Hi everybody,
today we didn’t really drive that much. Timo had two laps out of the pits and than we had to bring the car back to the workshop. We had a problem with our ABS.
Luckywise our guys found the problem and for tomorrow everything should be good.

Since I was not driving at all, I took the chance and went with some friends to the Brünnchen and Pflanzgarten corner to watch our Porsche and the Audi.

It’s always good to see what our competitors are doing ;-).

Yesterday I was driving our  new Porsche  997 GTR RSR.

It felt really good to be back in the car after such a long winter brake.

Apparently it was raining most of the day and I had only 2 laps under nearly dry conditions. Just some corners like Bergwerk and Brünchen were still wet. Fore that it was hard to test some things, because we would have needed dry conditions. Still we could improve and check little things like our radio, display settings, pedals and many more.

As well I could get again a feeling for our car. Every time you out of it for more than 2 month you need again a view laps finding the limit. Better now than next week when we have the first race. 😉

I am very happy how everything was going yesterday and I am confident that we are able to attack again and fight for some overall victories. But it will be very hard with Phoenix Racing, Land Motorsport and all the other teams trying to do the same. And of course not to forget that the RSR Porsche was downgraded quiet a lot to give the GT3 cars a better chance for winning as well. I just hope that they didn’t penalized us more than they should have?

After next week I am able to let you know more about that. But one thing is for sure and that I also support:

The more cars are able to win, the more fun we will have to fight for it and the more fun you will have out there following our races.

I am sure we will see really exciting races this year, no matter what….

Till than,

Marcel

When the start signal will be given for the kick-off of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring season 2009 on 4th of April, there will be five Porsche 911 GT3 prepared by Manthey Racing on the grid to fight about points and positions on the podium. The fans can get a first impression on how things are going on for the oncoming season on the last weekend in March during the official test and set-up sessions at the traditional circuit of the Nordschleife combined with the short connection.
Manthey-Racing will take up the challenge of the VLN 2009 with five race cars amongst which the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and the 911 GT3 Cup S will be the motor sport spearheads. The team from Meuspath will thus keep two options open.

Thanks to the support granted by Porsche Motorsport, works drivers such as Timo Bernhard, Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas, Richard Lietz, Emmanuel Collard and Wolf Henzler could be contracted for these two nine eleven race cars. Marcel Tiemann will be the permanent driver in the RSR and he will be supported by Bernhard, Dumans and Lieb in varying drivers’ combinations; Arno Klasen will be the driver in the powerful racing car at all events following the 24h endurance race. At all of the VLN Championship races, the Cup S will be driven by Armin Hahne and Jochen Krumbach, alternatively completed by Lietz, Collard and Henzler.

In 2009 again, the Wochenspiegel Porsche fitted with a 4-litres RSR engine will also take part. The three Nordschleife experienced drivers Georg Weiss, Michael Jacobs and Peter-Paul Pietsch aim to achieve top 5 positions.

As in 2008 already, two GT3 Cup racing vehicles wish to finish into podium class positions in the Cup 3 category: The team made up of Gary Williams, Daniel Cooke, Julian Perry and Tim Raven will race at the Nordschleife in the 911 with the eye-catching design of the seventieth. The two Porsche juniors Martin Ragginger and Marco Holzer will also come back into the Eifel in order to gain additional experience at the Nordschleife in a second Cup vehicle, provided that there are no conflicting schedules.

Hi,
Yesterday I decided to visit the GT3 and GT4 Testday in Le Castellet.
The whether was amazing, …wellcome to the South of France ;-).

For the first time, I saw the new Audi R8 LMS.
It is a very nice car and it will be interesting to see how it will perform in it’s first year.

Dirk and Ernst from Phoenix Racing were here as well to see what’s going on. They will race with the R8 LMS in the German, Belgium and the Euro-Championship GT3.

I also met a view other people that I haven’t seen for a long time.
Good to be up to date again but always hard if you go to a racetrack without driving yourself!!!
But in a view days we have the first Test on the Nordschleife. Good that the winter is over and that the season starts again.

…IT’S TIME TO RACE

Will go for dinner now and after I am on my way back to Monaco…

Hi

finally back home in Monaco.

My last day in Tokyo was really nice. It’s amazing how big this city is. More than 12 million people are living here and even if you are in the 36th floor of a building, you can still see no city limits!

When we arrived around 12.00, we went to a private Porsche Garage from Katsumo. He runs the Porsche Club Roppongi.

It was as well very close to a famous buddhist temple in the old part of the city that we visited before lunch.

Once I had a view Sake with my Sukiyaki, that actually tasted really really good, we took a little walk and then went back to the Hotel.

You can see the photos I took from the last floor, what a view!

Still stuffed from lunch we went to a very famous sushi bar for dinner at 21.00. The chef is a race fan and visited the Nordschleife before.

I can’t remember when I had better sushi. My preference is Tuna and Salmon but since we got all kind of sushi on our plates, I found myself eating sea urchin nigiri. I have to say its not my favourite but I am proud to tried it ;-).

After digesting and a view more sake, the son of Komatsu, Kenichi and me went for one more drink at Akasaka (a district of Tokyo) before I went back to the Hotel.

Next day was very short, because Olaf and me where flying back at 13.30.

I bought some green tea and some algues at the airport and prepared myself for an other 12 hour flight.

After being home again, I have to say that I had a great time in Japan and looking forward to my next trip to there…..

Sayonara

Today was the final day of the event.

Not one day the whether was good enough to see the Mount Fuji. Everybody tells me how amazing it looks, but apparently it’s too foggy at the moment.

I can’t remember when I was driving so many different cars on one day. From a Porsche 964 to the latest 997 GT2/3. We were driving all 30 cars for 3 laps and teached all customers how to drive. I have to admit that I drove only one lap the ideal line and the other two more like rallye style. I had a fantastic time and the clients even more, easily too see on there faces ;-).

Oh, lunch improved about 100%. Beef and fries, thank you. …I do like Japanese food a lot but yesterday was not my favourite. Dinners are usally good and tomorrow night we will have a traditional meal, called Sukiyaki.

Now I am on my way back to the hotel for a last dinner before we go back to Tokyo tomorrow.

After leaving the Hotel this morning again at 6am, I am looking forward to my bed tonight and beeing able to sleep a bit longer….hopefully.

Yesterday, when we arrived in Fuji we went straight for dinner. Apparently it was rainy and already dark. Because of the jet-lag I only slept 4 hours and was already awake at 3.30am waiting for leaving to the Fuji racetrack at 6.00!
This is definately not my time 😉

Today we spent the whole rainy day on the track instructing and some “taxi driving” with a modified GT3 from Manthey. That was a lot of fun because of the wet track and therefore we were sliding all over the place.

Lunch was, let’s say: interesting.
…just watch the photo from Olaf and you can see what I mean ;-).

It was a real surprise seeing an old fan of mine, Tomoko. She heard about the Event and came over to join.

My second day is more less over and I have to say that I am very happy to be here.
It is interesting to see a different culture and learn about them.

Who knows, maybe one day I will get the chance to race again in Japan.

Date: 26-02 to 27-02.09

Fuji International Speedway
Racetrack – “Driving Experience” event.

http://www.fsw.tv/english/index.html

Hello everybody,
it’s still very new for me writing on my blog.
But with my iPhone and a Internet or data connection, it is very easy for me to give you sometimes an update about my racing and everything around that.

Because I am racing all over the world and have people following me from there, I decided to write in english.
I hope that my German speaking fans understand that. 😉

This time I will let you take part of my trip to Japan with Olaf Manthey…

After an 12 hours flight, we finally arrived in Tokyo. Olaf Manthey and me are invited from “Manthey-Motors Far East” to the Fuji Racetrack for a 2 day “Driving Experience” event.
I am really looking forward to it since my last time in Japan was in 1998. Back than, Jean-Marc Gounon and me were driving the 1000km of Suzuka with a Mercedes CLK-GT. It’s still one of my favourite tracks.
We had a fantastic time and the race was real fun but as often we couldn’t really see anything from the Country.

I am really curious about all the different impressions I will get from Japan in the next 5 days…

Here are some links:

Manthey Motors Far East

Fuji International Speedway

Date: 31-10-2009

Distanz: 4 Stunden
Training: 08:30 Uhr
Start: 12:00 Uhr