THE LINE - JUNE 26, 2013

 (Photos courtesy of Porsche)
Old friend Jeff Zwart is running Pikes Peak again for Porsche. In 2010, Zwart, from Corona del Mar, Calif., made Pikes Peak history and shook up the sports car establishment by running a road racing car – the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup - at the world’s most famous hill climb, smashing the Time Attack class record and winning his seventh championship. In 2011, Zwart drove his Porsche 911 GT2 RS turbo street car – not only up the Mountain, but on the Interstate from L.A. to Colorado Springs - and sliced 24-seconds off the record for a street-legal car, but was edged for the class title by an all-out race car. This year, Zwart is combining the best of both worlds – the great race car he had in 2010 with the turbo power he had in 2011 to seek his eighth class title at the 91st Running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, which starts Wednesday with practice sessions and will end Sunday, June 30, with the event itself. “Our decision to run the 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, the most balanced car I have ever run at Pikes Peak, in conjunction with the Porsche 911 Turbo motor, the best power I have ever felt at the Mountain, was based on the data that showed the turbo delivered the most even power at both the bottom and the top of the mountain. This solved the high elevation horsepower starvation that occurs in normally-aspirated cars,” said Zwart. The 12.42-mile course, which used to be all gravel, is now fully paved, making the race car right at home. Pikes Peak is the second oldest auto race in America (right behind the Indy 500), and Zwart will give the course plenty of respect. The low-ratio sequential gear box means he is busy through the 156 turns, but it makes the car very quick. A detailed map of the course is available here.

A commercial film director, Zwart will be entering his 14th Pikes Peak Hill Climb in his tenth different Porsche as his Luminox Watch Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race car – prepared by BBi Autosport in Huntington Beach, Calif. - saw some testing time earlier in the month. Watch it here.

Zwart has won his class at Pikes Peak – all in Porsche Turbo street cars – in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, and 2004, setting new class records three times, before winning with the Cup car in 2010. He co-drove a Porsche Cayenne with Pikes Peak veteran Paul Dallenbach at the challenging TransSyberia Rally (Moscow to Mongolia) in 2007. He also has an SCCA PRO Rally Championship (1990) and a SCORE Baja 100 class win (2004) to his credit. Ironically, it is Dallenbach in his full-blown Hyundai Genesis race car – the same car which holds the overall record at Pikes Peak - which will be the strongest challenger for Zwart this year in the Time Attack class. The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb To Broadcast Live Stream of The 91st Race To The Clouds To Viewers Around The World on RedBull.TV

Driver/Owner and Multi-Time Pikes Peak Hill Climb Winner, Jeff Zwart

 

(Audi Motorsport)
Tom Kristensen (Denmark), Loïc Duval (France) and Allan McNish (Scotland) (No. 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro) won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, giving Audi its twelfth win in fifteen attempts. For Duval, who had clinched the pole position on Wednesday, it was the first success at the French endurance classic. It was the third for Allan McNish. Tom Kristensen, who has been the sole record holder of the race since 2005, triumphed for the ninth time, an incredible achievement. Duval/Kristensen/McNish took the lead at 21:43 on Saturday night and would not relinquish it, maintaining a one-lap advantage except for a series of late stops for tires prior to the final restart with 30 minute to go, which saw the No. 8 Toyota TS030 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi briefly get back on the lead lap. Kristensen, however, would overtake Buemi on the second-to-last lap, ensuring a one-lap victory for the German manufacturer, its fourth consecutive in the world's greatest endurance race. The No. 8 Toyota (co-driven by Stephane Sarrazin and Anthony Davidson) finished second, delivering the first 24-hour race finish and podium for Toyota with its gasoline-powered hybrid prototype. The No. 3 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Lucas di Grassi (Brazil), Marc Gené (Spain) and Oliver Jarvis (Great Britain) finished third after Nicolas Lapierre (No. 7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid) went off in damp conditions at the Porsche Curves. The Frenchman limped his No. 7 TS030 Hybrid back to the pits and managed to finish fourth overall. Due to a last-minute change in the regulations that gave the Toyota gasoline-fueled prototype machines a competitive advantage, Audi had its most difficult challenge and one of its most hard-fought wins.  The three Audi R18 e-tron quattro turbo-diesel hybrid machines were able to do two laps less on one tank filling - on average - than the Toyota. The Audi drivers had to compensate for the additional pit stops by going flat out during the race in weather conditions that at times were extremely difficult. Waves of rain showers and the subsequent incidents because of them resulted in a total of eleven safety car deployments. The field ran for more than five hours under caution while the track was cleared and repairs were performed. The 90th anniversary of the race was marred by the tragic death of Allan Simonsen, who was killed in his Aston Martin GT class machine not long after the start of the race. "Obviously, this horrible incident dampens the joy about another great Le Mans victory for Audi in which our team and our drivers were under extreme tension for 24 hours and couldn’t make any mistakes,” commented Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “We were all completely shocked by the news of Allan Simonsen’s death. During his career, he also contested races in the Audi R8 LMS. Our sympathy primarily goes to his family and friends but to the team of Aston Martin as well. It shows that you must never stop doing whatever is possible for safety in motorsport. This is the first fatal accident we’ve had to witness in 15 Le Mans years. I hope it’ll remain the last.”

(Audi Motorsport)
Tom Kristensen, Loïc Duval and Allan McNish.

(Audi Motorsport)

(Porsche AG)
Works drivers Romain Dumas (France), Marc Lieb (Germany) and Richard Lietz (Austria) won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the fiercely competitive GTE-Pro class in their No. 92 Porsche AG Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR against strong opposition from Aston Martin, Ferrari and Chevrolet. It was the first Le Mans class win for Porsche since 1998, the last time the German manufacturer had a full works effort at the La Sarthe circuit. Joerg Bergmeister (Germany), Timo Bernhard (Germany) and Patrick Pilet (France) finished second in GTE-Pro in their No. 91 Porsche AG Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR. In the GTE-Am class, the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR run by the customer team IMSA Performance Matmut clinched victory with Frenchmen Raymond Narac, Jean-Karl-Vernay and Christophe Bourret.

(Porsche AG)

(Porsche AG)
The GTE-Am class-winning Porsche 911 GT3 RSR run by the Porsche customer team of IMSA Performance Matmut and driven by Frenchmen Raymond Narac, Jean-Karl-Vernay and Christophe Bourret at Le Mans.

(Photo by Chris Jones/INDYCAR)
James Hinchcliffe (No. 27 Andretti Autosport GoDaddy Chevrolet) dominated the Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by DEKALB at Iowa Speedway. Hinchcliffe, who led 33 total laps on ovals in his previous two IZOD INDYCAR Series seasons, led all but 24 laps on Sunday to win his first oval INDYCAR race. He's the only three-time winner this season and seventh different winner through 10 of 19 races. Hinchcliffe led teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 1 Andretti Autosport DHL Chevrolet) across the finish line by 1.509 seconds for the second consecutive Andretti Autosport 1-2 sweep on the .875-mile oval.

(Photo by Chris Jones/INDYCAR)
James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay after the Iowa Corn 250. Hinchcliffe advanced five positions in the championship standings and is 66 points behind front-runner Helio Castroneves (No. 3 Team Penske Hitachi Chevrolet) heading into the second half of the season that starts with the Pocono INDYCAR 400 Fueled by Sunoco on July 7 at the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway.

(Photo by Chris Jones/INDYCAR)
Tony Kanaan (No. 11 Sunoco "Turbo" KVRT-SH Racing Chevrolet), here running next to Tristan Vautier (No. 55 coastal.com/Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda), finished third in Iowa. "We had a good car.  We got into a little bit of a problem with some heat temperature so we had to lose a few spots in the pits trying to pull an inlet out of the side pod so the engine could breathe a little bit better.  It was a good race.  We had a podium finish and we will take it.  I like when people race you hard and it is what it is."

(Photo by Shawn Gritzmacher/INDYCAR)
Sage Karam (No. 8 Schmidt Peterson with Curb Agajanian) took control of the Firestone Indy Lights point standings after winning the Sukup 100 at Iowa Speedway on Satruday. Karam started fifth and held off the repeated charge of Gabby Chaves (No. 7 Schmidt Peterson c/w Curb Agajanian) to win by .2660 of a second in a caution-free race on the .875-mile oval. Jack Hawksworth (No. 77 Schmidt Peterson c/w Curb Agajanian) completed the podium sweep for the team co-owned by Sam Schmidt and Ric Peterson. It was the second consecutive victory for Karam, who supplanted Carlos Munoz atop the standings by nine points. Munoz, the pole sitter for the fourth time this season, finished eighth (three laps down) in the No. 26 Dialy-Ser car for Andretti Autosport. 

(Brian Czobat/LAT Photo USA, Courtesy of Toyota Racing)
Martin Truex Jr. (No. 56 Michael Waltrip Racing NAPA Auto Toyota Camry) came through for his first win in Sprint Cup in six years - 218 races - in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday. It was a hugely popular win for the talented driver who has persevered for many, many long and tough years while finishing second six times and finishing in the top five 24 times over the stretch. Truex fought back tears in the press conference after his win, reminded of the support shown from family, friends and his Michael Waltrip Racing team during the long road: “My support group, Sherry (Pollex, his girlfriend), my team, my family ... all the people that are special to me,” Truex said, pausing as he spoke. “It's difficult. There's been days when I was like, this sucks. This isn't any fun anymore. But again, the past couple years have just been great, and I just owe so many people thanks. Just proud to be able to work with this group of people and thankful for the opportunity. “We're all very lucky to do what we do, to do this and to get to do what we do, and to get the opportunity to win races at this level, I've already accomplished more than I ever thought I would. It's just a lot of fun to be able to run good and try to win races. And I think that for us, we're just really starting to come into our own. There's no limit to what we can do.” Juan Pablo Montoya (No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Target Chevrolet SS) was running second but ran out of fuel. Jeff Gordon (No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet SS) finished second and Carl Edwards (No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Aflac Ford Fusion) was third. Watch videos from the race here.

(Brian Czobat/LAT Photo USA, Courtesy of Toyota Racing)
Martin Truex Jr., his girlfriend Sherry Pollex, and the entire Michael Waltrip Racing crew whoop it up in Victory Lane in Sonoma.

(NASCAR)
Written-off and left for dead by everyone but Roger Penske, A.J. Allmendinger (No. 22 Penske Racing Discount Tire Ford Mustang) won the Johnsonville Sausage 200 presented by Menards Nationwide race at Elkhart Lake's Road America on Saturday, proving that he's very much alive and a winner. It was the first win of the 31-year-old's NASCAR career and he did it on America's premier road course. “Even after what happened last year, Roger Penske didn’t give up on me,” Allmendinger said during a post-race press conference (Allmendinger was suspended by NASCAR and lost his Sprint Cup ride with Penske in 2012 for the use of a banned substance). “He just kept making sure I was OK. I wouldn’t have thought twice about it if he wrote me off. But he didn’t. I want to say that Roger never looked down on me, or put me aside or treated me differently,” Allmendinger said. “He kept checking on me, kept checking on me. When I came back, I felt like they wanted me back.” Justin Allgaier (No. 31 Turner Motorsports Brandt Chevrolet) was second and Parker Kligerman (No. 77 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota) was third. Watch videos here.

(Courtesy of Motor Racing Legends)
The Le Mans 2013 Historic support race once again treated racing fans to a show before the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A huge, 60-strong grid of 1949-65 Le Mans cars competed in the race, including a Daytona Cobra Coupe and a Maserati 151 Coupe (driven by Derek Hill, son of the late Phil Hill). Pole-sitter Alex Buncombe (No. 60 Lister-Jaguar Costin) led the field at the start and went on to the win.

(Porsche Archive, Brumos Porsche & Vic Elford Collection)
Brumos Porsche is introducing its own YouTube channel and homepage feature known as Brumos Porsche TV on Monday, July 8th with a special film by Frazer Spowart. The film features a recent visit to Brumos' Jacksonville, Florida, showroom by Porsche racing legend Vic Elford (that's him in the long tail 917, above). The film includes Brumos' Executive Vice President, Hurley Haywood and is hosted by Founder & Chairman of The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, Bill Warner.

(Classic Motor Cars)
The first works Jaguar D-Type, OKV 1, which finished second at Le Mans in 1954, was back at the circuit for the 90th anniversary of the race last weekend to pay homage to all Jaguars that have competed in the famous event. OKV 1 (restored by Classic Motor Cars in 2000) was invited by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), who created and organized the first “24 Heures du Mans” in 1923, and was part of a select group of just eleven original Le Mans cars with great history that drove two parade laps around the circuit prior to the start of the race.  Under a grey sky, the extraordinary cars that joined the D-Type ranged from the 1930 Speed Six Bentley that finished second in that same year to an Alfa Romeo 8C from the Alfa Museum, the rarely seen winning GT40 and a present day Audi. Watch a wonderful video here.

(Images courtesy of Peugeot)
Sébastien Loeb and the Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak are ready for the 91st ‘Race to the Clouds’ on Sunday, June 30th. The bespoke 875-horsepower Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak passed technical scrutineering for the Unlimited class, which means both the car and driver’s equipment met specific safety standards. The nine-time World Rally Champion and his bad-ass Peugeot are now all set for their attempt to become ‘Kings of the Peak’, exactly 25 years since Peugeot last broke the record with Ari Vatanen and the legendary 405 T16. Sébastien shook down his car at the Pikes Peak International Raceway, where the Peugeot Sport team is basing itself in preparation for the race. Following some tests on the mountain over the past two weeks, Peugeot’s mechanics stripped down and rebuilt the 208 T16 Pikes Peak from top to bottom. Today, Sebastien’s job was to check that all the systems were working properly. The team does not now plan to change the set-up for the race unless they have to. The 150 or so competitors – including 13 in the Unlimited class – will get the chance to practice the route during four early morning sessions from Tuesday to Friday this week. On Wednesday, qualifying takes place for the Unlimited runners to determine in which order the competitors start the race on Sunday. This Sunday’s action, which can be followed live from the inside of the 208 T16 Pikes Peak on redbull.tv, is scheduled to start at 08:00 (local time), with the motorbike section leading the way.


Sébastien Loeb is ready to rock Pikes Peak.

(Stadium SUPER Trucks)
SPEED Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks™ will run two unprecedented street course races on July 13 and 14 in conjunction with the Honda Indy Toronto INDYCAR weekend. Round No. 7 of SST competition will take to the temporary street course at the conclusion of Saturday’s IZOD INDYCAR Series main event while Round No. 8 will roll off Sunday just prior to the green flag of the IZOD INDYCAR Series® finale. It has been a longtime vision of series President Robby Gordon to redevelop and continue this unique form of off-road racing that was immensely popular more than 20 years ago - known then as the Mickey Thompson Off-Road Championship. “Toronto is going to be something insane,” said Gordon. “Imagine these 600 HP machines drifting around corners and hitting metal jumps, flying over 50 feet through the air on the famous street course that has seen legendary names such as Andretti and Unser compete on it. To run our Stadium SUPER Trucks Series here is a great thing for us, as we get to bring even more fun and excitement to the IndyCar event of Toronto, showing race fans what off-road trucks can really do on asphalt.” Gordon, who himself made seven starts on the streets of Toronto in the early and mid-1990s with CART/Champ Car scored a track best fifth in 1995, will be gunning to capture his first win on the legendary street course. Race fans are in for a treat as the SPEED Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks go door-to-door and airborne (over specially constructed metal ramps) on the 11-turn, 1.75-mile street course circuit for the pair of unique races.

(Porsche AG)
Porsche is lining up its drivers for 2014. Mark Webber, the 36-year-old Australian Formula 1 pilot, who will retire from F1 at the end of this season, has signed a contract with Porsche that extends over several years. He will compete in Porsche’s new LMP1 sports prototype at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the sports car World Endurance Championship (WEC). Webber has already raced at Le Mans twice. In 1998, he finished runner-up in the FIA GT Championship at the wheel of a sports prototype. Over the course of his Formula 1 career from 2002 until today, Webber has achieved 36 podium places, nine race victories and has started from pole position eleven times. “It’s an honor for me to join Porsche at its return to the top category in Le Mans and in the sports car World Endurance Championship and be part of the team. Porsche has written racing history as a manufacturer and stands for outstanding technology and performance at the highest level,” says Mark Webber. “I’m very much looking forward to this new challenge after my time in Formula 1. Porsche will undoubtedly set itself very high goals. I can hardly wait to pilot one of the fastest sports cars in the world.” Competing in the new LMP1 car alongside Mark Webber are the two long-standing Porsche works drivers Timo Bernhard (Germany) and Romain Dumas (France) as well as the ex-Formula 1 test driver Neel Jani (Switzerland).