Z356

Sunny and hot day at Friday's qualifying races at Laguna Seca for ALMS race today. Quite a few Caymans & Boxsters. So far I am only Spyder present at Porsche Corral & Porsche Platz. This year we are near turn Two, so a better view of the activities on the track. Photos to follow tonight after I get back home. The Platz will host visits by the Flying Lizard & TRG team drivers this afternoon!

Saludos,
Eduardo
Laguna Seca

PS Post updated with photos of Porscheplatz near turn Two. Also shows Zellamsee's Arctic Silver and Plavan's Carrara White Spyders!

caronsd

I will join you out there tomorrow, but I'm afraid that I will not be in my Spyder - I will most likely be in my Speed Yellow 993 Turbo. Hopefully we can at least cross paths.....

clutchplate

I'll be there in my new 981. Oh yeah, it won't be delivered for THREE MONTHS. Arrggghh.

Z356

Been joined by now by Zellamsee and Plavan in their respective Spyders. Both Flying Lizard and TRG made presentations this afternoon at the Porscheplatz. Quite interesting and every driver rather articulate. Photos later. Qualifying races going on now. Tomorrow will be the race and turnout at the Platz should be pretty high. We will also have the Porsches at the Corral allowed to do parade laps at lunchtime!

Saludos,
Eduardo (4pm)
At Laguna Seca

Photos: Flying Lizard Two cars: #44 (Seth Neiman & Marco Holzer) and #45 (Patrick Long, Joerg Bergmeister or Richard Lietz).
At Porscheplatz: From Left to Right: Patrick Long, Marco Holzer, Seth Neiman and Richard Lietz. Joerg was not present at tent. He is apparently well enough to run the race tomorrow. Richard Leitz was flown in just in case Joerg was not able to make the race due to him flying to see his brother in Japan, after the latter's horrific crash last week.

Z356

The other team presentation today was by Team TRG, which was originally from the Monterey area but is now based at Sears Point/Infineon. The drivers are the three guys on the right of the photo, introduced by TRG's manager Bob Dickinson. They were surprisingly good talkers and it was a very worthwhile presentation!

I had to look up the drivers at TRG's website since I hadn't seen them before.To the left is Jeroen Bleekemolen. He is a multi-time winner of the Porsche Supercup Champion and the reigning two-time ALMS GTC champion!

At center is Emilio Di Guida, a veteran of sports car racing with five championship wins in Venezuela. Emilio has also participated in multiple endurance races in the GT de las America in Bogota, Colombia. Born of Italian parents in Venezuela, Emilio now lives in Miami, Florida!

At far right is Mike Hedlund. He began racing in 2011 in the Sports Car Club of America and quickly became successful in Porsche GT Racing. Hedlund made his way up to the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama. This guy looks younger that his 34 years and got into competitive racing ONLY 14 months ago. He is a quick learner indeed!

Saludos,
Eduardo
Carmel

Z356

Another beautiful day at the track yesterday. Porscheplatz was full. We had Spyder owner Caronsd (although he drove his gorgeous Speed Yellow 993!) in addition to Plavan, Zellamsee and myself with our Spyders on the Porsche Corral.

Flying Lizard didn't do as well as expected. But TRG's #66 car, driven by Jeroen Bleekemolen 'drove storming stints to help give TRG its first GT Challenge victory of the season. The 2010 class co-champion (as part of Black Swan Racing) beat GMG Racing’s James Sofronas by 12 seconds at the finish. Bleekemolen drove the TRG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup with Bret Curtis and Emilio Di Guida'. Their #68 car, driven by Tracy Krohn, Mike Hedlund and Nick Tandy, had a ring & pinion failure and lost critical minutes while that was fixed back in the paddock area! Last photo shows team owner Kevin Buckler with drivers Mike Hedlund (dark glasses) and Englishman Nick Tandy with worried faces as they watch their mechanics tackle the repairs!

Saludos,
Eduardo
Carmel

JSF101

thanks for the pictures Eduardo! sorry I couldn't make it. watched a few minutes of the race on TV today. a special place, hope to drive there someday

fleadh

Thanks for posting the pictures Eduardo! It was fun to meet so many awesome Porsche people this weekend.

And just for the record, it's a typo on the TRG website. My first race was in March 2011 w/ SCCA.

After all the drivers and the crew putting in so much work leading up to this race, it was heart braking to have the mechanical on the #68 one hour into the race (while leading in class^!@#&). But, the guys got it back together and we were able to make the finish.

-mike

zellamsee

Nice shots Eduardo! Great seeing you. I posted some of my pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterri...7629711710126/

Z356

Mike: You guys did a hell of job! Shame about the mechanical. Best of luck to you in the next race! Below you will see a few other photos of you and your car yesterday at Laguna Seca!

a) All three drivers in discussion - Mike, Nick and Tracy.
b) Close-up of Mike, Nick and Kevin.
c) #68 at Corkscrew after the repairs!
d) Setting up for Turn 9!
e) Coming back to paddock after the race!

Saludos,
Eduardo
Carmel

Z356

My photos are rank amateur stuff done set on an 'Intelligent Auto' on a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-HX7V bought at Costco for less than $200. I just wanted to record the moment so that I can add some 'color' to my postings. On the other hand, Peter, your photos are great! Thanks for the link!

On my Corkscrew shots, you will see the back of Zellamsee's head and cap! Also notice the lenses on his beautiful & expensive Canon camera! Now folks, that is serious photographic equipment!

Saludos,
Eduardo

alex911s

Missed out this year thanks for the pics!

mile2424

Great pics guys! I miss the days of the RS Spyder running around Laguna. I can't wait til the new prototype Le Mans car comes out!