Chris Harris to race with Walter Rohrl in a GT3 RS at the Nurburgring 24 hours
#1
03-11-2010, 09:57 AM
Chris Harris to race with Walter Rohrl in a GT3 RS at the Nurburgring 24 hours 
Chris Harris with the 2010 Porsche 997 GT3 RS
"Evo’s Chris Harris will be racing at the 2010 Nurburgring 24 hours in May. Not only that, he’ll be doing it alongside Walter Rohrl in Porsche’s new 911 GT3 RS supercar.
Chris you probably know from the wealth of evo videos he’s produced (including riding in a GT3 RS alongside Francois Delecour), while Walter is a double World Rally Champion and, more recently, a Porsche brand ambassador and professional test driver. He’s taken every production Porsche since 1993 around the Nordschleife, so he should be a force to be reckoned with when it comes to lengthy stints during the 24 hours.
Alongside Harris and Rohrl in Porsche’s team will be German Touring ace Roland Asch (who’s driven a 911 GT3 Cup in the Dubai 24 hours) and Horst von Saurma, a German motoring journalist who’s driven 911s in the Ring 24 hours before, as well as setting a Nordschleife lap record in a Porsche Carrera GT. Our Harris is the baby of the team, and at 35 is little more than half Rohrl’s age.
Preparation is underway now, and the four of them will contest two VLN races in the GT3 RS to familiarise themselves with both track and car in time for the Ring endurance race on May 15 and 16."
Source: EVO
Chris you probably know from the wealth of evo videos he’s produced (including riding in a GT3 RS alongside Francois Delecour), while Walter is a double World Rally Champion and, more recently, a Porsche brand ambassador and professional test driver. He’s taken every production Porsche since 1993 around the Nordschleife, so he should be a force to be reckoned with when it comes to lengthy stints during the 24 hours.
Alongside Harris and Rohrl in Porsche’s team will be German Touring ace Roland Asch (who’s driven a 911 GT3 Cup in the Dubai 24 hours) and Horst von Saurma, a German motoring journalist who’s driven 911s in the Ring 24 hours before, as well as setting a Nordschleife lap record in a Porsche Carrera GT. Our Harris is the baby of the team, and at 35 is little more than half Rohrl’s age.
Preparation is underway now, and the four of them will contest two VLN races in the GT3 RS to familiarise themselves with both track and car in time for the Ring endurance race on May 15 and 16."
Source: EVO
#2
03-11-2010, 10:04 AM
New Press release from Porsche
Walter Röhrl and the 2010 Porsche 997 GT3 RS
Specialists support Walter Röhrl at Nordschleife comeback
Stuttgart. Preparations for the racing comeback of Walter Röhrl (63) at the Nürburgring 24 hour race are at full revs. During a seat fitting at the Weissach Motorsport Centre, the double WRC champion met the teammates with which he will share the cockpit of the standard Porsche 911 GT3 RS on 15th and 16th May. Former DTM pilot Roland Asch (59) as well as journalists Horst von Saurma-Jeltsch (55) and Chris Harris (35) know the Nürburgring-Nordschleife like the backs of their hands and have contested Germany’s greatest long distance race several times.
Double DTM vice-champion Roland Asch has tackled the 24 hour event in the Eifel more than a dozen times. In 2004 he secured fifth overall. The foundation for Asch’s career was laid in the Porsche brand trophy series. Contesting the Porsche 944 Turbo Cup, the Swabian proved to be virtually unbeatable, winning the championship three times straight. In 1991, he claimed the championship title of the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland. Already in the 2010 season, Roland Asch has a race track marathon behind him: At the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, he contested the Dubai 24 hour race where he fought long and hard for the lead until his retirement.
At his debut race in 1987, Horst von Saurma-Jeltsch was Asch’s teammate in the 944 Turbo Cup. It didn’t take long for the Nürburgring-Nordschleife to become the favourite circuit of the editor-in-chief of the specialist magazine “sport auto”. Since 1988, Horst von Saurma-Jeltsch has contested the 24 hour classic twenty times. In 2001, the 55-year-old shared the cockpit of a Porsche 911 GT3 R with a line-up that included Porsche works driver Timo Bernhard. As a journalist, he regular conducts tests on the Nordschleife and in 2004 even set a lap record with a Porsche Carrera GT.
British motorsport journalist Chris Harris got his first taste of the Nordschleife in 1999. Since then he has contested the 24 hour race four times, most recently in 2007 in the cockpit of a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. During the 2008 season, Harris yielded tenth place with a 911 at the Nürburgring long distance championship (VLN). At two guest appearances in the Carrera Cup Great Britain, he brought home sixth and seventh place.
In preparation for the 24 hour marathon, Röhrl and his fellow racers aim to contest two VLN races with their 450 hp Porsche 911 GT3 RS. “I’m sure we will quickly familiarise ourselves with the track and the car,” said a confident Röhrl. “We’ll need to practice our pit stops. After all, it was 17 years ago that I last made a driver change at race speed"
