Archive for month: June, 2018

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Porsche Double Victory at Le Mans

Victory in both GTE-PRO and GTE-AM Classes

In the pro-category, Porsche 911 RSR #92 drove 344 laps to victory. Drivers Kévin Estre (France), Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) and Michael Christensen (Denmark) led the race nearly from wire to wire – quite a feat. This win marked 106 class victories for Porsche.

Car #91, driven by Richard Lietz (Austria), Frédéric Makowiecki (France) and Gianmaria Bruni (Italy), fought hard to retain second place in the GTE-Pro class. Frédéric Makowiecki had a great fight with another car for an hour and a half! 

Porsche has extended its lead in the drivers’ and manufacturers’ classifications of the FIA WEC world championship.

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Winner in the GTE-Am class: the #77 Porsche fielded by Dempsey-Proton Racing

The #77 Porsche from Dempsey-Proton Racing got an emotional win in the GTE-Am class. With young Porsche talent, Porsche Young Professional Matt Campbell (Australia), Christian Ried (Germany) and Porsche Junior Julien Andlauer (France) grabbed  the 107th class win for Porsche. Julien Andlauer at age 18 has become the youngest class winner at Le Mans.

Porsche 911 RSR, Dempsey Proton Racing (77), Julien Andlauer (F), Matt Campbell (AUS), Christian Ried (D), Le Mans 2018

Porsche 911 RSR, Dempsey Proton Racing (77), Julien Andlauer (F), Matt Campbell (AUS), Christian Ried (D), Le Mans 2018

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Training to Judge a Concours

[ by Gary Cooper ] 

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Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten that donut in the car today?

As a board member and enthusiast volunteer, I have been briefly involved for the 2018 NER Concours d’Elegance.  Most of the real work is being done by Rick Archambault and the rest of the Concourse committee, and they are planning a spectacular event this year at Prowse Farm in Milton.

My introduction to the world of Concours began last year when NER hosted the Zone 1 Concours, and I had volunteered to work the registration table.  So I got a brief taste of it, and was blown away by the presentation of many fine cars from around the Zone.  This year, the call went out for volunteers to judge cars.  Now, I didn’t see how that could be for me, since I’ve never entered a Concours, let alone judged someone else’s car.  However, Rick explained that anyone can judge, once they know what to look for.  See, the thing about the NER event – even though it has a fancy sounding name reminiscent of the world famous Pebble Beach or Amelia Island events  – is that the only things that are judged are cleanliness and presentation.  You won’t lose points for not having the correct valve stem cover for your 1965 356C – but you may,  if it is found to be dirty!

However, new judges  can’t just show up on Concours day and don their blue blazers, straw hats,  white gloves  and clipboards.  Just kidding, I don’t think anyone does!  So, we were asked to attend a judges training seminar at the home of long-time Concours attendees, winners and judges – George and Cindy Markell.  When I arrived, George asked me – much to my horror – to pull my decidedly non-Concours, 140,000 mile 2003 Boxster into his garage.  He wanted the judges to be trained by evaluating my car!

They explained the Boxster, because of its mid-engine design and the access difficulties that entail, would not have the engine bay judged.  However, if you have a pre-997 Carerra, you better detail that engine fan.  For the Box, they would just focus on the exterior (top only) and interior.  George walked us through things to look for and what we could and couldn’t do as judges.  For example, when judging the interior we had to have our feet on the ground and could not sit in the car.

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George, explaining the four issues he already spotted on my car!

Needless to say, it was a fairly humbling experience to have these guys going over my old car – I hadn’t even washed it recently!  But George, perhaps feeling bad for me, explained my car was actually in pretty good overall condition and – with some preparation would certainly be a car he would encourage me to enter in the August NER Concours d’Elegance event.  And if I didn’t want to be judged, I could simply enter the Display Only group.  So, what the heck, I have a garage full of cleaning products – I think I’ll give it a shot.  You should too!

Learn more about the NER Concours d’Elegance

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Now, here’s a clean engine bay (George and Cindy’s immaculate 968 Coupe).

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Porsche Takes Pole in GT Pro at Le Mans

With Porsche leaving the LMP1 program behind (with the 919 EVO as a glorious reminder of that stellar campaign), you might be forgiven for trying to ignore the 86th running of the classic 24-hour motor race through some local roads in France. But you shouldn’t. Porsche has 10 GT cars entered and has taken pole position in qualifying for the race this weekend! The GT classes (GT Pro and GT Amateur) present some of the most interesting and exciting racing on display right now. The fact that production cars are the raw basis for entries like the Ford GT, Ferrari 488, Corvette C7.R, Aston Martin Vantage, and, yes, the Porsche 911…that is what makes this harken back to the days of “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” that built the enthusiast auto industry.

We certainly hope Porsche can “win on Sunday”! They have 19 overall victories at Le Mans – the most of any manufacturer currently – and a huge number of class wins. The cars sound tremendous and some are wearing throw-back liveries (think Rothman’s and the “truffle hunter” pink pig!) that help underscore why we’re loving our Vintage Days DE events so much this year! 

It’s going to be very exciting to see the works cars from both the WEC and IMSA Weathertech series out there battling each other. This is one of the few events that really unites the racing world globally. Drivers from all over come to compete – even the Formula 1 drivers. 

“Both of the Porsche GT Teams from the FIA WEC and the North American IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will tackle the 86th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours. Twelve works drivers will race for victory in the GTE-Pro class. Sharing driving duties in the #91 Porsche 911 RSR are Richard Lietz (Austria), Gianmaria Bruni (Italy) and Frenchman Frédéric Makowiecki. Kévin Estre (France), Michael Christensen from Denmark and Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) contest the long-distance classic in the #92 car. Manning the third 911 RSR (#93) for the Porsche GT Team are Patrick Pilet (France), Nick Tandy (Great Britain) and New Zealander Earl Bamber. Timo Bernhard from Germany, Romain Dumas (France) and Sven Müller (Germany) helm the #94 race car. With Bamber, Bernhard, Dumas and Tandy, four outright Le Mans winners contest the 24-hour race for Porsche.”

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Throw-back liveries are all the rage

The Velocity channel will be broadcasting the full race (yes!!!) and will be the place to tune into all of the action. If you’ve not thought to watch hours of endurance racing before, I find it’s great to have playing on the TV in the kitchen when I’m cooking or as background when I’m doing other things. After a while you come to recognize the intonation of the announcer’s voices to recognize particularly intense on-track moments so you can turn your attention to them. Sometimes I get sucked in fully and spend a good chunk of time watching how the cars go. And listening to those glorious engines at speed.

I had the chance to go to see the race live in 2016 – and it did not disappoint. It truly is a carnival atmosphere for an entire nearly two week period. There are driver parades in town, camping areas filled with fans who drive to the track from all over Europe, and fans – tons and tons of motorsports fans. And the scale of the course – it is difficult to understand how big the course is. It spans four towns!! The first time you go is “a sighting lap” for your next visits – figuring out where to view from and what you want to see. But it’s still homey. I ran into Mike Shank’s family hoping on the train back to Paris and had a nice chat with them about their Tequila Patron racing program on the platform!

We hope you’ll tune in and enjoy the race this weekend, around all the other great events going on, of course! And we hope you’ll be cheering on Porsche even when you’re not watching the race!

RACE SCHEDULE (courtesy of RACER.com)

Friday, June 15 (no on-track activity)

  • Drivers parade

Saturday, June 16

  • 9:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. local: Warm-up (3 a.m. – 3:45 a.m. ET / Midnight – 12:45 a.m. PT)
  • 3 p.m. local: Race Start (9 a.m. ET / 6 a.m. PT)

Sunday, June 17

  • 3 p.m. local: Race Finish (9 a.m. ET / 6 a.m. PT)

 

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