The Road to Le Mans!
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Connor puts HK on track for Le Mans
Connor puts HK on track for Le Mans
If you’re going to have a hobby, you might as well take it seriously. William E “Chip” Connor is unabashed about his love of motor racing and, especially, classic racing cars.
The Hong Kong tycoon keeps a sizeable collection of vintage models and is an enthusiastic driver in the Porsche Infineon Carrera Cup Asia. Last year, he was co-owner of the Barron Connor Racing team that fielded a pair of Ferraris in several classic endurance races, including the Le Mans 24 Hours.
So when SAR driver Matthew Marsh began piecing together an ambitious project for the first-ever Hong Kong team to race at Le Mans, Connor was only too ready to become involved.
“After my experiences with Barron Connor and then talking to Matthew, I was inspired to get more serious about this Hong Kong effort,” says Connor. “Matthew has done a terrific job under a lot of time pressure and I was happy to jump in and help.
“I was a little bit surprised that there hadn’t been more enthusiasm for this sort of thing before, because it is definitely a big deal and, from a standpoint of international profile, it is very good for Hong Kong. It is probably just the lack of precedent and awareness that has conspired against an outpouring of corporate support before now.
“Hong Kong, as a city, boxes above its weight in so many different sectors and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t loom larger in motorsport. Hong Kong has always had the wherewithall to do it and now, for the first time, we’ve got some enthusiasm to really put forward a top-class effort in a major motor racing event.”
Connor, 55, an American who has lived in Asia all his life, is chairman and CEO of the William E Connor Group, one of the world’s largest privately held trading companies dealing in consumer goods and commodities. As well as bringing to the project support and motor racing experience, he has also purchased the Porsche GT3 RSR which the Hong Kong team – Noble Group-GruppeM Racing – will drive.
Vintage racing cars are Connor’s passion. “I live, eat and breathe them,” he confesses. “It’s a major vice of mine – I’ve been collecting them for the better part of 30 years. I’ve been driving them in tours [cross-country rallies] for many years now and over the last 10 or 15 years I’ve been racing them as well.
“They range from pre-war Alfa Romeos through to post-war participants in races like Le Mans and Sebring [North America’s most prestigious endurance race]. Most of the cars that I have an interest in collecting have some historical significance in terms of race wins or drivers.
“I keep a number of them in the United States and I keep some of them in Europe because it makes more sense not to have to transport them back and forth.
“When you go back to the Fifties and Sixties and even the early Seventies, there was much more of an overlap between a high-performance street car and a purpose-built race car. So the cars I have are serious race cars but they can be adapted to road use. Something like a competition Ferrari Daytona, of which they made 15, is a noisy thing but can still be licensed for the road and driven on the road – and in fact I do that.”
As an example, Connor points to the Monterey Historic Automobile Races at Laguna Seca raceway in California every August. “This year, I’ll be racing a Porsche 935 that won Sebring in 1984 – that was the last major international race a 935 won. Laguna Seca is one of the world’s great circuits and the Monterey Historics is one of the best vintage race weekends of the year in the US. I’ll be there with a couple of cars – the 935 and possibly a Ferrari, although I’m not sure which one yet.”
Connor’s love of racing has been enhanced down the years by his friendship with former Indianapolis 500 winner and IndyCar champion Danny Sullivan.
“I co-drive with Danny in many of these European tours and he is just a terrific guy. Being in a car with him for four or five days at a time, having him critique my driving on the cross country sections or coaching me on the race track, really inspired me and gave me the confidence to start competing.
“This year I’m driving in the Porsche Infineon Carrera Cup Asia for the first time and it’s terrific. I started racing late in life while most of these guys began when they were barely into their teens, so when I race against someone like Matthew [the current Carrera Cup champion] I see him disappearing into the distance – but it’s something I enjoy tremendously.”
Barron Connor Racing’s two Ferrari 575 GTCs finished second and third in their class in last year’s inaugural Le Mans Endurance Series – a series of 1,000km races at top European tracks – but were both forced to retire in the Le Mans 24 Hours.
“That’s endurance racing,” says Connor. “Le Mans is the ultimate test and small problems become big problems there. You have to be hitting on all cylinders when you run in an event like that. It really was an eye opener and it makes you understand what it takes to go in and finish a world-class 24-hour event.”
Connor, rest assured will be doing everything he can to help the Hong Kong team realise their Le Mans dream. “It doesn’t get any better than Le Mans,” he says. “The main problem is gaining entry because everyone and his brother wants to take part and you have to campaign the car almost politically to secure an invitation. But the fact that this is Hong Kong’s debut will help, absolutely, and I’m going to do everything I can to get things moving in that regard.”
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Released by Two Up Front, the official media relations partner of Noble Group-GruppeM Racing.
For further information, please contact:
Niall Donnelly
Tel: (852) 2854 2136
Fax: (852) 2854 2134
Email: niall@tuf.com.hk
Teamwork the key for Le Mans-bound Marsh
Teamwork the key for Le Mans-bound Marsh
Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork. It’s a mantra Matthew Marsh has been muttering repeatedly as he spearheads the most ambitious project in the history of Hong Kong motorsport.
The reigning Porsche Infineon Carrera Cup Asia champion is fronting the first SAR team to participate in the world famous Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race and freely admits that one of his trickiest tasks will be choosing a three-man driving team that gels perfectly.
“All three drivers – and that includes me – will have to respect that this project is not just about them,” he points out. “Let’s face it, all racing drivers are egotists, but they need to be, because in motor racing your sole aim is to beat every other driver you are up against and not accept anything less. In sprint racing, only the guy who has won the race is happy.
“Endurance racing is different. If you’re lapping a second a lap slower than a teammate, nobody notices. Equally, if you come down the pit lane slower and lose a couple of seconds, nobody notices. But if you spin the car into the gravel trap and lose three laps, or if you put it into the wall and have to retire in the first hour, or if you blow the clutch or knock over one of your pit crew, you can bet everyone at the circuit will notice!
“Of course, you’re not driving on the edge, you’re not flat out like you are in a sprint race. But there’s just as much pressure in endurance racing because if you make a big mistake, you’ve got two co-drivers whose day you’ve ruined. And there are still occasions in endurance racing when you really have to push the car. The skill of an endurance driver is knowing when it’s appropriate to drive at 100 per cent and when it’s not. Most of the time, it’s not.”
Marsh has a shortlist of co-drivers for the historic campaign, the first time ever a car owned and sponsored by Hong Kong companies and piloted by Hong Kong drivers has aimed to compete at Le Mans, the world’s greatest endurance race.
The candidates include Hong Kong racing legend Charles Kwan Siu-cheung, current Formula BMW Asia champion Marchy Lee Ying-kin, Hong Kong-based Porsche driver Darryl O’Young, Chinese racing sensation Tung Ho-pin and Macau driver Andre Couto, who finished second last year in the Japan GT Championship.
Top of Marsh’s wish list is former Porsche champion Kwan, who is toying with the idea of retirement. The pair teamed up successfully in a Ferrari for last November’s FIA GT race at Zhuhai – they finished fourth in their class despite an unavoidable mechanical problem – and Marsh highlights their partnership as the perfect example of how co-drivers should, well, co-operate.
“Co-drivers have to have complete trust in each other. When we raced at Zhuhai, I did the first stint, came into the pits, vacated the seat to Charles and walked away. I went to the garage, chatted to a friend and then went for a shower – and I didn’t go back to the pits until 45 minutes later. To be honest, I didn’t even think about Charles, because I didn’t have to. I knew he would be lapping about the same time as me, I knew that his lap times would be extremely consistent and I knew that he wouldn’t be damaging the car.
“That’s the sort of co-driver you want. What you don’t want is to be walking away from the car and worrying whether it’s going to come back in one piece. I’ve had that experience and it’s not good.
“When I raced in the Spa 24 Hours in Belgium five years ago, we had three mismatched drivers. We had one very quick guy who was a great character, but not a good teammate for endurance racing. We were up against works BMWs and Peugeots, he went out first and after an hour we were running fifth. Fifth! Other teams were coming over to our garage to find out who we were!
“But when he brought the car in, the spotlights at the front were smashed because he’d had a shunt, so that cost us five minutes because they had to be changed before it got dark. Later the gearbox went and that was probably a consequence of how the car had been driven. So we were heroes for a while, but we ended up finishing something like 40th.”
Marsh’s teamwork ethic isn’t just limited to what happens on the track. If the Hong Kong team – Noble Group-GruppeM Racing – is to be successful, it will be a collective effort in which everyone, from drivers and pit crew to sponsors and corporate backers, plays a crucial role.
Corporate support has come from two Hong Kong companies – Noble Group, a global commodities firm that has been involved in motorsport since 2001, and the William E Connor Group, a privately held trading firm whose chairman and CEO, William E “Chip” Connor, has bought the Porsche GT3 RSR the team will drive.
The car will be prepared and run by UK-based GruppeM Racing – one of only two teams worldwide to carry Porsche “factory supported” status and winners of last year’s British GT Championship. Team owner Kenny Chen, a Chinese property developer who has lived in the UK for the past 18 years, has enthusiastically embraced the concept of a Hong Kong car debuting at Le Mans.
“We are very lucky to have all these people on board,” says Marsh. “Kenny is involved in motor racing because he wants to be, not because he’s trying to make money out of it. He basically said, ‘OK, you’ve been giving me a hard time about this for two years, I’m now running the Porsche factory team and I might as well run your car as well because it won’t cost that much more.’
“Essentially, he’s charging us about half price, because he wants the honour of fielding the first Hong Kong team – and the first Chinese driver – at Le Mans and he has seen the energy and commitment that we are putting in.
“Nobel Group have been brilliant. They said, ‘We believe in you, we trust you, go for it, boys.’ And Chip Connor has seen the challenge we’ve set ourselves, can see we’re approaching it the right way and wants to help. ‘Help’ is the right word, because all three parties are helping really, rather than buying something.”
The Hong Kong team will compete in build-up races in Europe and the United States over the next 10 months with the aim of securing an invitation to Le Mans in June 2006. With Le Mans entries divided into four classes – LMP1 and LMP2 for prototypes (cars designed specifically for racing) and GT1 and GT2 for modified road cars, Marsh and co are aiming for GT2.
“Why are we in that class? Well, one of the factors that will be important to the race organisers is that drivers are competent in the category they’re in. Myself and the other drivers can clearly demonstrate that we’ve done a lot of driving in Porsche GT3s and that we’ve done quite well in them.
“The difference between GT1 and GT2 is that the former has manufacturers heavily backing their teams. Giants like Ferrari, Chevrolet and Aston Martin have huge budgets. GT2 is popular because it’s affordable and because cars like the Porsche GT3 RSR are perfect for endurance racing.
“It makes perfect sense for us to go in at this level, because the key point is that this is not the last time we will be racing at Le Mans. What started off, for me, as the ultimate objective, simply to compete at Le Mans, has changed. Now the project is happening, I’m thinking about a five-year programme in which we move up through the classes.
“The other key point about starting in GT2 is that we really can say we are going there with the intention of doing well in our class. Even in GT2 there are some world class drivers – Porsche factory drivers, for example – and so we will be up against some serious players, but the cars will all be pretty equal, we are going to be fully prepared and we will have three drivers who are more than capable. Put it this way, we’ll be going there to get on the podium.”
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Released by Two Up Front, the official media relations partner of Noble Group-GruppeM Racing.
For further information, please contact:
Niall Donnelly
Tel: (852) 2854 2136
Fax: (852) 2854 2134
Email: niall@tuf.com.hk
Friday, April 22, 2005
McNish backs Hong Kong's Le Mans project
Le Mans 24 Hours winner Allan McNish has thrown his support behind the Hong Kong team bidding to race in the endurance classic.
SAR driver Matthew Marsh is spearheading an ambitious project that will see a Hong Kong-owned, sponsored and driven car – a Porsche GT3 RSR – take part in the famous race for the first time.
“It’s fantastic news that a Hong Kong racing team is mounting a Le Mans campaign and I wish Matthew and his partners every success,” said Scotsman McNish, one of the victorious three-man driving team the last time Porsche won the race in 1998.
“Winning Le Mans for Porsche is the highlight of my career so far, even including starting my first Formula One Grand Prix. It stands up there with the Indianapolis 500 and Monaco Formula One Grand Prix as the races to have on your CV and it is all the more important if you are driving for a marque like Porsche that has such heritage there.”
McNish, currently racing in touring cars in Europe, has been a regular visitor to the SAR throughout his career. “My first trip to Hong Kong was when I raced in Macau for Teddy Yip’s Theodore Racing in 1989 and it has always been one of my favourite destinations. It still has the same buzz I found back in ’89.”
Further backing for Marsh’s $12 million Le Mans campaign has come from the Hong Kong Automobile Association, the governing body for motorsport in the SAR.
“This is marvellous news,” said HKAA chief executive officer Andrew Windebank. “We welcome this project with open arms and we will do anything we can to ensure its success. It’s also great to see the corporate community getting behind the team. The fact is, sponsorship is not a gift, it’s about business, and this is a great business opportunity.”
Marsh, the reigning Porsche Infineon Carrera Cup Asia champion, has secured backing from two Hong Kong companies – Noble Group and the William E Connor Group – and the Chinese-owned GruppeM Racing team, which is based in the UK.
The Hong Kong team, Noble Group-GruppeM Racing, will take part in four races this year in the Le Mans Endurance Series in Europe – each event is 1,000km and lasts about six hours – followed by a trip to the 12 Hours of Sebring race in Florida next March. Good results in those five outings will be enough to secure an invitation to the Le Mans 24 Hours in June 2006.
The team’s Porsche will feature a distinctive yellow, white and red livery with a large bauhinia on the roof. Marsh expects to announce his two co-drivers within the next few weeks.
Windebank insisted the Hong Kong team would be highly competitive. “The whole project is extremely well structured, the sponsors have the right attitude, the racing team is well known and very experienced and the car itself is excellent for endurance racing,” he said.
“Knowing Matthew and the co-drivers he is aiming to recruit, I believe this is a team that is totally capable of bringing this car home to a class win.”
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Hong Kong Revs Up for Le Mans
A Hong Kong team is poised to make history by flying the bauhinia flag at the world’s greatest sports car race – the Le Mans 24 Hours.
It will be the first time ever that a car owned and sponsored by SAR companies and piloted by Hong Kong drivers has gone wheel to wheel with the world’s best in the famous endurance classic.
The ambitious HK$12 million project is being spearheaded by Hong Kong driver and reigning Porsche Infineon Carrera Cup Asia champion Matthew Marsh.
“It’s all systems go – we have an agreement for the car, we have secured the bulk of the sponsorship and we are in the process of finalising the three-man driving team,” Marsh told the South China Morning Post.
“We intend to prove that Hong Kong can compete on the world stage. It is an enormous challenge, but we have the drive, the ambition and the talent to succeed.”
Marsh’s team, Noble Group-GruppeM Racing, will be driving a Porsche GT3 RSR with a distinctive yellow, white and red livery that features a large bauhinia on the roof.
Marsh expects to announce his two co-drivers within the next few weeks. Those in the frame include Hong Kong racing legend Charles Kwan Siu-cheung, current Formula BMW Asia champion Marchy Lee Ying-kin, Hong Kong-based Porsche driver Darryl O’Young, Chinese racing sensation Tung Ho-pin and Macau driver Andre Couto, who finished second last year in the Japan GT Championship.
Marsh is hopeful former Porsche champion Kwan will put off retirement plans to be involved in the most exciting project in the history of Hong Kong motorsport.
The duo teamed up successfully in a Ferrari for last November’s FIA GT season-ending race at Zhuhai and Marsh is anxious to renew the partnership. “Charles would bring invaluable driving ability and experience to the team,” he said. “I’m hoping the Le Mans campaign will stoke his competitive fires to such a degree that he can’t resist joining us!”
The road to Le Mans will begin with four races this year in the Le Mans Endurance Series in Europe – each event is 1,000km and lasts about six hours – followed by a trip to the 12 Hours of Sebring race in Florida next March. Good results in those five outings will be enough to secure an invitation to the Le Mans 24 Hours in June 2006.
The project has been made possible by the support and enthusiasm of two Hong Kong companies – Noble Group and the William E Connor Group – and the Chinese-owned GruppeM Racing team.
Noble Group, a global commodities firm, has been heavily involved in motorsport since 2001, when it joined forces with the GR Asia team at the Macau Grand Prix. Most famously, the Noble Group-GR Asia Honda touring car driven by Simon Harrison challenged BMW for victory in the Guia race of 2003.
“We are delighted to be a part of the Le Mans project which will make history for Hong Kong and Chinese motorsport," said Noble Group CEO Richard Elman. "It's a logical extension of our continuing involvement at Macau. We look forward to flying the flag for Hong Kong at Le Mans and showing the world that Hong Kong-style initiative, innovation and entrepreneurship can compete with the very best.”
GR Asia owner and Hong Kong shipbroker Tim Huxley, who was instrumental in bringing Marsh’s team together, added: “This is more than just a race, it's a massive adventure which we hope all Hong Kong's sports car enthusiasts will get behind.
“Our priority has been to been to put together the most competitive and professional package possible, and we believe we have achieved that. Over the course of this year, the team will gain the experience and credibility to do the job at Le Mans next June.”
The William E Connor Group, one of the world's largest privately held
trading firms dealing in consumer goods and commodities, is the team patron.
CEO William E “Chip” Connor, in addition to being an avid racer of vintage cars and a participant in this year’s Porsche Infineon Carrera Cup Asia series, was team principal in Barron Connor Racing, which last year fielded two Ferrari 575GTCs in the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Le Mans Endurance Series, finishing second in the GTS class. Connor brings to the team support, experience and the Porsche GT3 RSR which the team will use.
The car will be prepared and run by UK-based GruppeM Racing – one of only two teams worldwide to carry Porsche “factory supported” status and winners of last year’s British GT Championship.
"We are honoured to be so closely involved in this project – it will be good to make a little bit of history," said GruppeM Racing owner Kenny Chen, a Taiwanese-born property developer who has lived in the UK for the past 20 years.
Marsh, a 14-year Hong Kong resident, has endurance racing credentials. He helped drive a BMW Z3 M to finish top of its class, and fifth place overall, in Australia’s Bathurst 24 Hours in 2002 and was part of a three-man team that piloted a BMW M3 to second in its class at Germany’s famous Nurburgring 24 Hours in 2000.
"Le Mans is the ultimate test for a sports car driver," said the 36-year-old Briton. “It will be a dream come true for me personally but, more importantly, it will be a team effort. This project will put Hong Kong motorsport in the global spotlight.”
