For the third consecutive season, Martin Juga finished his 2024 campaign in Buxtehude last August with a top-10 finish in the overall CrossCar category.
Ninth in 2022, with three qualifications for a final to his credit, Martin Juga had revealed his true colours a year later by taking sixth place in the championship with a first victory at this level of racing, for a total of three podiums and four qualifications for a final.
Paradoxically, although Martin Juga took advantage of the 2024 season to set a new personal best with five qualifications for a final, the Estonian driver was unable to do better than eighth overall.
That’s quite a feat, given that only Ronalds Baldins, Elias Svensson and Joonatan Ylilammi managed to do better than the Pace Motorsport driver, with seven qualifications for a final in 2024.
“We had speed all season long, but I’d say that the lack of success we encountered often prevented us from achieving better results,” sums up Martin Juga, who this year debuted the brand-new TN11 chassis from LifeLive.
A new weapon which naturally required some logical development work, and which should not fail to provide obvious benefits for the young Estonian driver next season. In fact, with five fastest race laps this year, Juga will have done better than 2024 champion Elias Svensson.
“Of course, it was a brand-new chassis. We learned a lot of new things in 2024, and every new kilometer we covered made us more efficient. It’s positive for next season, because all the work we’ve been able to do this year will enable us to arrive at the top of our potential right from the first round of the championship.”
Able to break the 20 points scored barrier on three occasions, Martin also faced more difficult events with three races concluded beyond the 20th place.
“There’s nothing easy about this championship. Nobody comes to these events to settle for second or third place. Nevertheless, even if in theory a CrossCar remains a CrossCar and there aren’t too many differences from one model to another, I would still say that each machine has its own specificities. It took me a while to get used to the chassis, but in the end it was a relatively short phase, as one of my qualities is my ability to adapt very quickly to new situations. In any case, all the experience we were able to gather during the 2024 season can only be useful for the future.”
