Markus Palttala

Markus Eero Johannes Palttala (born 16 August 1977 in Nakkila) is a Finnish racing driver. After racing in karts, Palttala began racing cars in the Finnish Touring Car Championship in 1998. He competed in the 2001 European Super Production Championship, driving a Honda Integra. Palttala's first run in Grand Touring cars came in 2000 in the single-make Porsche Carrera Cup Germany. He moved to the FIA GT Championship beginning in 2002, competing sporadically in 2006, 2008, and 2009, and also competed in its successor championships, the FIA GT1 World Championship and FIA GT3 European Championship through 2011. Palttala's best seasons came in 2011 and 2012 in the Blancpain Endurance Series, where he finished second in the championship each year, driving for Marc VDS Racing Team.

Palttala drove in the Le Mans Endurance Series for various teams from 2005 until 2010. In the 2010 season, he won the GT1 class at the 1000 km of Spa and participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He ran the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012 (including another outing at Le Mans) and 2013. Palttala joined Turner Motorsport for the inaugural United SportsCar Championship season in 2014. He took his first GT-Daytona class win in the third race of the season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, and followed it up with a dominating win at the Six Hours of Watkins Glen.

Complete motorsports results

24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 2010 Marc VDS Racing Team Eric De Doncker Bas Leinders Ford GT1 LMGT1 26 DNF DNF 2012 JWA-Avila Paul Daniels Joël Camathias Porsche 911 GT3 RSR LMGTE-AM 290 33rd 8th 2014 Prospeed Competition François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR LMGTE-AM 194 DNF DNF

Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) † Palttala did not complete sufficient laps in order to score full points.

24 Hours of Spa results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 2000 PSI Motorsport Stéphane De Groodt Éric Bachelart Honda Integra Type-R SP DNF DNF 2001 PSI Motorsport Philippe Tollenaire Stéphane De Groodt Porsche 996 GT3-R Cat.2 499 10th 1st 2002 PSI Motorsport Eric Geboers Kurt Mollekens Porsche 996 Bi-Turbo GT 312 DNF DNF 2005 Ice Pol Racing Team Yves Lambert Christian Lefort Jean André Porsche 996 GT3-RS G2 486 17th 4th 2006 PSI Experience Bernard Dehez Pertti Kuismanen Vincent Radermecker Chevrolet Corvette C5-R GT1 530 11th 7th 2008 Prospeed Competition Mikael Forsten Wolf Henzler Geoffroy Horion Porsche 997 GT3-RSR GT2 183 DNF DNF 2009 Prospeed Competition Niki Lanik David Loix Oskar Slingerland Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S G3 517 9th 3rd 2010 Marc VDS Racing Team Eric De Doncker Renaud Kuppens Ford GT GT3 GT3 249 DNF DNF 2011 Marc VDS Racing Team Antoine Leclerc Jonathan Hirschi Ford GT GT3 Pro Cup 521 11th 7th 2012 Marc VDS Racing Team Bas Leinders Maxime Martin BMW Z4 GT3 Pro Cup 507 4th 4th 2013 Marc VDS Racing Team Nick Catsburg Henri Moser BMW Z4 GT3 Pro Cup 222 DNF DNF 2014 BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS Lucas Luhr Dirk Werner BMW Z4 GT3 Pro Cup 527 2nd 2nd 2015 BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS Nick Catsburg Lucas Luhr BMW Z4 GT3 Pro Cup 536 1st 1st 2016 Emil Frey Racing Jonathan Hirschi Christian Klien Jaguar XK Emil Frey G3 Pro Cup 446 49th 25th 2017 Walkenhorst Motorsport Matias Henkola Christian Krognes Nico Menzel BMW M6 GT3 Pro-Am Cup 536 20th 5th 2018 Emil Frey Racing Stéphane Ortelli Norbert Siedler Lexus RC F GT3 Pro Cup 196 DNF DNF 2019 Bentley Team M-Sport Alex Buncombe Maxime Soulet Bentley Continental GT3 Pro Cup 118 DNF DNF

24 Hours of Nürburgring results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 2012 Marc VDS Racing Team Bas Leinders Maxime Martin BMW Z4 GT3 SP9 GT3 154 4th 4th 2013 Marc VDS Racing Team Richard Göransson Bas Leinders Henri Moser BMW Z4 GT3 SP9 GT3 39 DNF DNF 2014 BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS Dirk Adorf Nick Catsburg Bas Leinders BMW Z4 GT3 SP9 GT3 60 DNF DNF 2015 BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS Lucas Luhr Maxime Martin Richard Westbrook BMW Z4 GT3 SP9 GT3 156 2nd 2nd 2016 Rowe Racing Nicky Catsburg Klaus Graf Richard Westbrook BMW M6 GT3 SP9 GT3 57 DNF DNF 2017 Rowe Racing Nick Catsburg Alexander Sims Richard Westbrook BMW M6 GT3 SP9 GT3 158 2nd 2nd 2018 BMW Team Schnitzer Augusto Farfus Christian Krognes Fabian Schiller BMW M6 GT3 SP9 GT3 131 13th 12th 2019 GetSpeed Performance Janine Hill Fabian Schiller John Shoffner Mercedes-AMG GT3 SP9 GT3 150 13th 12th 2020 GetSpeed Performance Janine Shoffner John Shoffner Maxime Soulet Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo SP9 GT3 79 17th 16th 2021 GetSpeed Performance Moritz Kranz John Shoffner Maxime Soulet Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo SP9 GT3 58 14th 14th 2022 KTM True Racing Reinhard Kofler Ferdinand Stuck Johannes Stuck KTM X-Bow GT2 Concept SP-X 144 20th 2nd

NASCAR (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Whelen Euro Series - Elite 1 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series - Elite 1 results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 NWES Points 2014 Racing Club Partners – Marc VDS 46 Toyota VAL VAL BRH8 BRH9 TOU TOU NUR6 NUR21 UMB UMB LEM LEM 22nd 178

24 Hours of Zolder results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 2000 PSI Motorsport Marc Goossens Philippe Tollenaire Porsche 996 Bi-Turbo GTA DNF DNF 2003 RTM Racing Leo Van Sande Risto Virtanen Porsche 996 Bi-Turbo GTA 165 DNF DNF 2004 PSI Motorsport Marc Duez Leo Van Sande Porsche 996 Bi-Turbo GTA 426 DNF DNF 2005 PSI Motorsport Kurt Mollekens Vincent Radermecker Leo Van Sande Porsche 996 Bi-Turbo GTA 746 7th 2nd 2007 G-Force Racing Frank Hahn Val Hillebrand Leo Van Sande Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Belcar 1 773 6th 4th 2008 MPM Racing by Verbist Armand Fumal Jos Menten Michel Pulinx Porsche 996 GT3-RS Belcar 3 773 3rd 2nd 2011 Prospeed Competition Marc Goossens David Loix Maxime Soulet Porsche 996 GT3-RS GTO+ 800 2nd 1st 2012 Marc VDS Racing Team Nick Catsburg Bas Leinders Henri Moser BMW Z4 GT3 GT-1 291 DNF DNF 2015 Skylimit Yokohama Racing Team Dale Lomas Simon Podhalicz Robin Put Davy Suffeleers BMW Clubsport T-6 639 30th 3rd 2016 Skylimit Yokohama Racing Team Kata Bozó Nicolas Hermans Ines Lammens Jo Lammens BMW E90 325i Belcar 5 603 32nd 7th 2017 Skylimit Yokohama Racing Team Kata Bozó Nicolas Hermans Ines Lammens Jo Lammens BMW E90 325i Belcar 5 645 24th 3rd 2019 JJ Motorsport/Xwift Racing Pieter Denys Gregory Eyckmans Jamie-Jason Vandenbalck BMW E90 325i Belcar 6 668 15th 1st