30.08.05 Great debut for Niko in Germany Sportscar's FIA GT Champioship continued last weekend at the tight, twisty circuit Oschersleben's in Germany. The Finnish flag was flown by Niko Nurminen whom made his maiden FIA GT race with Czech National Team's Porsche 996 GT3 RS. To make things slightly more trickey it was Niko's first time behind of Porsche's steering wheel and on the Oschersleben circuit. Though it didnt take long for Niko to acclamtise quickly to new settings and clocked competetive laptimes already in the Friday's free practise. " I got used to the car and new circuit suprisingly rapidly and its the first time I used the HANS device and that was not a problem at all for me. The Porsche has a lot of power and because the engine is located in the rear the driving style is very challenging but I expected a much more difficult start for this weekend" Niko commented. Niko shared the seat with car owner Jan Vonka and experienced Italian Mauro Casadei. Nurminen and Casadei were the fastest drivers within the squad and thus they got a lot of circuit time during both qualifying sessions. However the team couldn't take advantage of new tyres in qualifying and were classified 8th grid in the GT2 class. " There was a lot of action during the first qualifying session and the gravel and dust spread all over the circuit from cars leaving the circuit. The traffic was heavy so maybe these are reasons why we didn't manage to get any benefit from the new tyres. However the starting grid doesn't mean so much in three hours race" Niko commented after qualifying. The first stint it the race was driven by Mauro Casadei. He did an excellend job and managed to gain 4 places to take the car into fourth place after 1 hour and 15 minutes of driving when he came into pit lane for a change of drivers. Niko was next in and continued the pace and worked their way into third place in GT2 class. It was scheduled that it was only going to be a 45 minute stint for Niko, but because of his good and equal laptimes it was finally more than one hour before the team brought him into change for the final stint of the race. " Team decided to keep me on the track as long as possible because I gaining positions. My stint was very interesting and there was a lot action as I chased Porsches which were ahead and at the same time played with fast GT1 cars which were lapping me" Niko explained. With 30 mintues to go Jan Vonka had the honour to bring the Porsche to chequered flag in fourth place in GT2 category. Losing the podium position was only a minor disapointment for Niko as for his first atempt on the catagory it was a spectatular entrance into the catagory. " This was propably one of the hardest races during my career. The heat inside the car was almost unbareable and the wearing tyres gave less and less grip whilst driving. I'm very happy with my performance and I hope this result gains me of the same in the future" Niko said after the race. Vitaphone Maserati drove to the victory with drivers Fabio Babini and Thomas Biagi. GT2 class victory went to the Porsche factory supported GruppeM squad and its drivers Emmanuel Collard and Tim Sugden. << back to news