The event  Finns had arrived on Friday, so their special cars already waited for the other special cars to show up.  Jyrki's 100% identical replica of the 911 SC/RS Group B rally car. Henri Toivonen/Juha Piironen won the Rallye Costa Smeralda 1984 with it. Participants started gathering in front of the hotel "Estonia" on Saturday morning at 10:45. It soon was clear that we had totally missed with the hotel. We reserved the hotel in January, but at that time all other big hotels were already fully booked. "Estonia" has 3 different buildings and one of them is quite new. We hoped that we could get all the rooms in the newest building, but the reality was that some of us were put even in the oldest building (which was absolutely not agreed before). So we were in something we had not planned to be in. The organizers want to apologize for anyone who had bad experience in "Estonia" hotels. As we didn't have any other hotel options, our hands were tied. We did verything we could, but we know it was not enough. We are really sorry and feel devastated. As one participant said, we met for racing, not for sleeping in the hotel so let's forget the horror and move on with the day.                     12:15 we left the hotel area and all cars cruised through Pärnu in one long line.    Panamera? ;-)   Margus Holland, president of Porsche Club Estonia  Installation of the transponder frames   The best road legal racing tyres IN THE WORLD - Michelin Pilot Sport CUP  White color suits 928  We brought some cars to the track which we have for sale: 997 Turbo, 968, 928 GT, 360 hp Boxster track car built by Freisinger and Maserati 3200  The fabulous rear end of the Maserati 3200. Timeless design.       Specially equipped steering wheel in a BMW M6. The driver, Markku, broke his back in an ATV accident and his lower body is paralysed. That does not stop him from racing! What an example of a man!  James and Peep (mostly Peep) instructing the participants before the racing starts    Firemen sitting high to have a view on the whole track in case anybody needs their help     Ready to race!                    And now the moments what spectators wait for:  Tarmo  Hannu  Heikki  Vesa  Teemu  One of the most expensive smokes - ceramic brake failure  More power = new tyres more frequently  Ridin' low - nice!       500 hp lawn mower  And we're done for this year...  Back to base.      21:00 - time for the dinner and awardgiving ceremony.  After 2 years on 2nd position, Hannu takes 3rd place this year  Newcomer Juha takes 2nd place - what a success!  The Turbo Boys - Winner Kai (996 Turbo) and Juha (993 Turbo) This year's prizes for the top 3 were as follows: 1st place: a set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tyres (value up to 2169 EUR). This prize is award by the main sponsor Kummimees. 2nd place: RaceLogic Performance Box (value 518 EUR) 3rd place: Becker Traffic Assist Z201 navigation (value 319 EUR) For 2009 a new prize was developed - the "Best racing country challenge" trophy. 5 best cars from each participating country are taken into account (this year only Estonia and Finland) and the average time for each team is calculated. Based on that, the winning team receives a specially made trophy and takes hold of it until the next racing event (whatever and wherever it will be). The trophy has many places for plaques, so every year the name of the winning country and the names of the drivers will be written on it.  Winning country 2009 was Finland and with quite a big gap. Finnish best 5 cars' average lap time was 1:01,441 and Estonian best 5 cars' average lap time was 1:02,871. All members of the winning country received medals.  Winning country top 5: Matti, Heikki, Hannu, Kai and Juha (behind James).   "Best racing country challenge" trophy made out of stainless steel. The track is the Pärnu AudruRing track and the high detail model cars are 1985 Porsche 956 and 1970 Porsche 917.  Discussing the race results...  After we finished at the hotel restaurant, the options were a bed or a nightclub. Both options were popular.  Sunday morning - blacks attack!  The Man and The Machine Departure was individual and in many cases it included a long pitstop at the beach. There were reported to be around 20.000 people on Pärnu beach this weekend. No wonder with +30 degrees Celcius. Still, compare 20.000 to Pärnu's population of 44.000! Meanwhile some finns set for home already. They had to drive to Tallinn to catch the Tallinn-Helsinki ferry. 30 km before Tallinn, a moose ran out of the forest and hit Sami's Boxster S. Although the rear fender and the door need to be replaced now, it was a very lucky accident - you don't want to find moose sitting between the driver and the passenger in an open roadster!   The pitstop at the beach was ended by the sudden rain, though. The rain we expected actually for the racing day based on the weather forecasts a week before. We were so lucky not to have rain on the track. The drive back home from Pärnu on Sunday evening was something special, too. The rain grew so intense that the windscreen wipers were useless even on 3rd speed. It felt like driving under the water. That was not all. The fuel level was low, but the gas station on the way didn't sell gas because of the heavy lightning going on. Interesting. Fortunately Porsches don't take too much fuel, so we managed to continue our underwater adventure. Despite some drawbacks, it was a great weekend thanks to the great participants! Photos by Sergei Zjuganov (sergeizjuganov.com), Sami Asujamaa Video filmed and edited by Taavi Koppel Don't want to miss the next event? Please send your e-mail for the mailinglist to 911@sportauto.ee |
