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