FBMW: Maxime Pelletier takes to the track in Utah

Montreal, May 16 2007. – 16 year-old Quebec driver Maxime Pelletier will start his sophomore season in Formula BMW USA series this weekend with a first double header on a facility new to this series, Miller Motorsports Park in Utah.

After an extensive Spring training at a few tracks with his new engineer Yvan Turcotte and after undergoing a complete physical training program, the 2006 BMW scholar says he is ready to tackle the 14-round championship with the 20 drivers entered in the 4th season of this entry-level series. While results in former training sessions did not meet his goals, the Hi-Rev Skincare driver claims he can be among the best.

“ We had a different strategy this year, argued the young man. Last year, we were real quick in training but were looking for proper setup when the season started and I had to start many races from mid-pack. This year, Yvan and I worked very hard about understanding the car basics and looked for all possible racing scenarios. The lap times didn’t really matter and we wanted to be ready when the first green dropped. And we will. Yvan has a wealth of experience with the FB2 machine and engineered a similar car to second place overall in 2005. He knows most of the the tracks we will race, like both grand prix in Canada and USA.”

Extensive training
In the off-season, Pelletier committed himself to serious physical training before he took to the track. “I wanted to be as fit as possible and working with professionnals was fun. I improved a lot and was always fit when I got out of the car lately. Guys my age think they are in good shape but are sometimes out of breath when they complete a race. I know I am stronger and more focused when I sit in the car.”

Seven double headers
For Maxime Pelletier, five of the seven programs will be on returning race tracks and only Miller et famous Road America are new venues. “We have worked according to the race tracks we’re going to visit, says the young man. We will know by Montreal if we have done our homeworks. For the time being we will benefit from a full testing day at Miller in order to get the best setup out of this technical layout. But I am positive we will be right there in Canada and Indianapolis.”

MaximePelletier.com
Maxime will test today in Utah. Tomorrow (Thursday), there will see two more free practice rounds and the first qualifying session. Friday will have the second qualifying and race 1 while Saturday will leave a morning warm-up followed by the second race. Maxime Pelletier’s web site may be visited at www.maximepelletier.com .

Source: Michel Poirier-Defoy