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 | Nov 9, 2012 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche News
News from down under:
The largest gathering of Porsches ever at one race venue in Australia will occur at the inaugural Porsche Rennsport Australia Motor Racing Festival, to be held on the weekend of May 25/26 2013 at Sydney Motorsport Park (Eastern Creek).
Spurred by the success of previous Rennsport festivals in North America, as well as its own army of Porsche owner enthusiasts in Australia, Porsche Cars Australia (PCA) has decided to create a special event for all Porsche fans.
Racing and road Porsches of all types will share in a weekend of racing at the recently renovated and renamed Eastern Creek circuit, with more than 300 Porsches expected to participate.
The event will be promoted as a festival of racing with as much to see and experience away from the track as on it. The headline racing act will be a double header of Porsche GT3 Cup cars with rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Championship as well as Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Australia presented by Pirelli.
In all, there will be seven different categories of Porsche racing including Regularity and Sprints for Porsche Club cars.
by John Glynn | Oct 26, 2012 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Following the departure of Flying Lizards motorsport, Porsche has announced the end of development on the Porsche 997 GT3 RSR race car , so engineers can concentrate on the 991 RSR, expected in 2014. The Porsche release runs thus:
With a new race car based on the new, seventh-generation Porsche 911 (type 991) street car on the horizon, Porsche Motorsport has announced it will wind down development for the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (type 997) – a very successful venture which began in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) in 2005.
Hartmut Kristen, Head of Porsche Motorsport: “Just like our recent Porsche RS Spyder program, we must appreciate the success of our race cars during their product cycle, but move on to new models when it is time to do so. The venerable Porsche 911 GT3 RSR has provided our Porsche customer teams with numerous wins and championships, and will remain competitive in 2013. Porsche will support the customer teams which continue to race that car, but the time has come and we now must focus our research and engineering development efforts on its successor, which makes its North American debut in 2014.”
In North America, the development partner helping to design, engineer and implement improvements in the current 911 RSR race car has been Flying Lizard Motorsports in the GT class of the ALMS. This partnership now is discontinued.
Jens Walther, president of Porsche Motorsport North America, was quick to point out that customer teams still wishing to run the current 911 race car will be able to continue to do so in the American Le Mans Series with full trackside engineering and parts support. PMNA shop service will also continue in 2013.
“We will be at the track with our usual support for 2013, and some of our current customer teams have already committed to run the 911 GT3 RSR (type 997) next year. Each of the current teams will be announcing their plans as we get closer to the ALMS Winter Test in February,” he said.
A few juicy discussion points there. The 991 RSR will debut in North America in 2014, so will it race in Europe next year? If Lizards are out on development, who will be in? Now there’s an LMP car coming, might we see a team like Penske running 918s and 911s across America through 2014? Might Porsche choose to do it themselves?
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by John Glynn | Jun 16, 2012 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Porsche owns the top three GTE AM slots at the 90-minute point in the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours. Leading the class is Flying Lizard’s number 79 RSR, followed by the Matmut car and then Prospeed. All cars have made one stop. Patrick Pilet is building a great lead in the category.
P4 in the class is Gunnar Racing’s Gunnar Jeannette in the number 58 Ferrari and he’s going well – his team manager has just been called to race control regarding his team mate. I’m following the race using Radio Le Mans commentary (big Porsche thread going at the minute) and watching the Le Mans live pictures (on mute). Means I can be at the office while the race heads into the night.
Here’s the situation in GTE Pro: Aston leads Corvette leads 911 RSR. The pace is pretty tight: Porsche is two minutes back but their best laps are two seconds apart. Remember we have over 22 hours left, so there’s a long way to go.
Up front, it’s Audi, Audi, Toyota, Toyota. More news as it happens.
