set the fastest lap time in class. “Because of the weather, we haven’t been able to complete the entire programme we had planned”, says team manager, Frans Verschuur. Nevertheless, he is optimistic: “Porsche has modified the RS Spyder in a few areas especially for Le Mans and the results were promising.”

The team is looking forward to Le Mans. “Making it to the finish is our goal, and with the best possible result in our class”, says Peter van Merksteijn. “For me, it will be my first 24-hour race ever”, says Jos Verstappen. “And I am looking forward to my first race with the Porsche RS Spyder”, adds Jeroen Bleekemolen. Qualifying sessions are taking place on Wednesday and Thursday evening from 19.00 till 21.00 and from 22.00 till 0.00 h. The race starts on Saturday at 15.00 h.