Jörg Bergmeister had one of the most successful careers in the ALMS and now he is returning to North America once again, this time with the hope of continuing that success in the TUDOR series.
Jörg has been associated with Porsche Racing here in North America since he became a Porsche Factory driver in 2002 and even when he wasn’t recognized as one (2005 and 2006 seasons) he has been a huge factor in the success of Porsche here. After competing in the WEC in 2013 and 2014, Jörg returns in 2015 to the circuits that he has had both great success and great enjoyment competing at.
“I actually wanted to come back to North America again to compete. I like the US circuits. They’re not surrounded by large run off areas like the tracks in Europe. Over there, if you go off, it is no big deal. Here, you have to think. You may be able to take that last turn at Road Atlanta flat, but you can’t all of the time. You have to think, especially with that big wall looming.”
“There just are fewer consequences in racing at the tracks we race at in Europe. If you go off, oh well. You drive off the track and find your way back on. On some of the tracks here it isn’t that way. There are places at the tracks here that you really don’t want to go off at all. Road America, Mosport… these are some of my favorite places to race. They’re fast and rewarding, but can offer consequences if you get them wrong.”
Which bring up the question of car speeds – are the cars getting too fast for the circuits now? “I don’t think so, especially in Europe, where the run off space is so great. An exception might be the Nürburgring though. The GT3 Porsche may be getting too fast to race there now. To run by yourself, it is probably ok, but with competitors I think we might be going too fast.” It was here that Richard Lietz who had joined the conversation added, “the best view I can have of the ‘Ring is seeing it in the rearview mirror, knowing that you’re leaving the track in one piece.” As far as US tracks, VIR was mentioned as one in which the cars may be going too fast now, especially with its narrow racing surface.
Racing at the ‘Ring has forever been changed based upon recent happenings and the organizers will be applying speed limits at certain sections of the track. “They’re going to be giving serious penalties for exceeding those speed limits, even for one K over the limit. Thankfully by the time of the of the 24 hour race, we’ll have limiters installed in the cars for the sections, but it’ll likely be hurting us more than some others. Those that have more aero downforce won’t be affected as much.”
The subject of the Nürburgring brought forth multiple topics such as the party atmosphere at the 24 hour race. Both Jörg and Richard marveled at the antics they’ve seen at the race, stating that it was so out of character for what is usually viewed as the typical stoic and reserved German population. It was from the ensuing stories that the typical Nürburgring 24 hour race could indeed only be described as a typical Sebring crowd, but only if that Sebring crowd was all on crack.
It was in 2013 that Jörg was at Sebring, but not to drive, as he was a full season WEC driver that season. So, as he was free, he decided to trek out into the Sebring masses with fellow Porsche Driver Pat Long and multi time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti to experience Sebring the way the fans do. “The fans made us feel very welcome out there. They were even supplying the beer. It was quite the experience – one which I’d never had the opportunity to have before.”
Being a winner at all of the classic endurance races gives Jörg an opportunity to judge the difficulties of competing at each of the events. “Le Mans is tough because of the triple and even quad stints that are so common. Daytona is long, but comparatively ok to compete at. Sebring is tough, especially when you run with only two drivers. The roughness of the old circuit, plus the amount of darkness around the track makes it really difficult. Nürburgring is OK, even in the wet, but when it is foggy, that is the worst.”
Here at Long Beach, seeing the Porsche entries filling the last three grid spots here at Long Beach was very surprising. Yes, the Porsches usually are closer in race pace than they are in qualifying, but it doesn’t seem like all that long ago that Jörg Bergmeister and Pat Long were wheeling the Flying Lizards Porsche to back to back wins on the streets of Long Beach. What happened here?
“It is just one of those things here. We had strong runs at both Daytona and Sebring earlier this season, but here we just didn’t have it in qualifying. We’d been in the mix earlier, but we just didn’t have much to offer in qualifying, especially to the BMWs, which are in a class of their own here right now”, said Jörg. “We might have tried a set up change after the last session before qualifying, but there simply wasn’t any time, plus in that situation you just don’t want to go too far. To be honest we just don’t have all that much experience with the 911 RSR at street circuits. We’re still fighting understeer and that’s not a help here.”
“When we had that run with the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (type 997) it was likely a combination of things. That was a shorter wheelbase car which probably worked better in the tighter confines. Plus the competition maybe hadn’t yet reached the level that we’re at now.”
While the new 911 RSR is maybe not as quick in comparison to the rest on the street course at Long Beach this time, it is still a formidable competitor. “The new car is definitely a step forward for us, we just need to keep working and developing the car. Even though we were the slowest cars in the session, we really were not that far off. For this race, it was not so much the time of the lap, it is where we’ll be starting from. At a track that is difficult to make passes on, starting as low as 6th in such a tight class means we’ll have to work hard to get a good result.” For the record, Jörg ’s co-driver Richard Lietz qualified the No. 912 6th in class, .664 seconds back of Bill Auberlen’s BMW.
Unfortunately the Bergmeister/Leitz Porsche suffered one of those consequences right at the start. Lietz made a great start and was progressing through the field when he and Olly Gavin came together. Lietz, taking an outside line was squeezed into the wall, where the impact caused right front hub damage. The ensuing stop for repairs cost the team 16 laps on the rest of the GTLM class. As a result of the incident, which race officials ruled nobody was at fault, Bergmeister got in the car after the repairs were made and ran the remainder of the race, all with the purpose of simply gaining as many points as possible.
Gary Horrocks
