Porsche has taken a majority stake in Manthey Racing: Olaf Manthey’s Nürburgring-based racing team and motorsport organisation. It’s the latest step in Olaf’s move towards a retirement of sorts (hard to imagine Olaf ever entirely retiring, as he is still “working flat out in my own rev limiter”). Here’s Olaf with his works driver pairing of Marco Holzer and Nick Tandy:
Following Manthey’s initial merger with Audi racers, Nicki and Martin Raeder last year, Porsche AG has acquired a 51% share of Manthey-Racing GmbH: the organisation which has supported Porsche factory race efforts for a number of years, and counts five Nürburgring 24-Hour victories, two Le Mans wins and an amazing eight Supercup titles amongst its silverware.
Through 2013, Porsche AG Team Manthey together mounted the first works Porsche endurance campaign for over twenty years. 2014 will be a big year for Porsche and no doubt a shorter team name will please the marketing department.
But beyond business, Porsche’s involvement with Olaf Manthey is quite a personal one. Following the loss of Olaf’s son in a tragic road accident in 2007, Manthey and Porsche Motorsport boss, Hartmut Kristen, agreed that Porsche would become the ultimate inheritor of Olaf’s incredible competition portfolio, earned since the team was formed in 1996.
“Porsche’s commitment and dedication represents the best possible incentive to our employees,” Olaf is quoted as saying. “Not only can we pool our knowledge and expertise, but with Porsche at our side we can look forward to the future with great confidence”.
The Manthey name has a special place in the hearts of Porsche enthusiasts. Let’s hope it continues to be part of the landscape.
A number of projects have been enforcing wee-hours Internet trawls for material from the 2013 Safari Rally. This was the first year for a while that I didn’t follow the rally as it happened, so going back through Youtube videos and enthusiast coverage unveils a more human story.
What continues to stand out about the rally is the whitespace. Whitespace on a page is space for the content to spread, unfold, stand on its own and filter into your grey cells. The Ferdinand website runs a ton of whitespace, as that is how I like to read. Whitespace on Safari is fresh air, big landscapes and beautiful light.
Whitespace on a road trip allows room for the tendrils of the experience to wind through the windscreen, into the cracks and crevices of our psyche to massage our imaginations. The greatest journeys take us on a metaphorical learning curve of self: no one comes back from a road trip less resolved than how they departed.
Essentially a competitive road trip, rallying offers similar spirituality – don’t be scared off by the word – in a more challenging context. Testing their stamina, ambition and resourcefulness, the competitors scrape another layer off their ultimate capability. Putting the body and mind under extreme duress is part of the thrill of existence: and is there a better way to have existence fully envelope a consciousness, than fighting for victory on one of the great marathon rallies?
Porsches and philosophy on a misty Wednesday morning: you’re welcome. Anyone who wants to stay up late drinking whiskey and potentially talking this stuff in a remote Alpine ski lodge next June should find a way onto the Twinspark Racing Bergmeister Tour. In the morning, the philosophically less interested take off to drive legendary mountain passes and we hang back, mentally drifting off piste and doing our own thing. The best times await us when we just let them come.
Tuthill Porsche ran an amazing sixteen 911s on this year’s Safari Rally, which must make Richard Tuthill the most philosophical of all of us: he is certainly an inspiring person to work with. Though he will vehemently deny this, his reponsibility for so many epic past projects tells a different story. If you’re looking for the ultimate Porsche Road Trip, then Safari is your thing.
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“Some people call me the Space Cowboy, Some call me the Gangster of Love”
I don’t know whether anyone’s ever called Michael Christensen the “Gangster of Love”, but from next year they will be calling him a Porsche Works Racing Driver, which might be even better.
The impressive 23 year-old rookie from Denmark has spent the last two years as a Porsche Junior, racing 911 GT3s, and impressed Stuttgart enough to earn a slot in the works driver lineup. Those who’ve followed Christensen race and win will applaud with the decision. There’s real speed and intelligence in Christensen’s driving – unsurprising when you look at his CV.
Karting from an early age, Christensen rose to become one the of the best by winning Nordic and European Junior titles, finishing second in the World Formula A series and taking back to back German kart titles. He won the Formula BMW Europe Rookies Cup in 2008, and notched up a pile of wins in 2009, only to lose them in a battle over tech regs. Two years in GP3 followed, before he took a shot at the Porsche young drivers selection process, winning a comprehensive support package as a Porsche Junior in the Carrera Cup Deutschland.
Christensen crowned his maiden season with a win at Hockenheim in front of all the right names. In 2013 Supercup, he took a win at the Nurburgring, and made the best rookie award his own. Time will tell what Christensen can do with the works drive, but having him on the team is no bad thing. Graduating to the works team from Supercup at least gives the series some good news this year, following the loss of Sean Edwards.
Congratulations, Michael! Here’s to a great 2014.
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I spotted Mark Webber in the rugby crowd yesterday, while working with the TV on. Now a former Formula driver, Webber put Porsche on the F1 podium in his final two appearances. Name-checking his future employer in front of the viewing millions, Webber reminded F1 fans that racing is not all about Bernie’s 22-seat circus.
Webber will race Porsche’s LMP prototype in next year’s World Endurance Championship, and escape to a better life-work balance. Mark’s final race in Brazil last weekend was the perfect send-off for the paddock’s favourite fighter.
“It was a very good finish to my career,” Mark told reporters afterwards. “A good fight with all the guys I’ve enjoyed fighting with for most of my career: Seb, Fernando, Lewis, Nico – all the guys who’ve been in the window for the last five or six years.”
F1’s media entourage (and us fans) will miss Webber’s forthright camera face next year. I don’t know who else will step up to the “tell it like it is” role. Jenson Button, maybe – could be his last year, too. Mark’s final F1 weekend was loaded with self-effacing Aussie style.
“Maybe I didn’t have absolute natural talent, but I knew that if I grafted and worked hard, I’d get the results,” said Webber, before his final race. “I smashed a lot of guys who had more talent than me, because they didn’t work as hard as me. I learned that about myself: how important it was to graft and just get my head down. I’ve been doing that for most of my career.” I totally get what he’s saying, and how good it feels to work hard for results.
WEC with Stuttgart won’t be a walk in the park, but there’ll be more space to breathe, time to walk the dogs, and opportunities to help and encourage younger sportsmen and women. I’m sure Mark will be top man at keeping his positive influence going. As we all know, energy can neither be created nor destroyed, and hard-grafting Webber has energy to spare.
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I spent the morning at Tuthill Porsche, doing more stuff on Safari packing operations to share via Tuthill social feeds on Twitter and Facebook. The Team Tido cars are back for last minute checks and all looking fine. Check out this one, built using terrific Almeras-kit Porsche panels from our friends at EB Motorsport: *drool*
Alongside the two container-loads of tyres, wheels, suspension parts, roll cages and more, each car being run on the 2013 Safari Rally by Tuthills has a crate of all-new parts that travels with it. Charlie B has been gathering those parts, and her guys are now building up the metal frames to go in wooden crates, boxing them up for shipping next week. Open the crate, put the frame in your Landcruiser and hey presto: ready to rock.
Race week is getting ever closer! There’s a ton of other stuff happening in Wardington,with Safari right at the heart of it. I’m always thrilled to be part of the Tuthill crowd, but I think this year is the most exciting ever.
Apparently, the 2013 Tuthill Safari team is the biggest single rally team ever assembled. I’m keeping mum on numbers, but easy to count how many parts crates are in that container, assuming everyone turns up. Every crate of parts used would be best-case scenario, or should that be worst?!
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It’s the Silverstone Classic this weekend, with added Porsche content by way of the UK 911 50th Celebrations and the FIA Masters Historic Championship, featuring the Tuthill-built 3.0 Porsche RS and RSR of EB Motorsport.
Taking place from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th of July, Silverstone Classic claims to be the world’s biggest classic motor racing festival. The spectacular three-day event features the best historic racing, covering more than eight decades of motor sport.
Tickets for this year’s Silverstone Classic have only been available to buy online in advance, with no tickets sold on the gate. We’ll see how that works over the next three days: hopefully everyone who’s hoping to come got the memo.
For those who do get in the gates, the festival has something for all race fans, including Sabine Schmitz in a 962! Classic F1, Group C heroes, sportscars like the Lola T70 and classic Chevrons and a ton of car club parking to wander through.
I’m there with Mark and James from EB Motorsport. EB’s yellow Porsche 911 RSR is currently running joint second in the 2013 championship and the boys are hoping for some rain this weekend to give EB a chance of pulling points back. The forecast is not too encouraging for rain, but you never know at Silverstone!
EB cars qualify today and race tomorrow. Sunday is the Hungarian GP – a tough one to resist on Sky F1 – but also on Sunday, the Porsche Club GB will have over 1,000 911s lapping the track, in celebration of the model’s 50th birthday. Somewhere in there will be Tuthill’s Safari-winning Porsche, fresh from Goodwood, the EB Motorsport cars and who knows what else.
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Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
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