911 in Motorsport: British GT preview
British GT Championship
Porsche 911 GT3 Rs will be in action this weekend as the British GT Championship returns with a rather foreign flavour.
The sixth round of the 2013 championship will see the teams take to the Zandvoort circuit, in the Dutch sand dunes 30km (18 miles) outside Amsterdam.
Two one-hour races will be held over the weekend, with Oman Air Motorbase looking to consolidate their fifth position in the points table with drivers Ahmad Al Harthy, and Porsche stalwart Michael Caine.
The duo will be looking to bounce back after a difficult round five, where a broken tailpipe ignited the rear bumper of their Porsche 911 GT3 R, and with it their hopes of a top-five finish.
Total 911 took a look behind the garage doors at this event; look out for our delve behind the scenes in the upcoming issue 105 (available in stores, and online, from 11th September).
Making life harder for Al Harthy and Caine is the fact neither driver has been to the undulating Dutch circuit before. Despite this, team boss, David Bartrum is quietly confident that Oman Air Motorbase will be able to score a good points haul.
“We’ve got two good drivers who work well together and we’ve got a very well drilled team.”
An increase in weight, thanks to the impressive debut performances of Al Harthy, and Caine’s driver rating, will be a further disadvantage to the Motorbase pair, who will be running 130kg of ballast – 75kg more than the similar Trackspeed Porsches.
Despite the extra weight, in the previous one-hour encounters at Snetterton, in Norfolk, Oman Air Motorbase walked away with a win in race one. They will be hoping that the Netherlands prove similarly efficacious.
East African Safari Classic Rally
Tuthill Porsche’s preparations for November’s Safari Classic took another step closer to completion, as the final batch of their rally-prepared 911s were packed into shipping containers for the six-week journey to Mombassa, in Kenya.
Two ex-world champions will compete for Tuthill. Björn Waldegårds the event in 2011, while Stig Blomqvist will also take to the start ramp in a Tuthill Porsche 911.
Tuthill are sending a team of over 100 people, in their biggest assault on the rally to date. 44 shipping containers will arrive in Kenya with the company’s name on them, carrying spares, support vehicles, and over 700 tyres.
The rally starts on 21 November, and rounds for approximately 5000km (3100 miles) before finishing on 29 November.
If you would like to find out more about the man behind Tuthill Porsche, Francis Tuthill, grab a copy of Total 911 issue 99, featuring an exclusive interview the man himself.
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