CARPE DIEM RACING
Seize The Day - Racing - 2014
Carpe Diem Racing is proud to present its 2014 drivers!
Carsten Ohlinger
The Boss, making sure the cars are perfectly prepped for the events, making sure everything runs like clockwork at the events, and races his stints with conviction!
Carsten started with VLN in 2012, bringing his own crew and SP6 Porsche Cayman and V3 Renault Clio. A learning year for Carsten and his crew who were able to develop both cars to class winners, with good help from his new found friend and driver ace Einar.
The ambition for 2013 was high, and both cars were very competitive, but more often than not did bad luck snatch the podium finishes.
Carsten did not get to drive many races as he devoted his time to lead the team and refine the strategies.
His ambition for 2014 is clear, drive all the VLNs and finish top 5 in the Astra Cup at the end of the year!
His Facebook page is regularly updated, so you can go there for his latest news.
Meyrick Cox
Meyrick is a highly-experienced amateur endurance racer with nearly 30 years racing experience and 40 24hr races under his belt. He has raced in single-seaters, saloon cars and off-road series and was a member of the only amateur driver team to win the same 24hr race three years in succession. He has experience in countries including Africa, Bahrain, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, USA, Spain, and, of course his home country, Great Britain.
He has raced at the Nürburgring for nearly 25 years including 19 Ring 24-hour races; and being British has an unnatural liking for racing in the rain; especially in the dark. Meyrick is based in London, although very much regards the Nürburgring as his second home, having first driven here in public lapping in 1981.
He has driven VLN/N24hr in V3, V5, SP3, SP5, SP6, SP7. He started in a Suzuki Swift, having bought the N24hr drive in the pit lane for about Dm 2,500 (yes, Deutschmarks, it was that long ago! ). At the other end of the spectrum was a 996 Cup with a group of Porsche factory employees. Other cars in N24 include Honda Civic Type R (which met an untimely end in the 24hr in Wipperman, having been tagged by another car, it rolled 5 times: the driver, which wasn’t him was OK, but it was a DNF that year), Clio Cup, M3 E46 GTR, plain M3 (Lots of different ones), Honda Accord Type R (in the uber-foggy year where he was running in the top 10 lap times between 2-3am and overtook a top-20 Gallardo who then followed him for two laps before giving in. The driver that took over from him then crashed massively in miss-hit-miss and that was that). He drove Carsten's SP6 Porsche Cayman in N24hr 2013 as well as VLN.
Best finish in N24hr was 11th overall. Worst finish was in 2003 with Chris Harris from Autocar, where they were the last classified finisher in the Clio. There is a whole article in Autocar about an epic battle simply to qualify as a finisher after one of the drivers had a big accident in Pflanzgarten.
He has lots of class wins in VLN, mostly in the SP3 Clio Cup from 2001-3.
Remarkably, he won the Snetterton 2CV 24-hour three years in a row (2010-12) with the same driver line-up; a feat that no other amateur team has matched in any 24hr race globally!
His Facebook page is NOT regularly updated, so you can better stay here for his latest news.
Einar Thorsen
Einar is the team's IT wizard, runs this web site, and tries to make sense of all data logging and video analysis used for driver coaching.
He started racing in 2006, with a brand new race license his first ever race was at VLN in a V4 Mercedes. Since then he has mostly raced on his favourite track, the Nurburgring Nordschleife, as a freelancer in V2, V3, V4, V5, V6, SP6, SP8, SP10, on Mercedes, BMW, Aston Martin, Porsche, and Renault. He has participated in the Nurburgring 24H since 2007. He has been on the class winner podium from time to time and won the Dutch Dacia Logan Endurance Championship back in 2008.
In 2009 he raced with Meyrick at the N24H and they have raced together on and off since then.
In 2012 he raced with Carsten for the first time and immediately won the SP6 class in Carsten's Porsche Cayman. That led to a full season with Carsten's RPR Racing team in 2013.
His Facebook page is regularly updated, so you can go there for his latest news.
