Markus Palttala

Markus 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 2nd in the championship each year, driving for Marc VDS Racing Team.

Markus Palttala
Nationality	Finnish
Born	(1977-08-16) 16 August 1977 Nakkila, Finland
United SportsCar Championship career
Debut season	2014
Current team	Turner Motorsport
Racing licence	FIA Silver
Starts	4
Wins	2
Previous series
1998–1999 1999 2000 2001 2002, '06, '08, '09 2003, 2006 2005–2010 2005, '08, '11 2009–2011 2009 2010–2011 2011–2013 2012–2013	Finnish TCC Dunlop Tourenwagen Cup Light Porsche Carrera Cup Germany European Super Production FIA GT Championship FFSA GT Championship Le Mans Endurance Series Belcar FIA GT3 Finnish GT3 Championship FIA GT1 World Championship Blancpain Endurance Series FIA WEC
24 Hours of Le Mans career Years 2010, 2012, 2014 Teams Marc VDS Racing Team, JWA-Avila Best finish 33rd (2012)

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	Pos.	Class Pos.
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

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	BRH 8	BRH 9	TOU	TOU	NUR 6	NUR 21	UMB	UMB	LEM	LEM	22nd	178

Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Class	Make	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos.	Points
2014	Turner Motorsport	GTD	BMW Z4 GT3	BMW 4.4 L V8	DAY 7†	SEB 7	LGA 1	DET 6	WGL 1	MOS 3	IND	ELK 1	VIR 1	COA 3	ATL 4		6th	287
2015	Turner Motorsport	GTD	BMW Z4 GT3	BMW 4.4 L V8	DAY 12	SEB 8	LGA 10	BEL 6	WGL 9	LIM	ELK 10†	VIR 4	AUS 2	ATL 11			11th	200
2016	Turner Motorsport	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	BMW 4.4 L V8	DAY 5	SEB 7	LGA 12	BEL 11	WGL 10	MOS 13†	LIM 7	ELK 9	VIR 8	AUS 14	PET 3		10th	237
2018	Turner Motorsport	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	BMW 4.4 L V8	DAY	SEB 11	MOH	BEL	WGL 1	MOS	LIM	ELK	VIR	LGA	PET 15		20th	100
2021	NTE Sport	GTD	Audi R8 LMS Evo	Audi 5.2 L V10	DAY	SEB	MDO	DET	WGL 4	WGL	LIM	ELK	LGA	LBH	VIR	PET	48th	299
2022	NTE Sport	GTD	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	Lamborghini 5.2 L V10	DAY 16	SEB	LBH	LGA	MDO	DET	WGL	MOS	LIM	ELK	VIR	PET	66th	163

^† Palttala did not complete sufficient laps in order to score full points.

External links

• Official website
• Markus Palttala career summary at DriverDB.com
• Markus Palttala on Twitter