by John Glynn | Jan 26, 2014 | Race and Rally, Porsche News
Porsche number 912 has retired from the Daytona 24 Hours. Crankcase oil pressure woes sent the Long/Christensen/Bergmeister car Porsche back to the garage, not to re-emerge.
Meanwhile, the number 911 911 continues to lead the GTLM class, 20 seconds up on Liddell’s Corvette. Patrik Pilet is still behind teh wheel and has been keeping well clear of other peoples’ accidents. While other 911s are waist-deep in duck tape, number 911 is caked in race dirt but not a lot else.
Pilet’s team mate Richard Lietz was just interviewed by the TV crews on how Porsche race engineers might modify their strategy, given the 912 RSR’s issues. His comment was just what we want. “The engine is running strong so, though we might have some nerves, we need to stay racing. As others are driving flat out, and so are we.”
Patrick Pilet with Richard Lietz
Quizzed on the difference from here to Le Mans, Leitz was transparent. “Here you have banking, Le Mans does not. We’ve worked on setting the car up for this and now we go quicker here. Also, when you win at Le Mans, you don’t get a watch. We just need to stay flat out and get the right amount of luck to win.” And a Rolex!
by John Glynn | Jan 25, 2014 | Race and Rally, Porsche News
Three hours into the first race of the 2014 IMSA Tudor United Sportscar series, the works Porsche 911 RSRs are on full pest control duty at Daytona 24. Briefly running P1 in GTLM, Patrick Pilet’s now closing on that pesky Viper from P2 in number 911, with Michael Christensen P3 in RSR 912.
Fastest lap in class so far goes to Patrick Long, with a 1:45.624. Tandy follows with a 1:45.9. As I type, the Viper has just clocked up its fastest lap of the race so far on a 1:45.873, so bang goes what I was going to say next. Pilet trails the snake by less than a second, and there’s a long way left to run.
The GTD 911s have come good on race pace, with three 991s in the top four. Connor de Phillippi holds a strong P2 in the number 73 Park Place car. Though Flying Lizard’s Spencer Pumpelly is the fastest man in class so far on a 1:48 (Audi R8), the 911s seem happier to run in the sub-1:50s than the rest of the field, lead 458 Italia excepted.
On top of all this, WEVO Hayden is also working at Daytona this year, engineering the number 57 Krohn Ferrari , shared by our mate Peter Dumbreck. Peter had never seen Daytona before this weekend, but still managed to post a time acceptable to get through to qualifying and the car looks balanced on track.
With almost a day left to race, we’re in with a good shout at this one. Forza RSRs: keep pushing, boys!
Edit: just as I published this, the race went full course red following a heavy shunt for Memo Gidley. Looks nasty – hope he gets out of it.
by John Glynn | Jan 23, 2014 | Porsche People, Race and Rally
Looks like England’s Nick Tandy is again Porsche king of the ovals: all those years going round and round in Ministox paying off!
The Tandy/Pilet/Lietz RSR finished Daytona qualifying in P2: leading 911 and just seven one-hundredths of a second behind Marc Goosens in the SRT Viper.
Top GTD Porsche was a P9 in class for Supercup regular, Norbert Siedler, less than half a second off the Audi R8 of Christopher Haase. Good result for Norbert – well up on the rest!
Nick Tandy’s first Daytona as a Porsche works driver last year ended in a Daytona GT-class pole. Starting behind a Viper isn’t such a bad place to be: just grab it by the neck and twist. For 24 hours.
I told you these boys were fast. Borrowed the timing screen shots from LiveScoring.us. Great service from their site: go there.
Post-Qualifying Daytona Porsche Quotes
Hartmut Kristen, Porsche Head of Motorsport: “The GTLM class qualifying result underlines just how close the competition is in this category. Only seven-hundredths of a second separate the first and second spot. That’s pretty intense and it promises an action-packed, tough race right to the flag. Teams and drivers can’t afford to make the slightest mistake and the technology needs to work perfectly so that the cars are completely operational for the final one or two hours. I’m very pleased with the qualifying.”
Nick Tandy (#911): “We’ll start the race on the Michelin rubber that we used in qualifying, so we had to be careful not to overtax the tyres today. That wasn’t easy, because with the cool weather they took relatively long to reach the right temperature. So we had to find a good compromise. The car ran well and this qualifying was a great start into the new season. I’m happy.”
by John Glynn | Jan 23, 2014 | Race and Rally, Porsche People
Stuttgart must have booked every hotel room in Florida for the busload of Porsche works drivers it’s sent to race at this year’s Daytona Rolex 24 Hour endurance race.
Stuttgart has a two-car works team competing in the 2014 Tudor United Sportscar Championship. In 991 RSRs numbered 911 & 912, fast boys Patrick Pilet (above), Nick Tandy (below) and Richard Lietz pilot #911, while the relentless Patrick Long, Jörg Bergmeister and recent works appointment, Michael Christensen, share #912.
Porsche Works Drivers in customer race teams
In the GTD category, Marco Holzer runs with Alex Job, Mark Lieb is with Patrick Dempsey (nice), newly-nicknamed Hasselhenzler (Wolf Henzler) is with Magnus Racing and Timo Bernhard drives for Park Place Motorsports. Brendon Hartley adds Kiwi colour to the Dinan BMW-powered Starworks prototype. Note the drinks tube, as Brendon needs feeding up! Of course I have an old BMW, so there’s my excuse to cheer for him.
The Porsche Juniors are also out in force. Klaus Bachler drives for Dempsey (why is there no one called Makepeace on the grid), Alex Riberas is with Alex Job and man to watch, Connor de Phillippi is with Timo in the Park Place car. The new RSR livery for Daytona looks good:
Winner of the €200k Porsche Supercup Scholarship prize, New Zealand’s Earl Bamber, was signed up to drive the Mühlner Motorsport 911 on the strength of his Porsche pace to date. “We managed to put something together for Daytona at the end of December,” said Bamber. “There was no time for a New Years party, as I had to get to Florida and start practicing.
“We did a three-day test at Daytona: incredible. The banking makes you dizzy the first few times around. Driving on an oval is spectacular and you’re holding on pretty tight doing 300 kmh through the steep banking, tilted right over on your side. It’s a special place.”
It’s my birthday this weekend, so I have organised peace and quiet and an Internet stream. Also got a meeting to discuss a book deal tomorrow. It’s all kicking off!
by John Glynn | Jan 19, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche News
Sorting through my archives yesterday, I uncovered some Porsche Museum pictures from a trip to Stuttgart in December 2010. This one shows a 917, RS Spyder, Cisitalia engine, 904 chassis, 3.2 Club Sport prototype, 993 RS and 936 scale recreation, as well as a special 996 we weren’t allowed to photograph.
The Porsche Museum is closed every Monday. This is a day for building maintenance, but also the day where invited Porsche guests (and common-or-garden journos like me) get to view the collection in relative quiet.
I say relative, as our visit included a Cup Car start-up in the museum’s sound theatre, and a 917 start downstairs in the museum workshop. It was definitely a day to remember.
Porsche Museum Pictures
What Porsche says about its museum: Enjoy a close-up experience of the history of Porsche. Encounter legendary racing and sports cars, fascinating production models as well as unusual prototypes. More than 80 vehicles will take you from the early years all the way to the present days of Porsche’s history.
