CAREERS & FEATURES increasing acclaim around Britain and Europe’ s most iconic circuits. Marcus is now well-established in the pro / am sports car racing world as one of the country’ s top GT4 competitors.
GT4 class cars are closely related to the prestige sports cars driven by the public, usually factory-built by manufacturers like Porsche and Lamborghini, but modified to equalise performance. They compete in endurance races, which can last up to three hours and involve around 30 to 40 cars, so driving skills really are put to the test.
Marcus drove a Ferrari 458 to second place in the 2015 British GT Cup last year, driving with Tom Ingram( scoring five wins) and is pushing to be the British GT4 pro / am champion this year, along with Abbie Eaton, his co-driver in a Maserati Gran Turismo MC.
He says:“ It’ s an endurance test rather than the sprint races I used to do over 20-30 minutes, so you’ re allowed to use two drivers during the race with a changeover. I’ m an amateur driver and this year I’ ve started sharing the driving with Abbie, a professional. We’ ve had a surprisingly successful season in the top flight and are [ at the time of writing ] currently second in the Pro-Am Championship.
“ It’ s the ultimate personal test. What I do on a dayto-day basis with Cranswick is very much involved with teamwork; a group of people working together to win. GT4 has team elements, but it’ s basically you and your machine against other people and their machines – it’ s very combative and the adrenaline high is unsurpassed.”
Marcus may be classed as an amateur, but he has to work hard to maintain fitness and raise the funds.“ Sometimes it really does feel like another job,” he says.“ As soon as Christmas dinner is finished, I have to start losing any extra weight, training three or four times a week before testing starts in earnest in April and May.”
Spring, summer and autumn bring a series of competitions around the country, and involve weekends away from home.“ Lisa’ s amazing and very tolerant,” he says.“ She gets that it’ s a massive passion and also a massive opportunity. We have to work very hard each season to secure the sponsorship and there’ s a lot of networking and pitching involved. But it could all end tomorrow so you have to give it 100 % when you have the chance.”
The time and effort become worthwhile when Marcus lines up alongside other competitors on the grid.“ When it’ s just you and the machine, the feeling is unmatchable,” he says.“ The adrenalin rush when you’ re doing 140mph, just millimetres away from other cars racing round the track, is like a dream.”
Football was his only obsession when he was younger.“ Luckily for my dad, I wasn’ t into go-karting then, because football boots are a lot cheaper,” he laughs.“ Jamie always comes to watch me race now, but I’ m also trying to keep his real interest limited to football and rugby for the same reason!”
Marcus’ enthusiasm for‘ the beautiful game’ was such that he persuaded his Pocklington School teachers to establish a football team to run alongside the well-established rugby team, when he joined the Senior School from Lyndhurst Prep in 1987.
“ Even then, Pocklington was about giving people the opportunity to do what they were good at, to develop their passions and encourage them in the areas they were not so good at. It’ s one of the reasons my son is starting there soon,” Marcus says.
“ Friends with children there now say that’ s still very much the case. Pock fulfils all the academic, music and sporting demands to produce people with rounded personalities and a rounded set of skills. I’ ve always been very competitive and Pocklington nurtures that side of things, too. I’ m looking forward to getting to know the place again.”
ZANNA ON VLOGGING, BLOGGING AND FITNESS
Zanna van Dijk( 99-10) spent her time at Pocklington School dodging exercise in all its forms. Today, she is one of the country’ s most popular fitness vloggers and bloggers, whose posts are viewed by thousands of people worldwide.
Her total ease in front of the camera and clear writing style and has earned( at time of going to press) 123,000 Instagram followers, 17,775 YouTube subscribers, and a devoted website following. Her posts, vlogs and blogs detail her daily workouts, food diaries, travel tips and more – all promoting a healthy, nutritious and fitness-based lifestyle.
Zanna, 24, is also a fitness model and personal trainer – but it’ s her blogs and vlogs which gather the most attention. Brands are queuing up to attract her endorsement, offering travel and freebies galore. This summer she flew out to the Rio Olympics with Adidas, who laid on a luxury villa shared with other vloggers and bloggers, plum seats at the Games, and introduced her to athletes including Tom Daley.
Zanna said:“ I attended the cycling, basketball and athletics; all of which were incredible. At the cycling I got to see world and Olympic records being broken!
“ I loved seeing Jess Ennis and Greg Rutherford achieve their medals. My favourite moment was when Mo Farrah came back from a fall and went on to win gold in the 10,000m; and then came and hugged his daughter who was seated in front of me.
I could see the tears in his eyes and I felt so proud to be supporting him and Team GB.”
She added:“ It was certainly a once in a lifetime experience. Adidas gave us such incredible opportunities. We got to watch the Games, meet the athletes and explore the city by going on hikes and day trips. I left feeling super inspired by the people I met!”
Zanna has appeared on TV, and on the front cover of Sunday Times Style and Women’ s Fitness magazines, with accompanying features detailing her work-out regime and fitness tips.
The Sunday Times described Zanna as one of the“ hottest # fitstagram stars out there” – yet at Pocklington School, she insists she was a bookish teacher’ s pet who had no interest in exercise.
“ I really enjoyed the academic side of things and put a lot of effort in – but I was definitely not sporty,” she recalls.“ I was tall [ she’ s now 6ft 2ins ] so should really have been a netballer, at least, but it was always too cold and I’ d make up excuses.
“ I was always at the back in cross country and I used to get my mum to write notes to excuse me from swimming. I never went near the gym and I couldn’ t have cared less about exercise.”
Zanna, who comes from near Beverley, East Yorkshire, started out in the same vein at the University of Sheffield, where she gained a first class honours degree in Speech Science. But then her attitude changed.
“ It was a slow transition and very much a learning curve,” she says.“ I was fed up of feeling tired and unhealthy and started to try and change. I made loads of mistakes along the way, like bad diets and exercises I didn’ t like, but then I found my own balance.”
She and a friend followed fitness posts on Instagram and, partly to motivate themselves, started their own accounts to document their fitness quests. Zanna started to attract a following – and hasn’ t looked back since.
“ I never intended for vlogging or blogging to become my job,” she says.“ When I was at school it didn’ t even exist. You couldn’ t – and still can’ t study to become either. It was just an organic thing.
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