At the end of 2020 Marti had the chance to do his very first racing car test. It was a Peugeot 106 E1 raced by the experienced Bulgarian racer Rosen Kostov – Rezinata. The venue was Dracon racetrack near Plovdiv, 2 km long with very rough pavement just like Sebring.
Rosen had to make some adjustments to the car for Marti, because he’s still too short to reach the pedals and see. That’s why the race seat was changed for a much higher normal car seat which of course was lacking support, but this was the only option for Marti to reach the pedals and see the track at the same time.
At his home sim Marti had been training changing the gears with a clutch, heel & toeing, so now he was having the chance to do it in real life. The track was quite dirty, but also the car was with semi-slicks, so effectively Marti had to adapt both to a car that was much heavier than his race kart, but also a car with a lot less grip.
He managed to do 50 laps on the 2 km long circuit managing a best time of 1:16, just 2 seconds shy of the car record which was done with slicks. The plan was to do much more running, because Marti showed no signs of fatigue, but the car wasn’t on the same form and it broke down bringing the test to an early close.
It was remarkable how Marti as an 11 years old effectively managed to drive a race distance with a racing car for the first and managed to learn heel & toeing so quickly. This test was a testament to his improvement in stamina over the last year as well as driving technique.
