Martin Kodric takes brilliant Silver Cup win in Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup at Circuit Paul Ricard 1000km

Monday
04
June 2018
at
Paul Riccard
with
Croatian driver Martin Kodric took a brilliant Silver Cup victory in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup at Paul Ricard 1000km this weekend (1-2 June).

The 20-year-old Barwell Motorsports racer kept his concentration to bring the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 home in first place despite a power steer issue that made the last 25 minutes of the race a physical battle. While car problems left the team with DNFs at Monza and Silverstone, it was a different story during the six-hour contest this time round. And with a well-deserved first season win in the Championship under his belt, the ADD Management-supported driver heads to the Total 24 Hours of Spa confident of a repeat performance. He said: “It was a really great weekend. It was a longer race, so strategy was so important and ours worked really well and everyone did a good job.  “I had a power steer issue for the last 25 minutes of the race that made the car really tough to drive, but I got around the problem and managed to extend our lead. “After the two DNFs it was really rewarding to take the win and it’s a massive positive for the rest of the season.

”Martin was joined again by Sandy Mitchell and Michele Beretta for the third round of the Championship - a six-hour day and night race featuring 51 cars. The team spent free practice getting the car in shape and without the traffic Martin had the pace to be the top Lamborghini. All the drivers enjoyed good qualifying sessions, with Beretta P4 and 27th overall, Mitchell, P1 and eighth and Martin last out and ending in P2 and 24th overall after losing some time due to the busy track. It left the team in P2 in the Silver Cup and 20th overall. When the racing got underway, Beretta was first out for his two stints - and despite being hit on the opening lap, managed to keep the car around the 20th position overall. 

Martin Kodric: "After the two DNFs it was really rewarding to take the win and it’s a massive positive for the rest of the season" 

Mitchell was next for his two stints and took the lead in the Silver Cup before losing it. But a brilliant pit stop by the team helped him take the lead again. Martin jumped in for his first stint as it got dark, but carried on the good work started by his teammates. It was tough going on a packed track for his first stint, but after a pit stop, he was able to put on some fast times and extend their lead even further. The last 25 minutes was also hard going for the Croatian, with a power steering issue that made it hard to drive, but he used all his experience to come through it and bring the car home in first place in the Silver Cup – more than half a minute in front of his nearest rival - and an impressive 14th overall.They now move on to the 70th edition of the Total 24 Hours of Spa on 26-29 July, with a test day scheduled for July 3rd.  He added: “It was great to get our first season win, especially when we thought we were on for one at Silverstone before the gearbox went. “Here we knew we needed consistency and the speed was there for us. But everyone worked hard to take the victory. "We now go to Total 24 Hours of Spa full of confidence and hopefully we can take another win there as well.”