Martin Hails “A lot of Firsts” as IGTC Drivers’ Champion

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

Maxime Martin hailed his Intercontinental GT Challenge season as “a lot of firsts” as the Belgian ace claimed his first championship title in 18 years.

Martin came out on top in SRO Motorsports Group’s globe-trotting GT3 series after helping take the No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to a fifth place overall finish in Saturday’s season-ending Desder Indianapolis 8 Hour.

Sharing the Pro class Mercedes-AMG with GT World Challenge America powered by AWS title hopefuls Mikael Grenier and Michai Stephens, Martin entered the weekend third in the IGTC drivers’ standings, behind fellow Mercedes-AMG factory drivers Luca Stolz and Maro Engel.

However, with championship leader Engel absent on DTM duty and Stolz’s No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG crashing out in the opening hour in the hands of Lin Hodenius, Martin essentially only needed to earn nine points in the race to surpass Engel in the standings.

Laurin Heinrich, the only other driver with a mathematical chance of the drivers’ crown, needed to win the race outright but ended up finishing sixth in his No. 31 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.

“It’s amazing,” Martin told Sportscar365. “I did the full season with a lot of different teams, so I have to thank all the teams that made it possible.

“For sure today was a difficult race for us. But at the end we finished P5, P3 in Pro and enough points to win.

“It’s a shame for Luca. He wasn’t even able to race today. But it’s part of the game.

“I’m very happy to be champion.”

Martin kicked off the IGTC campaign with his first Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour victory in a GruppeM Racing-run entry before claiming a breakthrough maiden overall Nürburgring 24 triumph with Winward Racing.

An accident knocked Martin out of the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa while driving for GetSpeed, although he rebounded to finish in the Suzuka 1000km with Craft-Bamboo Racing.

It was backed up by another fifth place result, but fourth place IGTC points, with the Canadian squad in the joint IGTC/GTWC America season finale.

“Bathurst and Nürburgring were for sure the big races to win,” said Martin. “At the end, I’m a first-time IGTC champion. It’s a lot of first times after 20 years!”

Martin, who became the 11th different IGTC champion in 11 years, admitted the strategy going into the race was to support Grenier and Stephens’ GTWC America Pro class title bid, as the duo held a nine-point lead over AF Corse’s Matias Perez Companc.

“That was the first strategy to be honest, for the team, to try to win their championship,” said Martin.

“But we quickly understood that we didn’t have the pace and we didn’t have everything to be able to win today.”

The IGTC crown is remarkably Martin’s first season-long championship since winning the Clio Cup France title in 2008, the same year he made his GT3 debut.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John