Foreign Affairs GCR Poker Run
Colorado Springs - June 27, 2010 - Jeff Zwart, from Woody Creek, Colorado, driving the specially-prepared Luminox Watch Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race car, has won and set a new record in the 2WDTime Attack class in Sunday's 88th running of the Pikes Peak Hillclimb.Zwart, now a seven-time Pikes Peak class winner, not only broke Rhys Millen's 2009 class record by38 seconds (after smashing his qualifying record by 18 seconds), but went faster than all but five ofthe entire field - three Unlimited Class and two Open Wheels cars, all with 600-plus horsepower. His911 GT3 Cup car also beat all the production based race cars entries, 2WD and 4WD. NobulhiroTajima, from Japan, won the hillclimb overall in an eight-cylinder, turbocharged Suzuki 4WD one-offrace car with an Unlimited Class entry.Zwart said the key to his victory was the confidence that build up every time he drove the car."In my previous six victories - all in Porsche street-based turbo cars - I spent most of my practice timetrying to tame the car to fit this difficult course; With this Porsche 911 Cup car, it was clear to mefrom the beginning that the car was challenging me to drive my best, and I went faster every time Istepped behind the wheel. Each time I thought I was asking too much from the car, especially when Icarried maximum speed into one of those hairpins, the Porsche responded and challenged me to pusheven harder," said Zwart.He also repeated his amazement from Friday's qualifying session that the normally-aspirated car didn'tlose horsepower from its 9,000-foot-elevation start and the 14,000-foot finish line. A combination ofthe 450-hp, 3.8-liter Porsche Cup car engine and expert engine map adjustments from PorscheMotorsport North America gave Zwart the performance of a lifetime.Zwart again praised the Pirelli road racing rain tires, which he felt held their grip evenly on both thegravel and tarmac surfaces, a necessity as the course has been transformed from all gravel to halfand half. Next year, with two more miles of the 12-mile course scheduled for paving, road-racing-based tires will make more sense than ever. The team made some adjustments to tire pressures onall four wheels prior to qualifying. Pirelli had developed a tire for Zwart based on the rain tire they usefor the Rolex Grand-Am series."Without Luminox Watches, Porsche Motorsport North America, and Pirelli tires support, this victorywould not have been possible," said Zwart.Porsche Motorsport started with a 2007 Cup car, updated it to 2010 specifications, and installed anew 450 horsepower 3.8-liter engine currently in use in the Patron GT3 Challenge, American Le MansSeries Challenge Class, and the Porsche Supercup series. The engine management mapping wasmodified to perform well in high altitude as the race starts at 9,390 feet and finishes at the summit,14,110 feet above sea level, and ride height was increased for the gravel sections of the course. Theunderbody was also modified to protect the car from gravel and stones similar to rally competition.Zwart has now won his class at Pikes Peak - all in Porsches - in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998,2002 and 2010, setting new class records four times. Most recently, before this weekend, he co-drove a Porsche Cayenne with Pikes Peak veteran Paul Dallenbach at the challenging TransSyberiaRally (Moscow to Mongolia) in 2007. He also has an SCCA PRO Rally Championship (1990) and aSCORE Baja 1000 class win (2004) to his credit.The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, built on the same assembly line in Stuttgart as the street-legal Porsche911s, is raced all over the world in the Porsche Supercup series as well as various Porsche CarreraCup and Challenge Cups, including IMSA Patron GT3 Challenge. New last year was the addition of theAmerican Le Mans Series Challenge class, where the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars contest the fullendurance series run by the Le Mans racers.
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