blog.CarlRydquist.com

Carl Rydquist in A1GP

2011-12-14T19:49:00.000-08:00

So you can add me as your opponent in the A1GP racing simulator, wearing my trademark white racesuit and a really cool car design flying the Swedish colors and logos from a famous Swedish company. Pretty awesome job! How do you like it?

24 Hours of Barcelona post race report

2011-10-01T19:07:00.000-07:00

Sept 27, 2011: Rydquist takes podium in Spain

The 24 Hours of Barcelona last weekend became Rydquist's best finish to date in a 24 hour race. His 2nd place finish in the Porsche-class and 8th position finish overall, was the result of real determination from Rydquist and his team Steam Racing. Together with team-mates Michael Schratz and Ercan Osman, Carl had to really put the hammer down in the Steam Racing Porsche 997 GT3 Cup 3.6 during the entire race after having dropped back 14 laps during the initial phase of the race to repair a broken shifter.

- We had a material failure that made the shifter break right off in my team-mate's hand, Rydquist explains. - After the team repaired it we just kept our heads down and did a nearly perfect race.

Steam Racing had qualified on 11th place, having focused on a consistent race-setup rather than a qualifying setup.

- Qualifying was a little chaotic, Carl says. - During practice we realized that we wouldn’t be able to keep our tire strategy in the race without changes to the chassis balance, this made our qualifying session into a setup session and we had to do more testing than qualifying. We missed out on top 10 with half a tenth of a second margin. Not that it matters much for a 24 hour race but it’s nicer for everyone in the team to see the real potential.

The race started in wet conditions and Steam Racing quickly showed their goods. At the 2 hour mark, the Steam Racing Porsche had already claimed 8th position.

- Our race was going absolutely great, we were 8^th overall already after two hours and we had just made our second pitstop during a Safety Car run, which gave us another perfect strategy leap, Carl says. - Then suddenly Ercan came on the radio telling us the shifter broke. It was new, but obviously defective, nothing to do but get into the pitbox and fix it. It put us back appr 14 laps, the exact final distance to our main competitors Bestplast and their 997 GT3 Cup 3.8.

With nearly 21 hours left of the race, also many other teams could run into technical problems, so the team pressed on after the 35-minute repair job and focused on their own race.
After the sunset, a new evening drizzle came back over the track and this suited Rydquist, who in those conditions kept the Steam Racing Porsche repeatedly at the top portion of the laptime sheets.

-It wasn’t raining enough to go in for rain tires, and I was pushing so hard that the tire temps still gave pretty good grip on the damp track, Carl says. - I didn’t think much about it driving, I treated the track as more or less as dry with only a bit adjustment on brake points, but when I came in for fuel and driver change I learned that alongside racewinning Schubert Motorsport’s BMW Z4 GT3 I was posting the fastest laps in these conditions, and the team wanted me to do a second stint back toback.

Rydquist, Schratz and Osman climbed from position 44 to 35 to 25 to 20 with the assistance of an efficient pitcrew that did not miss a beat on re-fuelling, tire changes or installation of new Pagid RS brake pads for the second half of the race. During the darkest hour of the night, Rydquist took advantage of the cool ambient temperature and the car ran it's fastest of the weekend as Rydquist was racing onto 16thposition overall.

- I was able to go faster at night and gain a few more positions, Carl explains. - The lower temperature allowed me to run harder on the tires and they would keep their balance for a longer time before having to back off a little. The Catalunya circuit is insanely fun, but very challenging for the car and tires. It requires so many different qualities from the chassis setup in one single lap and if you have atire set that is a bit oversteered at some point you will lose a lot of time, and ever more so if you suffer understeer.

During the sunrise hours on Sunday morning, the Steam Racing team raced back into top 10 and began their calculations to optimize the final refuelling stops and driver changes for the remaining hours. 9^th position was secured quickly thereafter and in the final hours, Steam and Recy (BMW) were trading places at each pitstop for 8th. Eventually, Steam developed a grip having the faster car.

- We were pushing as much as the tires would allow at the end, Carl says. - Everything felt slower but it was the same for everyone, the grip in the track had changed in the morning. I regained 8th approximately 20 laps after our second to last pitstop, then shortly after this I saw the Recy BMW at the side of the track with a big plume of smoke bellowing from it. At that point we had a big gap behind us, andtoo large of a gap up to 7^th to catch that by our own speed so I settled in to a pace a touch easier on the car, to bring it home trouble free.

At noon, the final result was a fact. Rydquist and Steam Racing had claimed a 2nd in class finish and 8th position overall in the 2011 edition of 24 Hours of Barcelona.

- I’m incredibly happy with the team and co-drivers, and having swung back into a top 10 finish despite our shifter mishap, Rydquist says. - The car was prepared well, the team performed perfectly and my team-mates drove fast and confident and didn’t make any mistakes, didn’t draw any stop&go penalties for passing on yellow flags, didn’t have any accidents. It was nice to have a race with just fast and focused driving and teamwork.

- Needless to say, I’m leaving Circuit de Catalunya with absolutely great memories and I am very thankful to Steam Racing for this race. I really look forward to the next one!

More information, photos and updates from this race, Carl Rydquist & Steam Racing on:
www.carlrydquist.com
www.steam-racing.de

24 Hours of Barcelona interview with Dagbladet

2011-10-01T18:35:00.000-07:00

Race workout analysis

2011-09-27T19:14:00.000-07:00

Wore my Garmin Forerunner during the last stint in Barcelona last Sunday, interesting to see the pulse as function of level of "push". I was initially pushing a bit in this stint to catch up on a position after our pitstop, then once I had passed and we had a big gap both forward and behind us, I settled in to maintain our position and made sure the car wouldn't break. Red is pulse, green is speed (quality of the speed signal varies as the GPS reception is somewhat limited wearing it inside the car). Average pulse during these 90 minutes was 129 beats/min.

Newspaper clip

2011-09-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

My hometown newspaper (Goteborgs-Posten, 600.000 subscribers) posted this up before the race:

Here's the link to the article as posted on the 24H website.

Night lap from 24H Barcelona

2011-09-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

Check this video out, this is what a lap at night looks like from the cockpit at 24 Hours of Barcelona (not me driving, the video is provided via 24HSeries video channel).

Rydquist. Porsche. Barcelona.

2011-09-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

For immediate release.

Rydquist. Porsche. Barcelona.

On Sept 24-25 racedriver Carl Rydquist will race on the Spanish Formula 1 track, Circuit de Catalunya, against drivers from all over the world. His team is ranked 6th out of 77 teams ahead of this 24 hour race and without severe mechanical problems or race incidents, the team has a good chance to win the race.

- This is my 4th 24 hour race in the last ten months, Carl says. - I'm racing, as I did at the Nuerburgring in June, for the German team Steam Racing in their Carrera Cup Porsche GT3. The driver lineup consists of very fast and experienced Porsche drivers, Michael Schratz (Germany), Ercan Osman (Greece) and myself. The team crew is great so if we stay out of trouble we'll definitely be in the running for a podium finish.

The greatest difference between the Nuerburgring and Circuit de Catalunya is that the infamous Nuerburgring north loop is a mighty opponent in itself - narrow, uneven surface and with no margins for errors or mechanical problems, something Steam Racing had to experience in 2011 when one of Rydquist's co-drivers got hit and ended up in a guardrail. No injuries sustained but the car didn't make it to the finish.

- Barcelona is the direct opposite, Rydquist explains. - It's a top modern Formula 1 track where everything is about speed and endurance versus the other teams. It will be really fun for a change.

- There's also another dimension that makes this race a bit special to me, Rydquist says. - I will race against driver aces such as Le Mans drivers Tom Coronel and Jan Lammers, these guys I competed against the for first time in 2005, in the Zandvoort 500 which was my first international race. I won that race and I will always remember that sweet feeling. Therefore meeting some of those drivers again will be almost a bit nostalgic!

Live timing from the race will be provided through www.24hoursbarcelona.com and frequent updates and photos directly from the pits will be posted by Carl on www.carlrydquist.com.

Rydquist set for Nürburgring with race winning Porsche team

2011-06-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

For immediate release

Rydquist set for Nürburgring with race winning Porsche team

Los Angeles, June 20, 2011 - On Saturday, race driver Carl Rydquist is set for his 5th start in the ADAC-Zürich 24 Hours of Nürburgring, where he will pilot the #37 Steam Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. Steam Racing are looking strong after recently winning their class in one of the 4 hour Nürburgring pre-races and Carl aims to capitalize on the team's momentum.

- It's a very special feeling to make my 5th race here with a team like Steam Racing, 2005 Zandvoort 500 winner Carl says. They have very impressive statistics at the Nürburgring in general, and at the 24 Hours in specific. My co-drivers, 'Ring regulars Michael Schratz and Johannes Siegler, as well as Daytona veteran Jim Michaelian, are very professional and very well suited for the job.

Added together, this driver line-up has more than 50 24 hour races between then, which is never more important than at the unforgiving Nürburgring.

The team, based out of Porsche Center Solingen, has several top 10 overall finishes to date, and they seem to always be ready to strike when a manufacturer team suffers a less than perfect race. Having retired from only three 24H races in the last 15 years, Steam Racing has one of the highest ratios of reliability at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring.

Also dubbed "The Green Hell", one single lap of the Nürburgring 24H circuit covers 25km (15.8mi) over 170 turns, and sees the fast GT-cars airborne twice per lap. Its bumpy surface in combination with the average speed of over 100mph and top speeds close to 200mph, makes this legendary and brutal track wear out cars and drivers like no other place.

- The manufacturer teams are hard to beat on outright speed as they usually have a little more power, a little more testing hours, a little more budget - and most often at least two cars to push the margins, however Steam Racing has found a great balance of performance vs. reliability that looking back is a proven formula. It doesn't matter how fast your car can do one lap here, Carl explains, if you're not running 'til the chequered flag drops at 4pm on Sunday, you're not in to battle for the win.

Nürburgring is located in the heart of Europe. The 24H race airs on more than 100 TV channels globally. The 2011 edition of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring Nordschleife starts at 4pm Central European Time (7am Pacific Time) on June 25.

More information and live updates from Carl Rydquist, Steam Racing and the race, visit:
www.carlrydquist.com
www.steam-racing.de
www.24h-rennen.de

Set for 24H of Nuerburgring Nordschleife

2011-06-18T21:56:00.000-07:00

2011 marks the 5th time for me to race in the 24 Hours of Nuerburgring Nordschleife. I will race in #37 Steam Racing Porsche 997 GT3 Cup and it's all full throttle ahead now.

The race starts at 4pm / 16.00 European time (GMT+1) = 7am Pacific Time, on Jun 25. If you can't join the crowd of 200.000 spectators to watch it from pits or trackside, there are a few really good online sites to follow the race via live timing, livestream, and you can track our car via GPS tracking around the legendary Nordschleife.

Next week I will post a couple of more links on my website www.carlrydquist.com, as well as frequent race updates starting with Thu-Fri practice and qualifying, as well as between the stints during the actual 24h race.

The start of 24H of Nurburgring 2009

2011-06-09T14:07:00.000-07:00

As a teaser for the upcoming 24H of Nürburgring, here's the TV clip from the start of the 24H in 2009 (when I raced there last time in the Hankook Levin Porsche 911 GT3). This video includes a lot of cool helicopter shots.

City Tire takes 2nd in MotoIQ PTCC visit

2011-06-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

City Tire takes 2nd in MotoIQ PTCC visit

For City Tire, the last weekend’s race at Auto Club Speedway was a whole new experience, entering a full 30-minute wheel-to-wheel race with the City Tire Nissan 350Z shod with Hankook slick tires.

The City Tire 350Z was de-tuned and weight checked, to safely meet the MotoIQ Pacific Tuner Car Challenge “Tuner Over” class rules. For each hp, the car must carry 8 lbs of weight including driver and fluids, at any point during the weekend. In this case, the Nissan 350Z is at 3120 lbs at the end of a race, allowing 390whp. The Road Race Engineering dyno showed 377rwhp which provided a safe margin to pass the post race inspection.

Piloted by pro driver Carl Rydquist, the City Tire 350Z set the pace during all practice sessions during Saturday.

- I used Saturday to dial in the tire pressures and shocks to make sure we had the correct camber settings and tire temperatures with these Hankook DOT slick tires, Carl explains.

- I also did tests with full tank to make sure the gas would last the 30 minute distance and to see that the tire wear was balanced with all that fuel weight.

At the end of Saturday, the City Tire 350Z suffered an exhaust leak, which kept the car on jackstands all the way into the qualifying session.

While the team was working frantically to get new gaskets and bolts onto the 350Z, the other teams rolled out to qualify. Carl got geared up and got into the car hoping for the best.

- The team did a tremendous job to get it together, so I did get a shot, Carl says. - Usually I pick my time during the qualifying session to avoid traffic, but being out in the last minutes of the session I just had to go.

- Unfortunately I caught some traffic from the Tuner Under class at the infield hairpin. I lost a lot of time and qualified 2^nd instead of first but more important was to see that we had the pace.

At the start, Carl’s main competitor during the weekend, Mike Bonanni in the Berk Technology BMW 135i, pulled away fast on the main straight but Carl kept the foot down through the fast steeply banked Turn 1 and passed Mike in the braking zone, using the tremendous stopping power of the Endless brakes. Later in the same lap, Mike passed Carl on the infield but two laps later Carl again used his Endless brakes to out-brake Mike in the same spot. Then Carl headed onto the oval with full force creating a big gap.

- We were a tad heavier than needed for the 8 lbs/hp limit, and Mike’s BMW had a bit better acceleration than us especially on the infield, seemingly from better gearing, Carl says. Luckily the City Tire 350Z has a fantastic Carbonetic differential that gave me the traction needed to get on the power early out of the turns, especially onto the main straight.

Carl followed the team’s strategy to nurse the car rather than building a gap, to make sure the fuel would last and to save the drivetrain. However, mid-race the exhaust leak was coming back with a vengeance.

- When that happened I went from nursing the car to really short-shifting, yet pushing the brakes and chassis to stay ahead, Carl says.

- All I needed was to have some engine power left for the last half lap. The City Tire 350Z showed a very competitive edge through the last few turns so all I had to do was to stay close in front of or behind Mike, then gun it through the last curvy section onto the final straight up to the finish line.

Sadly for the City Tire team and fans, the battle ended prematurely. With two laps to go, the main electrical switch on the City Tire 350Z glitched and left the entire car powerless for a grueling 12 seconds. Carl was just about to pull out and park it on the grass when the power suddenly came back on.

At this point Bonanni had built a 6 second gap and despite a huge effort from Carl, throwing aside all car conserving strategies for two blazing final laps, the City Tire 350Z finished in second place, a mere 0.3 seconds from victory.

John Shin, owner at City Tire was still satisfied:

- We didn’t win this time out but we were very happy with the overall performance. Carl set the fastest lap of the race and this being our very first MotoIQ PTCC race, that says a lot about both him as a driver and the capability of our 350Z, John concludes.

- We want to congratulate Mike and Berk Technology on their win and thank our sponsors Hankook, Carbonetic, AIT Racing, APR and Jordan Innovations for their support. Hopefully for future events we have a bit more time to prepare to the level necessary to stay at the front.

All unmarked photos by David Karey Photography.

For more information:

www.carlrydquist.com
www.hankooktireusa.com

www.redlinetimeattack.com
www.motoiq.com
www.citytireonline.com

CONTACT INFO: John Shin, City Tire 1-888-977-TIRE

Had great battle w Mike/Berk in PTCC, I

2011-05-29T13:41:00.000-07:00

Had great battle w Mike/Berk in PTCC, I kept good control in P1 then our car had a total electrical shutdown but pwr came back and my comeback chase was on! Ended 2nd a couple of car lengths from first. Great race by everyone, great times. Video to be posted soon.

Sat recap

2011-05-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday was busy getting set to run PTCC. We got power and weight checked to be sure the 8lbs/hp limit is met. Then learning how these tires work on the car needed a couple of sessions, as did checking the fuel consumption, as we are going a 30min race distance. We had an exhaust leak happen in last session, that got fixed REALLY last minute to get tires to temp and then do one qualifying lap. Qualified P2 dodging some Tuner Under cars, but we have more speed in the car so at the moment if all holds up we have a shot. Front row still so will be nice at the start. We did however pick up an unnerving turbo noise on left side after qualifying but at this point nothing we can do but to race and keep fingers crossed that the car will hold up. Lineup in 25min!

For all you foodbloggers out there this is my din tonight

2011-05-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

Check out my team's race video!

2011-05-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

Quick update

2011-04-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

No go in the 24H of Nuerburgring this year despite fantastic sponsorship support through a long battle to get a good driver line-up. In short, there weren't enough qualified drivers for the Nurburgring 24H race available to make it possible. We looked at some late stage alternatives but in racing like in most sports, preparation is 95% and the rest is about performing/executing the plan. It makes no sense to scramble or go half-prepared.

Wrap in Dubai!

2011-04-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

Heading back home after a good time in Dubai with really great people over at Central Films. We've been all over the Emirates and definintely got a good sense of what it's like here. Very nice experience.

Now I'm looking forward to see the work AE Performance has been doing when I've been away. Sneak peek:

Spring snapshot

2011-04-10T00:46:00.000-07:00

Currently in the land of sand, or camels if you will.

Some racing updates:
The 24H of Nurburgring is coming up at end of June, but despite great sponsorship support we have some hard work in the next 7-10 days to try to get it all together in time to get a competitive package on the road. If it doesn't look strong enough we have a very short time to come up with good options.

For Redline Time Attack we will try something slightly new this year and we have added a car to the mix, to run as well as the City Tire 350Z (which is still mainly a drift car). We will begin our racing year at Auto Club Speedway end of May to shake everything down, and after that we'll be going for nothing but even more victories to add to last year's incredible score.

I am also working to add some other series races to the schedule towards the end of year.

I will continue to collaborate with City Tire, Hankook, the DRAW Portfolio, AE Performance, Carbonetic, AIT, APR and we also have a brand new business partner in the works - details to come. I definitely like the winter/indoor gocarting during off-season but now I am really looking forward to get onto the track again!

Are you coming to the 24H?

2011-03-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

A new take for the 2011 24H of Nurburgring this summer is that Porsche Carrera World Cup will run there during the same weekend - those races will be spectacular to watch while waiting for the 24H to begin.

If you want to come cheer on and hang with us in the pits, it's not a big deal to do so. All it takes is a flight to Frankfurt, rental car and get a room at any of the number of hotels or break&breakfast places. Or just contact me for a team 24H racepackage.

Enjoy this teaser video with facts about the World Cup, the 24H and the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

Let me share a fun video

2011-03-09T15:21:00.001-08:00

Idol-moment.

2011-02-18T15:29:00.001-08:00

Just off a flight from Paris to my hometown Goteborg, on a bigscreen in the arrival hall I see me driving in a car commercial. Idol-moment.

Some fun driving I did a while back

2011-02-17T11:00:00.000-08:00

Drove for an awesome Danish/Swedish/American crew on this spot as well as a couple of other ones, doubling in wigs and hats for the models who were also a fun and crazy gang to be around. Good times.

24 hours at Daytona Kartbahn, Essen Germany

2011-02-17T10:35:00.000-08:00

This race was a new experience, in the sense I never did a 24H gocart race before. I did however drive long gocart stints in my life, and I did several 24 hour races, but not the 2 together.

Friday night the team met up in Essen, to get a couple of practice sessions in on this track. The track had 2 sections, a tight twisty first half, and a second half with higher speeds and some sweeper turns.

Alex H, Alex G, Ola, Marcus, David and I all shared the time to get within 1 second of eachother. Times where around 1.26-1.27. Also Henrik, our coach/race coordinator was out driving for fun and we thought maybe we should add him to the driver roster.

Sat the morning started with team presentations and qualifying. 23 teams made it to the race. That meant in the race there would be 23 different gocarts to drive with as well. In the drawing we got to start with #21 which felt good, it would give us a long first stint as the changes would start with #1 and then go to #2, #3 etc. In otherwords, it would add 20min to drive before our first gocart change. However... turned out it was a really lousy gocart. The times in qualifying were way off and starting from 17th we dropped to last with times being way off compared to practice. We decided to get rid of a driver change really early, as losing time in pits on a slow gocart stint, hurts less than losing time in pits with a fast gocart.

In the next hours we gradually picked up and reclaimed 17th. With some good gocarts and great double stints from David and Alex H we could catch up to 15th too. Just as the night hours came around we claimed 14th and held it through the night. It was such even laptimes from pos 3 - 15 that it was just insane, and it was tough to pick up positions. The top 2 local teams were in a league of their own, really amazing pace that is best achieved by spending hours and hours on the track, which is what they frequently did.

Marcus and I alternated during the deepest night hours to make for long breaks for the other drivers, we wanted to have fresh drivers in the Sunday sprint towards the finish flag. Between the night stints was the best time to take breaks in the cafeteria, as during the daytime hours so many visitors at the track were smoking like crazy... I think we got 3 years worth of passive smoking during this race, if not more...

Alex and Ola kept racing in the morning keeping our solid 14th but we ended up in a super close battle to keep 14th til the end, when a slow gocart during 1 stint had us drop a 45 second gap to only 0.6 seconds! David and Alex G did an amazing job pushing like nuts in the last hours, to not get passed, and with one hour to go create a gap again to bring home this 14th position.

All in all this was a really great race. We all had to push as hard as possible for the full 24 hours, still we improved in every stint and I wish we had had this amount of training BEFORE the actual race. We learned that we really have to avoid stop&go (we had two), and looking at the laps our last 1/3rd of the race was our most competitive part of the race, would have been great to be in the same "zone" early on. Our gocart swaps and pitstops were right on thanks to Henrik's 24H straight stint as race coordinator.

Great effort by everyone on the team, incredible pre-season practice.

Carl

The course is 3/4 mile (1200m) long, huge!

2011-02-11T16:59:00.000-08:00

Thx Redline!

2011-01-13T11:10:00.000-08:00