A look behind the scenes and some closeups of the 2009 Manthey Porsche RSR…
…the day before the race!!!

Hi everybody,
it’s Friday night and I am relaxing in my hotelroom.
So far we had a good start off the 24h race. Marc was driving today the qualifying and put the GT3 on second. position. After tha,t only Romain drove 2 laps to get some practise in the dry. The race which he joined me, it was raining nonstop.
Timo and me were only driving yesterday. For me it was a bit bad because when I was driving my only 2 laps so far, I was always out on the wrong set of tires. In the dry on wet tires and than with slick it started to rain in Hatzenbach. ….but I will get enough driving time from tomorrow on 😉 .
The Audis are definately quick and I think we never had more cars as close as this time in qualifying.
Interesting to see the first two hours of the race because then you can see where everybody is really standing.
So far we are in a good shape.

Today I was co comentating on the DSF sports channel. Tomorrow I will do the same for the start of the race.

Anything else?
Yes, I have a new partner, UVEX.
They are a young company breaking into the market of drivers equipment.
They have cool stuff like racesuits, underwear, helmets, shoes etc. You should check them out.
As well my longterm partner ARAI and Point Racing handed me over a new helmet. Painted by PTM Design.

That was a quick update from what’s going on up here in the “Eifel” where the best 24h race will be started tomorrow at 16.00 CET.

I will try to let you know a bit more during the race.

Now it’s bed time, my room mate Dumas just came in. Every 24h race we share the room. Porsche has to save money 😉 .
Time sleeping ahead for tomorrow ;-))
Good night guys.
Marcel

My last 3 weeks were very busy. My girlfriend and me went to Cairo to see the pyramids, than a trip to Croatia for some business and now getting ready to go to the Nürburgring. The Home of Motorsport in Germany 😉 .

Cairo was very impressive, but I will tell you more another time. Here in Monaco everything and everybody gets crazy because of the F1 GP weekend. As much as I like it to be here to meet up with old friends and party, I rather prefer to go to the Nordschleife and try to kick a.. with my teammates 😉 . I am excited like the first time in 2003. Some races have this amazing charisma and the 24h of the Nordschleife is definitely one of them!!!

I will try to give you an update over the weekend. As well my good old friend and administrator Christian is there again with his friend and he will probably publish some pics etc. over the weekend. He came to every 24h race and cant’t get enough from it….like me!

So guys, get slowly into the racemode and enjoy what’s coming….

Marcel

Attached you will find some Pictures of the 24h Race 2006 and 2007.
Hope to see you again this year @ the Ring.

Hi,

isn’t it funny, this year we had already so money weird races. But this one tops the other two before.

Qualifying was really good for us. With an 8:24.16 we were standing on pole. I was just a bit disappointed with the Audi’s, because I expected them faster than 8:28.96! I am not convinced that they show there full potential.

The race itself started good with Marc leading the field and after the Mamerow car lost some cooling fluid and retired + that the Alzen car and too Audi crashed because of that we had bigger gap between us and the second.

For my stint it was the same. While there was a lot yellows out there I was able to keep the gap consistent before I handled the car over to Marc for the last time.

We were than back to P2 because Audi pitted 2 Laps earlier than us and took the lead. I was confident we will take the lead back again on the last quick pit-stop. We had to come in for a splash and dash and we thought the 81 Audi as well but instead, they stayed out there was absolutely no chance to catch them. So for the last race-lap we came right behind the 77 Audi and Marc was able to push really hard and overtook Marc Basseng (after the race he was really upset with his self about that. I asked him why? because he should be used to it after last year. Either it was Marc or me who did this to him than ;-)). Of course it was a joke, but a true one!)

The 81 got slower and slower and at the end we were right behind him, before he went into the Pits to let us win!!!

How strange is that? Did they really messed up their whole strategy or did they wanted us to win, so maybe they get some more weight out of the car or something else? I am not sure anymore but it looked really strange to me… As well the qualify-times should have been quicker. A Porsche Cup car was just 3 sec slower than the slowest Audi with a 8:31.48.

Of course there is a lot speculation and we know how much they want to win the 24h. The Balance of Performance is making it really difficult to show the full potential. Especially if you have a good chance to get some advantage out

of that ;-).

All this will stop as soon as the 24h is started at 16.00!

Don’t forget, we get more and more hungry to win the race again and of course we will push as hard as them and even harder but fair!

Hi,

I already arrived yesterday afternoon at the Nürburgring. Sunny and nice. But today it seems to rain the whole day.

I heard it should be better tomorrow. Let’s see.

Still sitting in the Hotel am Tiergarten and surf a bit the net. I heard that Audi was testing the last 3 days on the Nordschleife. I guess they still looking for the right Setup.

To be honest, its only 5 weeks to go before the 24h and slowly I get more and more excited about it. For me it is such an important thing. If we could win it again, I would be the only one who won it 5 times times and with Timo Bernhard together 4times in a row.

But there are the Audis the other Porsches and many others that don’t want to see us winning again…

But there are 24h to go…

But we can do mistakes…

But we don’t know if our car is fast enough because of the new “Balance of Performance”…

Too many “buts” so I guess we have to stay focused, push like no tomorrow and not dreaming too much. ;-))

…otherwise we have to try again and again and again. That’s in hour blood, right?

see ya