porsche91722

Porsche have started testing their P1 cars for next years tilt at the Le Mans 24 Hour. The Porsche PR machine has been in motion for quite some time now. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ffzuja7-mk&feature=c4-overview&list=UU_BaxRhNREI_V0DVXjXDALA

The cars are being tested, the support team is working hard behind the scenes and the factory will leave no stone unturned in the run up to Le Mans next year, however there is still one major issue, that has most sports car racing fans left scratching their heads….. the drivers. Porsche have announced four drivers up to this point. First up, were their experienced prototype combination of Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas. These guys were never in any doubt, having been on loan to Audi for the last few years, and in the meantime, just happened to win an LM24 (2010) in the process.

There’s been a lot of discussion amongst fans about who would occupy the other seats. I haven’t seen anything officially confirmed, but at this stage think that they would be running at least three cars at Le Mans next year, with the chance of a fourth. Earlier this year, rumours starting circulating, of the possibility of Mark Webber joining up with Porsche in endurance racing, after his well-documented differences with Red Bull in F1. He was their third driver announcement, followed up with the news that Neel Jani would be joining them from Rebellion Racing.

Now, that begs the question. Who else do they have up their sleeve? They still require two more drivers, and that of course only covers them for two cars. If Porsche want to win Le Mans in 2014, they will need a three car effort, with the possibility of a fourth, so that could mean up to eight more drivers. Although they are back into prototype racing next year, after a decade and a half absence, these guys know what needs to be done to win at Le Mans, having won the race sixteen times. It requires a supreme effort, usually meaning you aren’t successful, on your first time back. I am a dyed in the wool, till the day I die, Porsche fan, so without getting too carried away, I think that they can and will, taste success next year, and Porsche would probably be the only team that could achieve this success after such a long absence. I was slightly disappointed that some of their existing factory GT guys haven’t been given an opportunity in the LMP program. They have a lot of talent, but no names from that roster, have come up in any announcements to date, so it seems that Porsche probably have some more drivers in mind, currently racing with other teams, that may be announced later this year. I was initially thinking Nick Heidfeld would be a walk up starter, but Rebellion would probably be trying everything in their power to hang on to him, having already lost his team mate Jani, to Stuttgart. Whoever Porsche are courting, they are keeping their cards pretty close to their chest. There’s plenty of names out there, eg Jeroen Bleekemolen, Lucas Luhr, Brendan Hartley, Tom Kimber-Smith and Adrian Sutill immediately come to mind, but I think a couple out of left field may also be on their list. There was talk that they may even get involved in some sort of customer program. Not likely, but stranger things have happened. I’d like to see some of the talented pay drivers, like David Heinemeier Hansson get a run in a Porsche LMP1 customer program, but that’s probably an extreme long shot.

As much as I have enjoyed seeing the well oiled, Audi juggernaut winning just about everything in world sports car racing over the last thirteen years, it’s time for a changing of the guard. Bring on 2014.

Motor Sport, in particular sports car racing, has always attracted attention from the glamor brigade, the latest being Patrick Dempsey. We’ve seen it all before. Rich guy/spoilt kid/actor/rock star/shady character, decides to take up motor sport. Maybe they couldn’t be bothered climbing Mt Everest, for their adrenalin fix. Whatever the reasons, they bring money, usually lots of it. Sports car racing survives on it and there’s some really talented guys out there too. The American Le Mans Series and the ACO have jumped on the Dempsey bandwagon, to milk whatever publicity they possibly can. Now, that’s not a bad thing, as the bubble could burst tomorrow and disappear. Initially, I was a bit skeptical about Dempsey, when he first arrived in sports car racing, but the guy seems to have a genuine love of the sport and he comes across as a nice guy, so I hope he continues to race his cars, and gets over these current issues.  

http://msn.foxsports.com/speed/sports-cars/exclusive-patrick-dempsey-tullys-michael-avenatti-part-ways/

Where did your initial interest in motorsport come from. With some people it was a family interest passed down from parents. Some had a parent who either raced or was part of a race team, and therefore, much time was spent at race circuits from an early age. In my case, as a young bloke I had an affinity with all things mechanical, as young blokes tend to do….. planes, trains and automobiles plus throw in motorcycles! F1 at the time, was the real deal for me, as far as motorsport was concerned. Australia’s living treasure, Sir Jack Brabham had won not one, not two, but three F1 world championships, the last, being in a car that he designed and built. So Australia had its very own F1 champ, that so many kids idolized from that era.

Being in Australia, which at that time was a motorsport backwater, as far as getting any up to date news from overseas was concerned, F1 was about the only international motor racing that the mainstream media here, covered. Some may say, things haven’t changed much. When news did arrive, it was usually a month late, by way of motorsport magazines. In 1969, fresh after Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins had been to the moon and back, there was another spaced out looking vehicle that had burst onto the scene.Although the Le Mans 24 hour race has been around since 1923, it got very little coverage in Australia, consequently sports car racing rarely got a mention out here. Along comes Steve McQueen and produces one of the greatest motor racing movies of all time “Le Mans”, the stars of course being the beautiful Gulf Porsche 917’s.

                    I was in love. That was my thunderbolt moment, which started a lifetime of fascination with these magnificent cars. The movie itself was pretty average from the plot standpoint. I think it was about half an hour or so before Michael Delaney (McQueen) even spoke a word. But, who cares, it had the cars and the race. That’s all that mattered. With Steve McQueen no longer around to talk about it, there have been many stories since retold about the production of the film in and around the Circuit de la Sarthe. For diehard sports car racing fans, it’s become one of those films that we quote the famous lines from……

”A lot of people go through life doing things badly. Racing’s important to men who do it well. When you’re racing, it… its life. Anything that happens before or after… is just waiting”

………..”Michael, I want you to drive flat out. I want Porsche to win Le Mans.”

The irony of course was that the Gulf John Wyer Automotive 917s never actually won at Le Mans, unlike in the movie where they came 1^st and 2^nd. They did however get on the podium in 1971. Porsche owned the World Sportscar Championship in 1970 & 1971, completely annihilating all the opposition. The real drivers, Pedro Rodriguez, Jo Siffert, Brian Redman, David Hobbs, Mike Hailwood, Leo Kinnunen, Derek Bell, Jackie Oliver, Richard Attwood and Herbert Muller, who were in the sky blue and orange Gulf JWA cars in ’70 and ’71 became my heroes and of course, all the other guys who drove in the other Salzburg, Martini and privateer teams.

24h Le Mans 1970: Leo Kinnunen, Pedro Rodriguez, Brian Redman and Jo Siffert

Many of the guys driving in the world sports car series back in those days were of course, already accomplished F1 drivers. In fact most F1 pilots at the time, also drove in many other series as well. It sort of puts into perspective how the F1 drivers these days are such a sheltered, pretentious lot. I was shattered when, at the end of the ’71 season, it was all over for the Porsche 917 in the world sports car series.

It wasn’t completely all over however. In 1972, Porsche entered the 917/10 in the American CanAm challenge series, that had been dominated over the previous 5 years, by McLaren. The Porsche 917/10 (1972) and 917/30 (1973) destroyed everything in those years that the other teams could throw at them. The Turbo Panzers, in the hands of George Follmer and Mark Donohue were nearly unbeatable. Again, Porsche had produced a car that meant that just about everyone else was making up the numbers and only ever hoping to achieve a lower step on the podium.

Never mind, I got over it fairly quickly, and soon started following the exploits of other teams and drivers, and as they say in the classics, the rest is history. But it did kindle inside me a flame that has stayed with me since then, that grew into a passion for sports car racing and the Le Mans 24 hour race.

Relive it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9XCEM4S2yY

In a lot of other sporting codes there is always the possibility of a career threatening injury, but generally it’s not going to be life threatening. It’s possible, but unlikely. In motorsport, every time the green flag drops, there’s a chance that serious injury or death can take place. Most drivers say they don’t dwell on this aspect of the sport and of the serious danger to life and limb they go through at every race meeting. If the subject was on their minds, it would certainly have a detrimental effect on their level of performance. The safety in motorsport has increased dramatically over the decades, but you only have to listen to some of the older guys, to understand that it is a miracle they made it through their careers to survive and tell the stories. To listen to Sir Jack Brabham, for example, and hear him talk of how many of his friends and fellow competitors died in the sport, often in horrific circumstances, shows us how fearless and focused these guys were, back in the day. They drove cars with practically zero protection from major impact or rollover. That’s not to say that today’s drivers aren’t as focused, but it does mean that they can drive the car to it’s limits knowing that if  a serious accident takes place, they have a reasonably good chance of survival. These days, with HANS devices and drivers safety cells in race cars, huge, high speed crashes can take place and often drivers miraculously walk away relatively unscathed. In recent times the Mike Rockenfeller http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C3sSrn7RGw, Allan McNish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJDGaiAZm6M and Mark Webber http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GQ0MBMhDjo race crashes were all extreme, but they all survived, still in one piece. The tub takes most of the heavy impact but the trauma of rapid deceleration can still cause serious injury, often internally. Sadly, again this year, the sport has had to deal with the loss of some fine drivers and it brings home the reality that fatalities can still happen, even with all the driver protection in place. The same statement usually follows the passing of another driver in a race incident……He died doing what he loved.

I could get hung out to dry, here in Australia, for what I’m about to say. I don’t think Casey Stoner will make the grade in V8 Supercars! I don’t think he has the necessary talent to be up there at the top level. I’ve watched and admired Casey in MotoGP for some time now. He has been brilliant, a joy to watch, especially winning his first MotoGP championship in 2007, when he rung the neck out of the Ducati. If he stayed in bike racing he quite possibly could have overtaken the great Mick Doohan’s five titles to become Australia’s greatest GP rider ever. He may still end up going back to MotoGP. I hope he does, as that is what he does best. In his first season in the cars he has struggled, as anyone would. If Craig Lowndes threw in the V8’s and took up bike racing tomorrow, he would do the same. I hope Casey succeeds in V8 Supercars, I really do, but at this stage he is getting hammered, he doesn’t even look comfortable. Next year will be a make or break year for him in the cars.

My wife and I are in the process of organising our trip overseas next year. At the risk of sounding extremely selfish, my main reason for the trip is to go to the Le Mans 24 hour race, and go off and do a few other things after. Her priority is certainly not to see the greatest motor race in the world but to do the tourist thing and check out the rest of France, U.K. and whatever else we can fit into a 4 or 5 week time frame. Whereas I am getting all excited about Porsche’s return to LMP1 racing next year and the upcoming battle with Audi, Toyota and whoever else fronts up in P1 next year, she couldn’t care less. Hell, she doesn’t even know who Tom Kristensen is! While we are keen to pack as much in as we can, it’s already obvious that this trip will more than likely be a toe in the water for something more later. When we initially discussed ideas and what we each had on our own “to do’ lists, it was painfully obvious that we both had completely different ideas. My list had the LM24, the Porsche museum, a visit to the Nurburgring etc, hers was more along the lines of culural, touristy stuff. She took one look at mine and wrote in “divorce” at the bottom. I had even gone to the trouble of checking train times, distances, accomadation etc to check out the logistics. All to no avail. She has declared that, in the interests of marital harmony, she will make the huge sacrifice and spend four days at Le Mans. That’s it! Never mind, it looks like Le Mans will be it, this time around, anyway.

Hi. I mainly talk sports car racing from around the world but crap on about other stuff when it takes my fancy, but nothing too heavy. My son and I were up at the Shannons Nationals at Qld Raceway last weekend. I have never been a fan of the place, the actual circuit being one of the least exciting places to watch motorsport ever, however we had a great weekend, courtesy of the guys from Kerrick who sponsor the Kerrick sports sedan series. The main interest from our perspective was the Australian GT series who had a couple of races on Saturday, one of which, was in the dark on Saturday night. Although this is mainly a bunch of rich guys racing their beautiful cars, the standard of racing is quite good. I don’t intend on doing race reports. There’s plenty out there already, but here’s a few pics.