Dutch master class - Bleekemolen and his team celebrate a Championship win
Stuttgart. Jeroen Bleekemolen is the new champion of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup. The 26-year-old Jetstream Motorsport PZ Essen team pilot secured the coveted title already in the qualifying for the penultimate round in Spa-Francorchamps.
Jeroen Bleekemolen's strength is particularly apparent in the difficult moments of racing. For instance in Istanbul where, through no fault of his own, he retired from the race in the seventh lap. For a short while the mood was not perfect but very soon Bleekemolen set his sights on the next race in Monaco. “That's where I gave one of the best performances of my life,” said the Dutchman. In the Principality he claimed pole position before going on the next day to score a flag-to-flag victory. His qualifying lap was virtually perfect. With the exception of the Istanbul round he always ranked amongst the top three in qualifying. “To be up the front is a great confirmation.” Even when things went wrong, his optimism remained intact. “This is what makes motorsport fun,” he said. “I'm always totally motivated.”
Perhaps Jeroen Bleekemolen feels at home in the Porsche Supercup scene because his father and brother regularly compete alongside him. Since 2003 they race for their own team, Bleekemolens Race Planet. “It means a lot to me to race together with my father and brother,” says the youngest of the Dutch racing squad. He was quick to find support for his racing passion. Not least because his father runs his own kart track and competed in Formula 1 in the late seventies. “I still went my own way quite early on and fought for a place in the DTM by myself.” Judging by the twinkle in Jeroen Bleekemolen's eye, his father is not the only person to be proud.
That Jeroen Bleekemolen is a team player is clearly apparent inside his Jetstream Motorsport PZ Essen team. Whilst other pilots retire to their hotels to rest, he prefers to spend time with his mechanics – and even bunks down in the team truck in the paddock.
With his cool and calm attitude Bleekemolen enjoys success. The championship title in the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup is his second major success this year with Porsche. At the legendary Le Mans 24 hour race he secured LMP2 victory at the wheel of a Porsche RS Spyder. Moreover, in 2008 he drove all types of Porsche racing sports cars. At the beginning of the year he contested the Dubai 24 hour race in a 911 GT3 RSR, on the Norisring he raced a 911 GT3 Cup S in the ADAC GT Masters Series and in both the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland as well as in the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup he piloted a 911 GT3 Cup.
His career with sports cars from Stuttgart began in 2005 – in the Supercup. At that time he competed as a guest for the HSF team at the Indianapolis race and promptly came third. Bleekemolen remembers: “Right from the start I felt good in the car. You have to get used to the Cup-Porsche, but it's a great car. It has enormous power, it's fantastic to drive and is huge fun.” Reason enough for Bleekemolen to climb into the cockpit again a year later. At the season final in Monza he saw the flag in fourth and helped the Morellato squad to claim the team title. Last season he contested selected Supercup rounds but still managed to secure five pole positions and three victories. He finished the season ranking eighth overall. In 2008, he crowned his first full Supercup year with the championship trophy.
Jeroen Bleekemolen laid the foundations for his motorsport career in 1995 in karting. In 1998 he swapped to Formula Ford, where he promptly secured the title. In 1999 he competed in the Formula Audi Palmer before switching to Formula 3 one year later. He then moved into the international FIA GT Championship and the Dutch touring car championship. From 2003 to 2004 Bleekemolen contested the DTM. In 2006 and 2007, amongst other series, he raced for the Netherlands in the A1 GP, a world championship series where national teams compete in Formula vehicles.
A much earlier entry into a Cup-Porsche cockpit could easily have yielded even more successes. Twelve years ago, Bleekemolen was at the top of the list for the UPS-Porsche Junior team. “At that time I turned it down,” he said, “ because I'd already signed up for the Formula Audi Palmer.” These days, Bleekemolen says, he often thinks about that telephone conversation. Especially when his Formula career stuttered several years later. “Then I thought a lot about what would have been if I'd accepted Porsche's offer.”
This season Jeroen Bleekemolen is one of the more active race drivers on the scene. The Dutchman's calendar is filled with 60 races on 40 weekends in a variety of racing vehicles. And what does the new champion do in his spare time? “To be honest, there's only motor sport for me at the moment. If I have some time in winter I love to go skiing,” said the newly-crowned champion. In 2003 he even wanted to take part in the Dutch ski championship, but his DTM contract prevented this.