The months leading up to the race were dominated by preparations, for which I was grateful, for left to my own thoughts I surely would have become my own worst enemy. Until last month I had never driven a purpose-built, race-ready Porsche. All my 20 years of experience had landed me in single-seaters or front engine/rear-drive race cars. I also knew it would be physically demanding, so there was a need to accelerate my physical and mental capacities.
Some might ask, why the 5-year break? Well, there are a few reasons and I really don’t mind sharing them although they may surprise some of you.
After a successful mission of making friends and influencing people at our debut race, our friends at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca have invited us back for the most prestigious motorcycle race in the US, Moto GP! So for all those fans that missed our debut race at Laguna Seca, now is the time to come back and join us in our Mobile HQ unit to hear what we’re planning for the rest of the race season.
In addition to our usual showcase of tech, games, and our signature Skirmish 1 jacket, we will also be previewing our ‘”classified” leather jacket that will be realeased this Fall, and new skill set patch for all our fans that ride. Master Pilot Henri Richard will also be revealing his very special Ducati in our Mobile HQ booth as well. And fear not all you die hard fans, Kommandant Roy will be crusing the grounds and showing off 144B all weekend. There may be a few more surprise announcements coming soon, so get your tickets to Moto GP now.
…the highest number of driver changes/pit stops…that is, well, its complicated, but our preliminary 12 Hours of GPNY Race Report goes something like this, at least until we’ve all gotten some sleep and someone at GPNY calls us back. As of right now, they’re sleeping too. Here’s who we deployed:
Polizei Squad #1 – our PRO squad led by Team Captain Rene Villeneuve (Skip Barber) – consisted of Jameson & Andrew Riley (Riley Racing), GPNY trackmeister Tom Morningstar (Garage 419), and Zach Skolnick, yes, the Zach Skolnick.
Polizei Squad #2 – our AM squad led by Roger Garbow (Farnbacher-Loles) and race controller J.F. Musial (Garage 419) – consisted of myself, good friend Nick Steinman (New York Motor Club), Jordan Vega & Josh Vietze (Team Polizei), Jared Silver (InnamorAuto) and our old friend Michael Lindgren, whose epic status in the auto & racing sectors could fill a book in itself.
…and, alas, bandwidth issues on-site made live streaming impossible for our scheduled coverage of Le Mans (via Polizei’s Mystery Racing Theater) ANDThe 12 Hours Of GPNY itself. We apologize, but this is what happens when events are planned on short notice, which comes down to my decision to enter the event only a few days ago. We know – as do all fans of Team Polizei – that there is no substitute for advance planning, testing and redundancy. This anomaly is both a first and a last for us, I can assure you, and we look forward to resuming our normal broadcast schedule of race coverage in a couple of weeks, when Team Polizei deploys at Laguna Seca yet again.
Rene In HyperKool Team Kapitan Mode @ Infineon Testing May 2009. Bad-Ass.
It’s Polizei 144 Racing Team Captain Rene Villeneuve’s Birthday, so the whole staff @ HQ in New York City will be taking him out to much fanfare, thanks and statements of love. Then…it’s off to bed early so he can lead us to victory @ the 12 Hours of GPNY Saturday night.
With love and respect to you, Rene! Happy Birthday, Colonel! (An inside joke…so don’t ask!)
Once again Team Polizei accomplishes the impossible, for we’ve secured a special viewing of Forza 3! Team Polizei will be getting a sneak peek of Forza 3 this Saturday during the AXF 24 (Audi Forza Challenge). We were invited as distinguished guests of honor… ok, we actually just had to register online to get tickets for the AXF 24 race at Audi of New York. Nine of the best Forza 2 gamers were selected to form three teams of three drivers, and they will play Forza 3 in a 24 hour endurance race which will run concurrently with the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Team Polizei will be at Audi of New York around noon to witness this historic event, while we also gaze in awe at the new Audi R8 V10 5.2 FSI and R10 TDI. If lady luck is on our side, our German regalia will let us sneak past the authorities at Audi so we can actually demo Forza 3…or at the very least, allow us cut any lines so we can fill our pockets with the fine hors d’oeuvres that are served. So if you need to take a break from watching the actual 24 Hours of Le Mans, the AXF 24 is going to be the next best race to watch.
Great trilogies are rare, very rare. I can only think 2 trilogies where each subsequent chapter was as good as the first and left fans clamoring for more-Star Wars (episodes IV-VI), and the Lord of the Rings. Too often the 3rd installment of a series falls flat and angry fans deny it even existed, as was the case with T3 and the Godfather 3. But anyone who has seen the previews for Forza 3 knows that we are about to dawn on the age of another great trilogy.
Forza 2 helped us focus and prepare for many epic drives, but the new features in Forza 3 may acutally make us better drivers. The screenshots look disturbingly realistic, and “improved physics and tire flex modeling” has me salivating like a Pavlovian puppy. I have no idea what tire flex modeling is, but it sounds amazing and will probably lead many novice drivers to become very familiar with tire barricades and gravel pits. The October 2009 release date sounds really far away, but Team Polizei is already forming a crack team of operatives who will try to get an advanced testing round of game play. If this game even comes close to the claims, we can all look forward many sleepless nights and empty cans of Red Bull this winter.
