today we mainly had our drivers briefing and a meeting with the team crew to teach us how to fix the car in case we have trouble out on the track… so my tuning work with putting the hands on to my Subaru was worth something… Mechanics skills improved… but hopefully not needed off course.

We also had our first media appearance in our big hospi for the journalists to meet us, did a couple interviews for tv and mags. After that we went around the track by bicycle to check out the course and some little modifications to last year. Marcel made sure he stayed powered up with red bull…

We then finished the day with a 1h30 autograph session in front of the pits and a welcome drink invitation from the race organizers.

Tomorrow we get to drive for the first time and we will have a better idea of where we are against the Peugeots…

Mr. Le Mans, aka Tom Kristensen found a new job behind the bar and served me some juice and Alan found his bigger twin brother…

Ben recieved his new night vision glasses…

on a picture from yesterday you can see our present from our big japanese fans, they made us a very nice supporters flag with lots of wishes! Arigato to Japan!

Day 1, arrived well at Le Mans with my S5 on sunday night.

Started the day with greating the hole team, takes a while as we have a LOT of people… Everybody is well prepared with everything, looking good.

The pits look stunning, you can’t see any bit of the wall or construction from the building, its all nicely covered with panels. We even have a built in car lift in the floor for each car, a first for me…

We got the keys for our drivers containers to put all our gear and also sleep  during the race. we took some time to make it all nice and organized but Ben still manged to loose his keys…

Our team hospi is the coolest of the paddock coming straight from F1 with the RED BULL energy station.

After that we made our way to the traditional “place des jacobins” in Le Mans city center where the technical inspection and drivers equipments, license check is done but also where the yearly picture with the hole team and media interviews are held.

Finally, to not feel to remote from my habits… a sushi dinner with my team mates and team members to finish of the day…

After my training camp in Austria I went back to my home town for a great sunny week, lucky with the weather! Nice to get settled and be home a bit before the big highlight of the year comming up next week, the Le Mans 24h!!

I could enjoy and power myself up with outdoor sports every day, alternating rowing with the boat I got from my father and off course, cycling thru the pretty belgian country side….

Also got to catch up with my friends a bit which was nice! We met up in Brussels where the hole town was for some early sunset gathering, very cool!

And while they were working, I was ”working” to… on my Subaru STI… Its my new hobby to get the hands on… I always find some parts on the web to fit into it… this week i updated the air intake, fuel pump and blow off valve with a increased boost program… makes a nice blow off ”pfssssst” sound now…

Off to Le Mans tomorrow… max attack!

Another podium for us!

I had a fairly good weekend with a very tight qualifying on Sat., missing pole position by 2/100th.

Starting second on the right side in the rain was not the best deal, specially due to the more wet and slippery surface. I lost a couple places after it went to green but mostly lost positions until 6th place because my paddle shift was not working and had to shift gears manually. After 1 lap I found my  way to drive around the problem and managed to recover until 3rd place. Shame we had this problem, better result was possible! Just need a smooth weekend and we’re on top!

My big highlight is next! The Le mans 24h!

THANKS TO NORIAKI for the great photos! ( Nrak photo agency)

Got my new Formula Nippon helmet, will have the sa,e for Le Mans, wanted go to more black and refine some details. came out nice!

Thank you HIDECKS japan. http://www.hidecks.com/

Got my new wheels delivered straight from Japan and mounted my new Bridgestone Potenza tires. Enkei and Bridgestone are partners of my team Tom’s in japan and they offered me those nice items as a present for my GT title 2009. Got them painted in black to mach the car. looks great! Thanks Enkei, Bridgestone and also PFC brakes who offered me the upgraded brake discs and pads! Having a lot of fun with it!

Like last year, with Lexus and Gazoo Racing, I had the oportunity to participate in one of the most challenging races for man and mashine, the 24 h of Nurburgring.

We call it the green hell… which it basically is with its 25km of narrow high speed track around the german hilly country side.

So many cars on the track and lots of unpredictable situations with accidents and weather changes.

We experienced some problems during the race so we coudlnt compete anymore for a nice position but the most important for us was to finish. I realy enjoyed the time with the hole team and we had a lot of fun with my japanese colleges.

Well done to Lexus for the nice new looking car. LExus LF-A

Right after Spa we all went to some lost place in east Germany to prepare Le Mans with some more pitstop practice and simulations etc,…  Busy busy but good to be with the team!

Also got to try the R8 LMS  which was fun!

MOV09741

Installing lots of new parts and a new exhaust with Ben, good to get our hands dirty sometimes. Maybe we need better tools and a real garage…

Our fans from japan prepared a flag for Ben and me to support us for our highlight in Le Mans. We displayed it our garage. Allan Mc Nish got jealous and requested one to….

So nice! Arigatooo!

Super GT race in Fuji is done and now I’m back home in Belgium getting ready for this week end’s race, the  1000km of SPA Le Mans series.

It will be my first race race with Audi Sport at a circuit I can call my home track, I raced there only twice but the track is just 1h away from where I grew up and I have been going there so many times since I was a little kid, my father had a race team and he always took me there with him. I was playing around the hole area with the team’s quad bike. Lots of great memories as a kid around Belgium’s nicest country side, the Ardennes. Later on, even my Go-Kart engine tuner (Marechal Racing) was also based inside the circuit on a little Go-Kart track, so I went there to practice a lot to. Anyways, all that to say that it’s special for me and I’m very exited to race this week end.

Check it out, my new car got delivered so I’ll even roll up there in style… Audi S5

FOLLOW THE RACE

The 1,000Km of Spa are scheduled to start at 11:30 am on Sunday, May 9.

Visit www.lemans-series.com for live-timing

TV Broadcast times: ● Eurosport International – Live 11:15 am – 12:00 pm; 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

 Eurosport International – Delayed 5:30 pm – 6:00 pm

Also check out the Audi Sport Iphone Application, great to follow news and lots of multimedia in it, pretty cool!

Click pic to link to Itunes store, its free!

4 comments

I had a good qualifying lap, car is in a good shape considering the weight we carrying. Looking forward to hit the top of the podium tomorrow!!

Thats what the competitors should see.. the back of my car…

SuperGT Rd3 in Fuji Speedway this weekend. Come join us on sunday for the race!

http://www.supergt.net/jp/

Our friend Yuri (our last years GT TV lady) had this good idea and convinced us in trying a bit of woman training with her  pro trainer friend Emi….

By chance, on my way there, I met my team mate Juichi at some crossing. small world!! Told him to come with us and together with JP we had good fun cause we cant stay serious for these kind of things but still I could feel the good effect of that type of training. Will try more…maybe… hehe