In conversation with John Martin: The Australian is approaching his second 24 Hours of Le Mans and will be driving the No.26 G-Drive Racing ORECA 03 Nissan with Roman Rusinov (RUS) and Mike Conway (GBR).
You are returning to Le Mans with, in effect, the same team. You showed great pace last year but were held back by delays in the pits. What do you think your chances are for 2013?
Considering that we had quite limited track time for certain reasons, the test day went very well for us. Going off that I think we’ll be pretty strong but there’s a lot of competition in the class here. It should be an awesome race though and hopefully we’ll be in the top three. I think we’ve got the driver line up and team behind us to be able to back that up. We’re looking okay!
Last year with Delta-ADR we were on pole and had fastest lap of the race. We had a fast car but a few little issues which held us back. I was new to sportscars and the team was only three races into the category but now we’ve got a year under our belt. We’re sure that all the little problems that slowed us down are ironed out and we’ll be a lot stronger.
Roman has three entries at Le Mans behind him but Mike is new to the race. What advice have you been able to give him about the week?
Mike’s super quick so that’s not an issue, and he’s asked some questions but I don’t think he needs any advice as far as driving is concerned. He gets on top of things quickly but he’s quite ‘cruisy’ [relaxed] as well so he takes it in, sits back and does his job.
Off track, I have changed my approach since last year and have shared that. Last year I stayed here between the test and the race and mentally it was draining trying to find things to do all week. This year Mike and I went back to the UK, did some training together, and when you come back here again it’s fresh and the week ahead doesn’t seem so long.
Fiona Miller
Photo: SPA FRANCORCHAMPS CIRCUIT (SPA, BELGIUM), WEC 6 HOURS OF SPA FRANCORCHAMPS, RACE, SATURDAY 4TH MAY 2013. John Martin of the No.26 G-Drive Racing ORECA 03 Nissan (left) with team mate Tor Graves.
