#8 - The Vacation Deviation
Being pulled in a million different directions is not conducive to writing newsletters!
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
#INTRO
This is a very overdue newsletter! As you are aware, I have pledged to produce one of these letters each week; unfortunately, life got in the way, specifically - school summer holidays.
To be fair, most of the delays are as a result of me being tied up with working hard to raise funds to go out and about with Karta, and we have been busy.
Again, I can only apologise for the delay, but I doubt this will be the last time that this will happen between now and the end of August. The next time I will simply say “hey, my newsletter is late again!”
#AUTO
Porsche has been busy over the last couple of weekends. The German marque was out in full force at the Spa 24 Hour race, which included the much anticipated Porsche Motorsport GT2 Supersportscar Weekend.
The “Porsche Motorsport GT2 Supersportscar Weekend” is a one-off event. “The Spa 24-hour race is the perfect stage for the race debut of these spectacular GT2 models. Both vehicles can be fielded at Clubsport level and at selected motorsport events. We’re currently involved in fruitful discussions for the coming year,” says Fritz Enzinger, Vice President Porsche Motorsport.
At Spa, customer teams campaigned the GT2 vehicles, with the entry list including Manthey-Racing, Herberth Motorsport, Frikadelli Racing Team, Iron Force Racing and Motopark.
“We’re delighted that fans get to witness great drivers, professional teams and two incredibly spectacular vehicle types on the racetrack.
This Porsche GT2 event is the perfect chance for us to showcase just how competitive our Clubsport vehicles are,” explains Oliver Köppen, co-ordinator of the GT2 Supersportscar Weekend.
Lining up alongside the Porsche 911 GT2 RS Clubsport on the grid were three models of the new limited-edition Porsche 935.
Fielding the Porsche 911 GT2 RS Clubsport and the Porsche 935, an international field of 15 drivers contested two 30-minute races.
On Friday, Norwegian Egidio Perfetti crossed the finish line in first place at in the Porsche 935 ahead of Germans Jan-Erik Slooten and Klaus Abbelen. On Saturday, Perfetti won against Slooten and Christian Ried.
Among the 15 drivers were two Le Mans GTE-Am class winners, as well as the VIP driver, the six-time Olympic gold medallist in track cycling, Chris Hoy.
“That will definitely be a weekend that I’ll always remember,” said an excited Hoy.
“Being a part of the first Porsche GT2 event with the 911 GT2 RS Clubsport was fantastic. The car was perfect, and I’m very grateful and happy to have been given a chance to be here.”
Perfetti meanwhile, had this to say, “Two wins in one weekend, you can’t ask for more than that. Of course, I’m absolutely delighted. My car was superb, and despite the changing conditions with the hot temperatures on Friday and cooler, rainy conditions on Saturday, the team put a perfect car on the track for me.”
Porsche went on to take an impressive one-two victory in the main event. The GPX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, driven by the current FIA WEC Sportscar World Champions Kévin Estre, Michael Christensen, and Richard Lietz, won at the Belgian long-distance classic after 363 laps, securing Porsche the seventh overall success in Belgium.
The 911 GT3 R fielded by Rowe Racing (#998) rounded off the one-two victory of the Porsche teams at the marathon in the Ardennes. Five of the six Pro-cars from Porsche finished the 71st running of the 24 Hours of Spa in the top ten.
#MOTO
Finding the time to get out and ride bikes over the past couple of weeks has been difficult. The motorcycles are available and ready to go, me not so much. I will get to it after I get back from a trip to Wales, until then, here’s a quick round-up of some motorcycle racing news.
In MotoGP, rumours are flying about that indicate that Lorenzo could be looking to get out of his Honda factory deal early. Crutchlow’s name has been linked with the ride, but it is unlikely that anything will happen, due to the vast amounts of money that will need to be paid to alter contracts. Johan Zarco was linked to a move to World Superbikes with Honda, but this was quickly dismissed as “fake news”.
The 2020 MotoGP calendar will increase to 20 rounds, with the addition of the Finnish Grand Prix, the KymiRing facility is set to host the first Finnish GP since 1982 next year.
#WATCHLIST
We’ve been catching up on some great TV shows and movies; the best of the bunch being Amazon Prime’s The Boys, an adaptation of the Garth Innes comic books of the same name, follows a group of superheroes known as “The Seven”, the trouble is, they are not what they seem.
Each show is riddled with gore, sex and profanity, which is, at times hilarious. Give it a whirl, you won’t regret it.
I finally got to see Avengers: Endgame and Tolkien, both excellent movies, although I felt the Marvel offering could have been 45 minutes shorter than the 3+ hours of the feature. Tolkien is a movie about the author of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings books; a great way to spend a couple of hours.
#HARK
OMG, nothing musical to report this time around, I literally have spent most of my time listening to talks about mindfulness meditation practice on the Ten Percent Happier app.
#APEX
#ROAM
Despite the really shitty weather of recent weeks, I have decided to get away from it all for a few days. The roof box has been fitted to the car, and the penny jar has been raided for shrapnel. So on a tight budget, we are heading for the hills for some much needed R&R. The weather is so unpredictable over the coming week, but we have decided to just go-for-it and camp out in the mountains of North Wales, what could possibly go wrong?
#CONSUME
Not much to report, other than we have decided to remove wheat and other grains from our diet. There is plenty of evidence that this simple change will not only help us to lose some weight but will drastically improve our gut health. I will report back on how this is going over the coming weeks and months.
#INTERWEB
Take some time to check out the website for Karta’s football club. I am the webmaster for the site and have been working hard to get it ready for the new playing season. V2.0 goes live later this week. Hopefully, it will be a much more helpful page to visit when that happens.
#OUTRO
Again, apologies for the delay in getting issue 8 out into the world. There will be further delays to upcoming issues, but, once the summer holidays are out of the way, this letter will return to regular service and be published weekly.
Until next time, adieu.