Porsche 991 RSR

How do you get "a better weight distribution" in a 911 with all it's junk in the trunk?

Well, "better" is a matter of definition and opinion but fact is the current 997 RSR was getting long in the tooth and falling behind rivals, especially its arch enemy,  the Ferrari 458.

Enter the new RSR based on the longer, bigger 991 road car. Porsche claims improvements in weight balance and a lower center of gravity among a host of other improvements making it ready for attack on the endurance racing battlefield.

The full, oddly titled, press release and more pictures, after the break,

Webber Vettel Infinity Ad Now Awkwardly Hilarious

You're still buying Red Bull really wanted Mark Webber to win?  Notice all the articles "explaining" Vettel popping up all over the place?   Pass the popcorn and some Multi 21.

Run both videos below at the same time, start with the F1 side...

YouTube Doubler

(H/T WTF1)

Porsche GT3 Challenge, Sebring

Proper film by the guys at Drive, finally well written in long form and with one of the best motorsport commentators ever, the voice of endurance, Radio Le Mans' John Hindhaug. Well done!

Looks like IMSA Porsche GT Challenge at Sebring was invaded by Axis of Oversteer as team NGT adopted the orange and silver livery for all its cars, including double winner Angel Benitez.



It was not a very good week end for CG, a bad qualifying compromised both races, but he did climb from 17 to 8th in race 2. Here is that race from inside the car

Imagine a TopGear Africa Challenge, But Real...

...and to be fair to TopGear, by real we mostly mean without a giant support crew and budget.

We've featured the Amsterdam-Dakar Challenge before, in case you missed it think crazy Dutch people on a Paris Dakar from the very early days mixed with ChumpCar.  500 Euro for the car and off you go 7000 km though Africa, what could possibly go wrong?

Integral to the event is charity and the Amsterdam-Dakar Challenge has raised a rather amazing 3.5 million Euros since 2004.  Well done!

2013 Malaysian GP Executive Summary

What can you say about a race where the man on the top step of the podium says he should have been second, the guy in third says he should have been fourth, and the guy in second freely admits all the drivers have to drive the whole race slowly to conserve tires, which are made to last just a few laps? Shit show comes to mind.

Possibly the most embarrassing GP I can remember for pretty much everyone involved.

Let's go from the beginning

Ferrari:   The team took the blame after the race but I suspect Alonso made the call.  Dumb idea, maybe understandable from his point of view since he was able to keep Webber at bay with the broken wing but the team could see the state of the car from tv pictures and should have forced him to come in, period.  Certainly he would have scored points.
Massa got totally lost in the opening laps, good comeback in the end but P2 to P5 is not good enough.

Mclaren:  How a team as good as Mclaren could still botch so many pit stops is a puzzle,  too much practice?   Shame for Button who had managed to get himself well up in the points.
On the other hand, it would have been a hilarious if they had actually serviced Lewis' Mercedes.

Mercedes:  Tell me what difference it would have made if they allowed Rosberg to go through?  They would have still brought in both cars.   Huge gamble on fuel calculations on Ham's car did not pay off but I guess there is a clause in the contract somewhere, otherwise it makes no sense.

Red Bull:  We all hate to see managed races, but what Vettel did at Sepang was the ultimate douche move.  You have a deal you stick to it, you don't turn the boost up and pass the guy who had been faster but turned his engine down on order from the team.  Once you do that,  You don't celebrate like Vettel did at the finish line and you certainly don't go to the press claiming you passed "unintentionally"  and you misunderstood orders.   Vettel lost many, many fans today.   (also, he passed Webber by crossing into the pit lane exit and should probably have been penalized for it)

Pirelli/F1:  Seriously,  this is starting to smell bad already and we are only two races in.  You cannot have a formula 1 where drivers are forced to drive 8/10ths like in endurance of old.   If Pirelli has been briefed to engineer tires that would "improve the show"  I can guarantee you this is not the show anyone wants to see.

NBC SPORTS:   With Bob Varsha back doing commentary, it was like deja vu all over again and not in a good way.  Can you really have three "experts" who for more than half the race (the whole race for Matchett, even after he was told)  did not realize you do not have to use both tire compounds if the race starts with cars on rain tires?   Really?    New blood please,

I'm adding bullpen comments from Webber and Vettel as shown by SkySports, after the break.   Will three weeks be enough to smooth this over chez Red Bull?

Mark, Tell Us How You Really Feel About Vettel...

Vettel raised his index finger again , Webber raised his middle one.
Race wrap coming later but Axis' first thoughts are that Mark won a whole lot of new fans today.

Please Robert, Stop Rallying.

Kubica's crashed Citroen. Angél Calcines/Flickr  

I just don't know what else to say after watching this clip of Robert Kubica crashing into a guard rail and miraculously not falling off a 30 foot drop yesterday at the ERC Rally Canarias. Kubica was leading the rally at the time.



In case you are not familiar with Kubica's story, suffice it to say that a  crash against a guard rail in casual rally appearance early 2011 ended his promising Formula 1 career and partially severed his right arm almost killing him.

Please NBC Sports, Let Us GIve You Money!

Charles Pic. CaterhamF1, Andrew Ferraro/LAT Photo

How much would it add to your experience of watching F1 racing to have the same access to the multiple feeds available to fans in Europe?

For us quite a lot, we would much rather watch nat-sound onboard or hear communications between drivers and their engines on the pit wall rather than listening to three guys yammering on from a remote location.  For this we would gladly pay a sizable extra, even if those extras were just streamed on the internet.

Check out for example this composite clip from today's qualifying,  So much information, so many  little interesting tidbits, can you pick some out?

Qualifying was interesting and again determined in part by tire choice,  specifically in Q3,  the timing of when to put on a fresh set of intermediates for a final push.

Interesting also how Vettel's Red Bull was pretty much a dog in the dry early sessions but blew everyone away in the final Q3,  9/10ths over P2 Massa.

Tomorrow,  there's a 50% chance of rain around race time so we'll see who fortune favors and who's setup gamble pays off.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time          Gap   
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m49.674s           
 2.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m50.587s  + 0.913s 
 3.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m50.727s  + 1.053s 
 4.  Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes             1m51.699s  + 2.025s 
 5.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m52.244s  + 2.570s 
 6.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m52.519s  + 2.845s 
 7.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m52.970s  + 3.296s 
 8.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m53.175s  + 3.501s 
 9.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m53.439s  + 3.765s 
10.  Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes     1m54.136s  + 4.462s 
Q2 cut-off time: 1m37.342s                                   Gap **
11.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m37.636s  + 1.446s
12.  Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari       1m38.125s  + 1.935s
13.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m38.822s  + 2.632s
14.  Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari       1m39.221s  + 3.031s
15.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m44.509s  + 8.319s
16.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     no time
Q1 cut-off time: 1m37.931s                                   Gap *
17.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m38.157s  + 1.348s
18.  Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault     1m38.207s  + 1.398s
19.  Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth    1m38.434s  + 1.625s
20.  Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault     1m39.314s  + 2.505s
21.  Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth    1m39.672s  + 2.863s
22.  Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault     1m39.932s  + 3.123s

107% time: 1m43.585s

* Gap to quickest in Q1

** Gap to quickest in Q2

What's Better Than A Last Lap, Last Corner Pass For The Win?

what's better than that?  Calling it, that's what.

Elliot Skeer, 18 year old second generation track rat form Colorado, radioed the CJ Wilson Racing pits as the white flag dropped on the Sebring Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup race telling them (cue Cole Trickle clips) how he was going to go low on the final corner...



And for that,  Elliot, not being of legal drinking age yet, got to celebrate the top step of the podium with....sparking grape juice!    Face Palm.

Formula 1 Getting Tired Already.

Tired as in the black Italian made rubber donuts which seemed to be be falling apart at an alarming rate in the Malaysian heat.    15 laps on the harder compound is the prediction for Sunday if the weather is dry, which at Sepang is always a possibility (40% chance of rain predicted).

Could potentially be a complicated week end for Pirelli's Paul Hembery who's saying everything is unfolding as planned.   But is it a good plan, this of having a good company make bad tires forcing drivers to become resource managers?  
The only thing we can say is that, whatever it is, at least it's the same for everyone,  just another technical challenge to deal with.

But this being F1, there are reports of muttering in the paddock about Lotus' unfair advantage given by  Pirelli using a 2010 Renault R30 as its development car.

FP2 Results:

Pos Driver                Team                    Time       Gap      Laps
 1. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault           1m36.569             28
 2. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        1m36.588s  + 0.019s  27
 3. Felipe Massa          Ferrari                 1m36.661s  + 0.092s  33
 4. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 1m36.985s  + 0.416s  23
 5. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault        1m37.026s  + 0.457s  29
 6. Romain Grosjean       Lotus Renault           1m37.206s  + 0.637s  26
 7. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                1m37.448s  + 0.879s  32
 8. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes    1m37.571s  + 1.002s  30
 9. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes                1m37.574s  + 1.005s  32
10. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1m37.788s  + 1.219s  10
11. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes        1m37.838s  + 1.269s  21
12. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1m37.865s  + 1.296s  29
13. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari          1m38.068s  + 1.499s  31
14. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari          1m38.645s  + 2.076s  23
15. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m38.738s  + 2.169s  31
16. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault        1m38.801s  + 2.232s  27
17. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m38.904s  + 2.335s  31
18. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth       1m39.508s  + 2.939s  30
19. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault        1m39.660s  + 3.091s  28
20. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault        1m40.757s  + 4.188s  29
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault        1m40.768s  + 4.199s  32
22. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth       1m41.438s  + 4.869s  23

Happy Birthday Ayrton

Teaching Men With Mustaches How To Hoon

If we still had no ABS and zero grip tires , I don't think texting while driving would be much of an issue...  Dutch Police training film from the 1960s.

Ferrari F12Berlinetta vs Pagani Huayra On Track Video.

Bit of an apples and oranges comparison at Fiorano for an article on Germany's Sport Auto we can't find trace of anywhere.

In any case, we learn the Pagani sounds like an electric drill and has the most un-ergonomic, unreadable instrument ever. The Ferrari's naturally aspirated V12 sounds like, what would Jezza say... God gargling?

Enjoy.

Onboard Highlights From The Austalian GP

I'm not sure how long this will stay up on YouTube so enjoy while you can!   The Axis Executive Summary of the race HERE

Group Buy: For Sale, Historic Track, Some Strings Attached

The Nürburgring is for sale, how zee Germans have managed to choke such a golden egg laying goose will be the subject of many an article.  What's certain is that the ultimate petrol head playground has become a 14 mile long train wreck .

You can get better handle on the situation from those who live there and have their ear to the ground, Mike Frison of Save The Ring and our old friend Dale Lomas from BridgeToGantry.com.

Kickstarter anyone?

Kimi Gets Down Under GP

You got to love Kimi,  just give him a car that works, he'll take care of the champagne at the end.    Fantastic to see Lotus on top in the first race,  they are the underdog everyone likes to cheer for and for them to do it on a risky two stop strategy and from P7 on the grid makes it that much sweeter.

Great result for Ferrari too with a second and a fourth,  what a difference from last year. Alonso right on the money from P4,  passing his teammate and Vettel with an early stop gamble.  Massa a solid fourth place.

Red Bulls were just average but remember Melbourne is an odd track.  Still, starting from the front row and finishing third and sixth does not give you wings.


Winners:

• Lotus-Renault/Raikkonen:What can you say when Kimi said it was easy!
• Adrian Sutil: Seriously, the guy just shut down all the haters.
• Alonso/Ferrari: Great heads up driving in his duel with Hamilton.  Ferrari gets a car        right, finally.
• Hamilton: If he had stuck with Mclaren he would have been worse off! Heads up driving all race
• Massa:  Still the emotional guy Smedley has to manage but solid now.

Losers

• Webber:   Another crap start from the front row,  really?   Later team blamed the car but his race was crap from the moment he let the clutch out.
• Mclaren:   Now they know how Ferrari felt last year.  They blew qualifying for Perez insisting he go out on slicks when it was obviously wet then thanked Button for telling them to put the damn intermediates on.  Does not compute!
• Grosjean: He drove like he was concerned about not hitting anyone
• Mercedes:  Not good enough,
• Williams: Wow
• Sauber:  Wow

Executive Summary after the break

Sebring 12 Hours: Glory And Heartbreak.

Photo: Jim Hunter

It's a classic,  a $14.37  part failed and dropped the 31 Axis of Oversteer Porsche GTC from class leader  with less than 3 hours to 12 laps down.

Kuba admiring wielbłąd toe

As we had mentioned in or previous piece,  the race pace was there,  Kuba Giermaziak especially was just ripping on the old Florida concrete.  Time and again he would haul in the leaders.  Strategy was working well, CG as the "gent"driver was more than holding his own with not just other "gents" but with some of the pros.  All ws looking beyond out wildest expectations until the rear bumper cover came adrift.

Jamey Price caught the 31 dragging the bumper

CG was at the wheel when it happened but he has no idea how, he did not hit anyone and nobody hit him.   A mystery,  but the upshot was that the rear lights were damaged.   It turns out Porsche tail lights are notorious for popping out of their sockets with very little prodding.  Usually they get taped down,  for whatever reason, this was not done on the 31 car.  New clusters went in during a longish pit stop as the sun began to set.  Lucky at the time it was under a safety car period so it dropped us from P2 to P4.  Kuba, in attack mode dragged the car all the way back to P2 and pressuring Sean Edwards in P1.  Edwards made a mistake and went off leaving  the underdog Axis team in the lead and looking good.

It was good while it lasted but it was not to be, as darkness fell on Sebring, the officials demanded the team take care of the rear lights, both of which need to work under the regulations, only one of ours did so Kuba had to come in.
The NGT crew worked feverishly on the rear but the one light would just not come on.  In the end they found the brake pedal sensor had failed and somehow was just sending signal just to the one side.

Eventually the car was fired back up but our race was over.

Congratulations to Carlos, Kuba and Mario for a damn good effort and to Ramez and all at NGT for giving them such a good car.   Axis is gutted but Axis was also on TV leading the 12 hours of Sebring and that's just amazing.

The mystery of what actually happened to the rear bumper cover remains,  if you were at Sebring and can find us evidence solving said mystery,  we will send you one of these nifty Axis dog tags which one of our readers, Derick Stackpole surprised us with!

Cheers and thanks for all the messages of support,  especially the guys following on Pistoheads!

Congratulations to the winners in GTC, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Dion Von Moltke,  Cooper McNeil and Alex Job Racing.

Thanks to Andrés Bermudez for the pit reporting!

The tail pipe also came off at some point...

Stints

After 12 hours of Gas, Sweat and Tears

Sebring: Update with 6Hour remaining

The Axis car is currently sitting in the front group in GTC class,  as far up as P1, no lower than P4 for the past two hours.    Amazing result so far,    I think we surpassed what out friends at Jalopnik gave us a chance to,  They were sure we would have crashed about an hour ago.

Still a huge amount of time to go,  absolutely anything can and probably will happen.  Punctures...Allan McNish....an angry Corvette...  I kid Allan, I kid..

45 minutes To Green....

Kuba Giermaziak taking #31 to the grid

The stint order.

Axis car will have to watch out for this scary monster lapping 30 sec or more a lap faster!

 (photos by Andres Bermudez)

leavemealoneicantseeshit: Australian F1 Quali Washed Out

Formula 1 started with a cold shower in Melbourne. They managed to get Q1 in somehow but nothing more. Q2 and 3 are set for Sunday morning 11 AM local time.

Here are the q1 results

Pos Driver                Team                    Time        Gap   
 1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                1m43.380s
 2. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 1m43.850s + 0.470s
 3. Romain Grosjean       Lotus Renault           1m44.284s + 0.904s
 4. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes        1m44.300s + 0.920s
 5. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault        1m44.472s + 1.092s
 6. Felipe Massa          Ferrari                 1m44.635s + 1.255s
 7. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        1m44.657s + 1.277s
 8. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1m44.688s + 1.308s
 9. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m44.871s + 1.491s
10. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes                1m45.456s + 2.076s
11. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault           1m45.545s + 2.165s
12. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes    1m45.601s + 2.221s
13. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari          1m45.930s + 2.550s
14. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m46.450s + 3.070s
15. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault        1m47.328s + 3.948s
16. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1m47.330s + 3.950s
17. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault        1m47.614s + 4.234s
18. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari          1m47.776s + 4.396s
19. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth       1m48.147s + 4.767s
20. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth       1m48.909s + 5.529s
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault        1m49.519s + 6.139s
22. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault        1m50.626s + 7.246s

107% time: 1m45.301s

Sebring 12 Hour: The Night Before The Big Day

Photo: Andrés Bermudez

Qualifying was a trip, so many awesome drivers. I guess Porsche not supporting GT class and this being the final 12hr under the ALMS flag really made this the deepest GTC field ever. Two drivers, Bleekemolen and Edwards actually qualified with the same exact time down to the 1/1000th of a second.

Pace on the Axis car is actually better than the P10 starting position would suggest, Kuba was within a 10th of Sean Edward's time but Sebring is tricky and he ended up maybe overdriving on the lap when the tires were best. For the race though the pace is there.

Stints will be about 60-65 minutes of green laps. Tires last about one and a half stints so the plan is to change them when gassing up. Single stints for the drivers since it takes 25 secs for a driver change and about 35 for fuel and tires.

Start is Saturday at 10:45 AM ET. Race will stream live (for countries outside the US) on ALMS.com

Axis Qualifies P10 in Class for the 2013 Twelve Hours Of Sebring

Photo:Jim Hunter

This year the American Le Mans Series GT Challenge class, for Porsche GT3 Cup cars, is stacked with some of the best of the best of Porsche 911 drivers in the world.   Names like  Edwards, Lally, Bleekemolen, Estre, Faulkner, Pumpelly. Maassen.  Aces all.      In this shark pool jumps Team Axis in the number 31 car with our CG,  Carlos Gomez along with pros Kuba Giermaziak and Mario Farnbacher.

The top 9 qualifiers in class were all within 9/10th of a second of each other,  Kuba qualified the Axis car 1.6 seconds off the pace in P10.    

Practice had shown it would have been unrealistic to shoot for a higher position on the grid so the team, run by NGT Racing, decided to concentrate on making the car a comfortable as possible to drive for the grueling 12 hours.    That meant finding a good front-rear balance sacrificing some outright speed for more  even tire wear during the stints.

12 hours on the choppy, brutal concrete of Sebring is like 24 hours of wear and tear on the machines and the men on any other track.  

The objective is to survive the big day tomorrow... better than the other guys!   Go Axis.

Photo: Jamey Price

GTC Qualifying unofficial

1.  Andy Lally                 Dempsey / Del Piero Racing                2:05.446
2.  Jeroen Bleekemolen   Weathertech / Alex Job Racing            2:05.747
3.  Sean Edwards            Momo / NGT                                        2:05.747
4.  Spencer Pumpelly      Venezuela / Flying Lizards                   2:05.765
5.  Damien Faulkner        Florida Lottery / TRG                          2:05.910
6.  Jan Heylen                  Hertz / JDX Racing                             2:05.936
7.  Alexandre Imperatori  Flying Lizards                                      2:05.059
8. Andrew Davis             Dempsey- Del Piero Racing                 2:06.219
9. Kevin Estre                  BePositive.org/ TRG                            2:06.246
10. Kuba Giermaziak         Axis Of Oversteer / NGT                     2:07.057
11. Lawson Aschenbach   Competition Motorsports                       2:07.336

V8 Supercar Of The Future In Action.

T-Bone MacDonald/Flickr

Aussie Attractions

Busy week end of racing this one, 12 hours of Sebring on this side of the world, , Formula 1 and V8 Supercars on the other.

The Clipsall 500 in Adelaide was the debut for the V8 Supercar "Car of the Future".   Moving to something between DTM and FIA GTE, V8 Supercars have dropped their live axles and gained two new manufacturers with the addition of Mercedes and Nissan. The Merc, with it's awesome sounding flat plane crank V8 is a crowd favorite already.



Here are some race highlights



If you want more, check out those amazing V8 Supercar shocks working the high curbs.

Audi Shocker: Fast or Crash

Photo: MSM/Jim Sykes/Jake Galstad

Veteran Allan McNish had a rather embarrassing crash in his R18 e-Tron on the very first lap of practice this morning at Sebring. Knowing Audi they probably had to slave away for like 10-15 minutes to totally rebuild that car...

One Audi out but the other R18 had the best time in the session:


Prototype 1 (P1) Top 3:
• Benoit Treluyer – No. 1 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro – 1:45.908 (127.129 mph)
• Lucas Luhr – No. 6 Muscle Milk Pickett Racing HPD ARX-03c – 1:46.648 (126.247 mph)
• Chris Dyson – No. 16 Dyson Racing Lola B12/60-Mazda – 1:49.373 (123.102 mph)

Prototype 2 (P2) Top 3:
• Simon Pagenaud – No. 551 Level 5 Motorsports HPD ARX-03b – 1:53.482 (118.644 mph)
• Tom Kimber-Smith – No. 41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Z11SN-Nissan – 1:53.539 (118.585 mph)
• Marino Franchitti – No. 552 Level 5 Motorsports HPD ARX-03b – 1:54.577 (117.510 mph)

Grand Touring (GT) Top 3:
• Stefan Mucke – No. 97 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage V8 – 2:00.786 (111.470 mph)
• Oliver Gavin – No. 4 Compuware Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6 – 2:00.923 (111.344 mph)
• Antonio Garcia – No. 3 Compuware Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6 – 2:00.992 (111.280 mph)

Prototype Challenge presented by Continental Tire (PC) Top 3:
• Pierre Kaffer – No. 81 DragonSpeed Mishumotors ORECA FLM09 – 1:55.935 (116.134 mph)
• Bruno Junqueira – No. 9 RSR Racing ORECA FLM09 – 1:57.084 (114.994 mph)
• Stefan Johansson – No. 8 BAR1 Motorsports ORECA FLM09 – 1:57.404 (114.681 mph)

GT Challenge (GTC) Tire Top 3:
• Spencer Pumpelly – No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup – 2:05.687 (107.123 mph)
• Jeroen Bleekemolen – No. 22 Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup – 2:05.745 (107.074 mph)
• Kevin Estre – No. 68 TRG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup – 2:06.189 (106.697 mph)

The Axis GTC car was P8 with a 2:06.919 lap by Kuba Giermaziak.   Super tight field in GTC.

Postcard From Sebring

Kuba Giermaziak jumps out of the number 31 Axis of Oversteer / Capital Managers / NGT Porsche GT3-GTC,  Mario Farnbacher hops in to continue the first practice session at Sebring.

The Formula 1 2013 Season Starts This Week End

But of course you already knew that... Who was sandbagging, who was hyping the most after winter testing, in just a few hours we'll find out!

Axis Attacks The Final ALMS 12 Hour of Sebring

Illustration courtesy of Andy Blackmore/Spotterguides.com

Kuba Giermaziak

The 61st edition of the Twelve Hour of Sebring will be the final one under the auspices of the American Le Mans Series ahead of the merger, in 2014, with Grand Am.

Who will you cheer for, BMW, Corvette, Porsche, Ferrari, Aston, Viper?  lots to choose in GT but in GTC, the class for Porsche GT3 Cup cars, we say cheer for 31!  

CG will be attacking the bumpy Florida track along with two young guns, from Poland, Jakub "Kuba" Giermaziak and from Germany, Mario Farnbacher.

Mario Farnbacher

Kuba at 22 years of age has 3 years experience in the super competitive Porsche Supercup, where he place third in the 2011 season with VERVA Racing,  as well as open wheel experience in Formula Renault 2.0 and Euro Formula 3.

At 20, Mario Farnbacher has been breathing racing fumes from a very early age, from a racing family which includes his older brother, SRT Viper driver, Dominik,  Mario raced  ADAC-GT-Masters in Germany in 2012.

Kuba and Mario along with Henrique Cisneros were GTC class
winners at the 2012 Petit Le Mans.

Carlos Gomez, of couse you know if you follow Axis.

Carlos Gomez with Diego Mejia

Communications between a Colombian, a Pole and a German should be highly amusing,  I'm not worried,  they all are fluent in the language of speed and the great Ramez Wahab, the man behind NGT Motorsports will give Axis a great car.

The 12 Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida will be broadcast in the US on Fox News Sports News /Speed on the 16th at 10:30 AM ET.

On the web it will be streamed, qualifying on the 15th at 1:05 PM ET and the race on the 16th starting at 10:30 AM ET.   Tune into ALMS.COMhttp://www.alms.com for details.

Full Spotter guide by Andy Balckmore

Ready for testing on Wednesday!