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Ambitious Paul van Splunteren in FIA GT3
NEC Unified Solutions supports fantastic international racing season
After a very successful start to the national racing season Paul van Splunteren is now focusing his attention on the start of a new international adventure. “I have made my debut as a team manager during the opening weekend of the Dutch racing season with two victories in Dutch GT4. This has given me much confidence as a driver for the start of my own international season”, says Van Splunteren. “The first weekend of May marks the start of the FIA GT3 season, in which I will be driving the new Porsche GT3 R. Thanks to the support I am getting from NEC Unified Solutions I shall be aiming for victories in this prestigious championship.”
Race car driver Paul van Splunteren is taking on new challenges this year. The motorsport-addicted owner of the Porsche Centre Eindhoven has swapped his driving seat in the Dutch GT4 Championship for the role of team manager. And during the recent Easter Races at Circuit Park Zandvoort his Porsche 997 GT4 was doing an excellent job. Van Splunteren watched his drivers Phil Bastiaans and Mathijs Harkema collect two race wins, with Bastiaans now leading the championship.
Prestigious fight
However, as a driver, Van Splunteren has decided to look beyond the Dutch boarders for this year. Besides racing in the 24-hour races at Le Mans and at Spa-Francorchamps, he will also be competing in the FIA European GT3 Championship. This impressive championship has a huge grid filled with amazing GT cars and fast international drivers.
Secret weapons
With team-mate Marco Holzer and the strong Belgium ProSpeed racing team Paul van Splunteren has joined forces with two secret weapons to score with in the FIA GT3. Holzer is a 21 year old Porsche works-driver, so the young German knows how to be fast in a Porsche. “Marco is really fast”, says Van Splunteren. “For me it’s a huge challenge to be racing alongside such a talent in a championship like FIA GT3.” The ProSpeed team won last year’s FIA GT2 Championship title and during the final race Marco Holzer and Richard Westbrook were driving the team’s car. “ProSpeed are proven winners”, knows Van Splunteren, revealing another interesting detail of this cooperation. “The team is owned by Rudi Penders who also runs a Porsche dealership in Liège, Belgium. This makes both Rudi and me racing Porsche dealers and this shared passion is a great basis for working together.”
Full throttle with NEC Unified Solutions
With NEC Unified Solutions Van Splunteren has found a main partner supporting this international racing adventures. Lex de Gier, vice-president sales & marketing at NEC Unified Solutions, is very excited about the new partnership. ”The international racing scene is an excellent platform for us to increase the brand awareness of our company, which operates on the business telecommunications market”, explains De Gier. “We feel closely connected to racing since we are always full throttle to go past our competitors as well. Even though the total business communication market went down 13 percent last year, NEC Unified Solutions managed to achieve a 15 percent growth. We chose to support Paul van Splunteren because we only want to partner up with winners.” NEC Unified Solutions has 700 employees in Europe, 200 of which are working at the head office in Hilversum, The Netherlands.
Nice calendar
This year, the FIA GT3 championship will be visiting six circuits, with two races of one hour each being held at every event. After the season opener at the British circuit of Silverstone (May 2nd) the grid will move to Brno in the Czech Republic (May 23rd), Jarama in Spain (June 20th) and Paul Ricard in the South of France (July 4th). Next up will be the Portuguese Algarve circuit (September 19th) and the season will end at the circuit of Zolder in Belgium (October 10th).
International racing calendar 2010 Paul van Splunteren:
FIA GT3
May 2nd: Silverstone (GB)
May 23rd: Brno (CZ)
June 20th: Jarama (E)
July 4th: Paul Ricard (F)
September 19th: Algarve (P)
October 10th: Zolder (B)
Other dates:
May 8th and 9th: Spa-Francorchamps 1000 Kilomtres, LMS
June 12th and 13th: Le Mans 24 Hours
July 31st and August 1st: Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours
Throughout the season, Paul van Splunteren’s activities can be followed on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/GT3puntNL