A subdued press release from Porsche Motorsport bearing good news from the World Endurance Championship in Bahrain suggests our favourite auto manufacturer has its own reservations on the situation there. Empty grandstands are no good for race fans.
AG’s quick round-up tells how Team Felbermayr-Proton celebrated its second win of the season in GTE-Am. “With their Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, Christian Ried (Germany) and his Italian teammates Gianluca Roda and Paolo Ruberti won the six hour race on the Bahrain International Circuit against strong opposition from Ferrari and Chevrolet. After a tough battle in the GTE Pro class, Porsche works drivers Marc Lieb (Germany) and Richard Lietz (Austria) pocketed third place, repeating their recent Sao Paulo result.”
“It was a difficult race for us,’ said works man Lietz. “We had to conserve the tyres from the first to the last lap and this made us somewhat slower than the front-runners.” Lieb extrapolated upon his teammate’s view. “We can be pleased with third place. During my first stint I had some problems with conserving the tyres which didn’t work very well and cost me time. Afterwards things ran better. We simply find it hard in such temperatures. We know we have the performance, but not in such extreme heat. We need to work on this. Hopefully it’s a bit cooler at the last two races in Fuji and Shanghai and then we should be back up there again.”
I watched a bit of the race on Motors TV. It started just before sunset, ran into the night and certainly looked tough enough. Plenty of Porsche drama late on, when the JWA-Avila Porsche pitted from 4th place and immediately returned to the pits. Initially it looked like retirement from team & driver tweets, but the car eventally rejoined and finished in the points.
Starting from third on the GTE-Am grid, Paolo Ruberti soon snatched the lead, which they held for the majority of the race and stretched to a one-lap lead by the flag. Having started their season with a win at Sebring,this was their fifth podium from six races. “The whole team is very pleased with this win,” said Paolo Ruberti. “It wasn’t an easy race under such extreme temperatures but we did our very best. Now we’re looking forward to the race in Fuji.”
Porsche pictures from the weekend were beautiful: top marks to whoever was behind the lens this weekend. The absence of spectators at this gorgeous circuit is perhaps the most interesting point to take away from the pics. They certainly seem shot in such a way as not to highlight the emptiness: one wonders how much of the decision to run at night was a factor here also. All of us must hope that the humanitarian situation there improves as soon as possible.
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
Tuthill Porsche has clinched the 2012 Belgian Historic Rally Championship in fine style, with overall victory on the East Belgian Rally, penultimate round of this hotly-contested series.
Tuthill’s Belgian title comes almost a year after the team took the first-ever Porsche win on the notorious East African Safari Rally. Victory on Africa’s toughest historic rally and in one of the world’s most challenging Tarmac championships in less than twelve months underlines Tuthill’s status as the Porsche world’s premier classic 911 adventure specialist.
Speaking from the finish line in Belgium, Tuthill MD, Richard Tuthill, was over the moon with his team’s latest success. “For us, this is really, really special. To take a driver from novice to champion in three years, in one of the most competitive championships in Europe is a fantastic achievement. What makes it even more special is that it’s been such fun. This is down to Glenn’s approach: he’s a special character!
“It’s also the first Belgian Championship for Glenn’s regular co-driver, Stéphane Prévot. Both have done a terrific job throughout the year, as have all of our team back at Wardington. It’s no small undertaking to challenge some of the strongest rally competition in Europe when based on the other side of the Channel, but we pulled it off. That’s great testament to the energy within our organisation.
“Now we’ve got one round left in Belgium and a few more UK rallies, before the fun switches to our winter Porsche 911 Ice Driving camp. We’re already deep into preparations for the 2013 Safari Rally, but no doubt this win will fire us up for more in Europe. We’ll start planning the next goal tomorrow!”
The superb EB Motorsport Porsche 911 RSR returns to Spa this weekend, to defend both its 2012 World Sportscar Masters title, and outright victory in the separate Top Hat Masters race at the epic Belgian track last year.
First qualifying today was for Top Hat Masters: a production car series that permits a wide range of cars to be entered. Mark Bates brought the Porsche home in fourth place on the grid: a result he is rightly pleased with.
“There’s a huge Top Hat grid here at Spa,” said Mark. “Must be 60 or 70 cars: everything from pre-’66 Minis to a 1970s NASCAR. I led the Yank tank up the Kemmel Straight in practice and even at 145 mph, the force of air coming off the NASCAR was enough to push the 911 around.
“Fourth on the grid is fine. Last year we had pole with a 2:49, which some said couldn’t be done. Pole this year went to an Escort at 2:44, but that car is quite radical: rose-jointed suspension with solid bushes, 6-pot brakes: even the rain gutters either side of the windscreen are filled. Other cars up front are quick enough in qualifying, but can they keep that pace up for a 61-minute race?
“Fuelling at Spa is a headache, so I like to come here with fresh rubber and a full tank of fuel, go out and take it steady. That way, we gain speed through the whole weekend as the fuel burns off. I don’t know how others will play it: we’ll see how it all works out.”
World Sportscar Masters qualifying gets under way shortly – I’ll find out how that went and add the results to this post.
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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:
Tuthill Porsche scored its tightest-ever victory this weekend, when Belgian Historic Rally Championship leader, Glenn Janssens, beat his closest rival by just two-tenths of a second in the Flanders Rally.
Based around the town of Roeselare in northern Belgium, the Flanders Historic Rally calls for a blend of torquey engines, high speed stability and driver concentration. Rally drivers race across ‘Flemish Tarmac’, so-called because of dirt dragged back onto the course by crews who survive an excursion through one of the many treacherous ditches.
Flanders is also a round of the British Historic Rally championship. This piled pressure on Team Tuthill, with a strong contingent of UK Porsche racers crossing the Channel to compete. Team boss Richard Tuthill was acutely aware of the stakes.
“As part of both British and Belgian historic rally championships, Flanders is a crucial event for our team: drivers and technicians alike. Everyone rose to the challenge and responded with peak performance. It was a real A-game weekend.
“Tuthill Porsche can supply the best cars possible, but it’s up to the drivers to make these Porsches work. After a minor off early in the rally, Glenn Janssens erased all distractions and focused on Saturday’s twelve fast stages, to take a class win and second overall. Beating his closest title rival by just two tenths of a second is testimony to Glenn’s terrific talent and hunger for the number one!
“Dessie Nutt has won here before, but each event is different. The car, the crowds, the weather and the roads change every year, so repeating past wins is never a given. Victory in Category One shows Dessie’s focus as season end approaches. That brilliant yellow Porsche is the perfect platform to show his spark is strong as ever.
“A well-earned class win for Peter Lythell in his 3.0-litre Tuthill Porsche could be seen as three times lucky for Tuthill in Belgium, but you make your own luck. Quick, reliable Porsches and fast, smooth drivers are difficult combinations to beat. Here’s to rounding off the year with a few more wins and adding to our trophy cabinet!”
It’s the 2012 Monza GP this weekend, with the final round and title decider of this year’s Porsche Supercup. Qualifying starts at 12.25, and will be covered live on racecam web radio, albeit in German.
There is no TV coverage of qualifying or the race on British Eurosport – I’ll try to track something else down. I’ll be live tweeting the race from whatever source I find, so follow me on twitter.com/Ferdinand_Mag (@Ferdinand_Mag) if you want to know what happens, as it happens.
Rast topped the practice times yesterday on a 1:51.691, less than one-tenth ahead of Patryk Szczerbinski. By comparison, F1 cars in current free practice 3 are running 1:24.632 (Alonso). Title rivals Thiim, Edwards and Siedler finished P4, 5 and 6 respectively, with Kévin Estre down in eighth.
Depressingly for his rivals, Rast felt there was room to improve on his fastest lap. “I still have the almost unused two sets of tyres from the Budapest weekend, there is a lot to improve on the setup of the car and I made some mistakes as well.” Half an hour to see how much faster he can go.
Today is the 2012 Spa F1 GP. I’m glued to the coverage on Sky Sports F1 HD with Twitter running on the iPad in the background. Today was also the penultimate round of this year’s Porsche Supercup.
F1 journo Adam Cooper tweeted this earlier: “Big shunt in Porsche Supercup with a car rolling on the way up the hill after Eau Rouge. But no safety car out”. Here’s some video of that incident.
The Team Bleekemolen car (below) was being driven by Jeroen Mul. Starting tenth on the grid, he gets a tap from the rear on the exit of Raidillon, which then sets off a chain of events leading to upside-down deceleration before the car rights itself, crosses the track and hits the barriers opposite. Not a small event!
I’ve done a lot of track days at Spa. Climbing up from Eau Rouge through Raidillon and on to the Kemmel Straight is one of the scariest parts of the track. You are absolutely flying here – sometimes almost literally – and every track day sees people destroying their cars. I remember one utterly destroyed F360 Spyder when they first came out: the owner frantically ripping the number plates off in the paddock after it was dragged back. If you can’t afford to wreck it, don’t take it on track at Spa.
Jeroen’s last tweet before this accident was “Good morning everyone! A beautiful day for a good race here in Spa. Watch the race live at 11.45 on Eurosport and Eurosport HD!” Mike Hedlund has since tweeted “First Supercup race in the books. Got my ass kicked but had fun! @Jeroen_Mul had a bad crash in front of me, but he is fine!” Team boss Sebastian Bleekemolen has tweeted the above picture of the damage, adding: “What a race! @Jeroen_Mul rolled over just in front of me. Scary! He’s ok, so that’s the only good thing.”
Porsche Supercup is flat-out drama. Next weekend is the last round at Monza- will update the championship table shortly.
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