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.
Young Porsche charger Marco Holzer has scored his first 911 pole position in ALMS, just one hundredth of a second ahead of respected works team mate, Joerg Bergmeister.
Bergmeister has one of the best CVs (and surnames) in the history of Porsche motorsport, but he couldn’t top twenty-four year-old Holzer’s times in the Flying Lizard RSR. Teamed with Lizards’ owner, Seth Neiman, this is the first pole position for Porsche in ALMS 2012, so things are looking good for a Porsche win at Road America.
What has changed? How are 911s suddenly first and second? Sad to say, as yet I don’t know. Perhaps some expert reading this will be able to enlighten us in the comments. I have emailed a man who might shed some light.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling to have clinched my first pole in the American Le Mans Series. I’m really pleased for the team that our number 44 car is at the very front of the grid,” says Marco. “This track is fantastic and great fun. With the race running over four hours, it’s very long and a great deal can happen in this time. Still, pole position is a great place to start.”
Further down the field, Falken hero and works driver, Wolf Henzler, set the eighth quickest time, in a GT3 R shared with US driver, Bryan Sellers.
Bryce Miller turned the tenth quickest time in Paul Miller Racing’s 911, shared with Sascha Maassen. Sascha is the lead mentor on the Porsche Junior programme, which we have been video-blogging for the last few days. More later!
It’s the 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend, and Porsche Supercup is right alongside. There are two rounds of the Supercup being held here: one extra to replace the Barcelona round, where the cars were deemed unsafe to race.
Safety concerns emerged on the Barcelona start grid, where some wheels were found to have been damaged in tyre mounting. Hard to imagine just how this can have happened, but a bit late to wonder out loud now. Porsche cancelled the round on the grid, and the Budapest double-header is being held to make up.
René Rast (below) has snatched pole for both races: one this afternoon after qualifying and the other tomorrow, before the GP. Thankfully, there is no repeat of Monaco where Supercup was not shown live on TV. British Eurosport 2 are showing the races back to back tomorrow (race 2 live) from 10:15hrs.
Eurosport’s coverage is not the greatest, but any coverage is better than none. This is a tight and twisty track that gets incredibly hot and collects plenty of dust off line: it’s a great place to watch 911s race.
Rast’s competitors were left stunned by his qualifying pace. “I have no idea how René does it,” said Sean Edwards, title challenger and 5th and 2nd in qualifying. “I was at the limit during my fastest lap, and still I’m fourth-tenths of a second off him. I’ve got nothing to lose now in the race. I’m going to go full attack right from the first corner.”
Norbert Siedler was similarly bewildered. “Don’t ask me how René achieves such times. Perhaps we can make up for it in the races but that’ll be very tricky.”
Here’s the grid line-up for races 1 and 2.
Grid line up for Saturday’s race
1. René Rast (D), Lechner Racing Team
2. Kévin Estre (F) Hermes Attempto Racing
3. Nicki Thiim (DK), Hermes Attempto Racing
4. Michael Ammermüller (D), VELTINS Lechner Racing
5. Sean Edwards (GB), Konrad Motorsport
6. Norbert Siedler (A), VELTINS Lechner Racing
Grid line up for Sunday’s race
1. René Rast (D), Lechner Racing Team
2. Sean Edwards (GB), Konrad Motorsport
3. Christian Engelhart (D), Konrad Motorsport
4. Nicki Thiim (DK), Hermes Attempto Racing
5. Kuba Giermaziak (PL), VERVA Racing Team
6. Kévin Estre (F) Hermes Attempto Racing
The races are shaping up mega: Estre, Thiim and Ammermuller in the top four for race 1 should make for a banzai half-hour of Porsche to start, and the 45-minute race on Sunday (shown live) with Edwards in hot pursuit could be a classic: one slip off the start grid and Rene will have to fight back past. Count on seeing some jaw-dropping racing should that occur.
Rast is pure genius behind the wheel and a joy to watch in full flow. If you’re not following the fastest one-make championship in the world, I think you’re missing out.
edit: find out why René Rast did not race for Porsche in Hungary!
“The proper place for all that material is in the cellar”, he insisted. “The loft of this building is much too exposed. It offers no protection at all.”
“I know you’re right, Father”
“Then do something about it and do so right away. I want everything moved to the cellar of the building during the next two or three days. No longer.”
I shrugged, not very happy about this order, but the boss had to be obeyed. So I put the whole staff to work, transferring vast quantities of records from the attic to the cellar of the building in the Spitalwaldestrasse. The job was completed in about five days of back-breaking toil. About 48 hours later, during a comparatively light attack on Stuttgart, a small-caliber bomb came through the side of the building, completely missing the roof. The missile zoomed down harmlessly to the cellar. There it exploded and destroyed all the material we had just stored away with so much care.
Luckily, we had duplicates of most of this technical paperwork hidden in other places out of harm’s way, so what we severed mainly was inconvenience. However, this made me more certain than ever that you cannot control Fate in the slightest degree. No matter how carefully you may anticipate things, they are liable to work out just a bit differently from your expectations, even if you are an expert with a slide rule.
Excerpt from “We at Porsche”: The Autobiography of Dr. Ing. h.c. Ferry Porsche with John Bentley
My RGruppe buddy Thorsten, bona-fide Porsche designer, is part of the 80-strong Porsche team working under Michael Mauer that has just won Germany’s prestigious ‘red dot’ design award.
The award comes in recognition for work on the new 911. The car has already won the product award for ‘best design 2012’: both gongs will be handed over at Essen’s Aalto Theatre tonight.
“Winning both of these awards this year makes us proud,” said Mauer. “It means we pursue the right design philosophy. The quality of our design is founded on our brand values: tradition and innovation, sportiness and suitability for everyday driving. This unique combination and the conviction that good design has to be honest, functional and timeless constitute the foundation of our characteristic Porsche design language.”
I think Mauer is right on the money but am most thrilled by knowing Thorsten. Well done mate! Also well done to all of your talented colleagues.
Edit: SoCal Chaptermeister Ray Crawford just gave me the heads up on two Honorary Gruppers in the design team: Tony Hatter, No. 993 and Grant Larson No. 986. Nice!
I’ve got Karsten’s first DVD, where Walter runs the Koln-Ahrweiler Rally of 2004 in a Porsche 911 ST. That’s a good one, despite some very high viewing angles making it difficult to see that far ahead of Walter’s car. Unlike some rally films, the action is well conveyed via digital video on a decent-sized TV.
I mentioned my minor irritation on the first DVD to Karsten, and asked him how the new one compared? “The quality is much better, I think,” he replied. “A few more camera positions, more outside shots and the interview on the second DVD with the commentary of Walter himself.”
Here’s a clip of Walter from the DVD. Lightweight Porsche body parts specialist, EB Motorsport, also competed at the Nurburgring on the same weekend and came away with a decent result, despite sliding off in their 911 ST. I’ll dig out some video of that.
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