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VANTHOOR: Looking Ahead to 2019

Laurens Vanthoor files his final Sportscar365 column of the year…

Photo: Porsche

If you didn’t see the news, I will be back in America for the 2019 IMSA season! And I’m back with my bro Earl! I’ll also be doing the 24 Hours of Nürburgring and third driver at Le Mans again. That’s exactly what I wanted to do.

The only thing I’m disappointed about is missing Bathurst. There’s a clash with the Intercontinental GT Challenge and so I can’t do the full championship and Porsche wants a lineup that can do the full season.

It’s going to be an exciting year. It’ll be a bit fewer races than I did last year, which maybe isn’t a bad thing since my wife is expecting our first child any day.

My big goal for 2019 is the Rolex 24 At Daytona. That’s high on my wish list to win. I hope I can achieve that as well as a WeatherTech GTLM Championship.

Last year we were in a position to win it with our No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR. We had the tools, but for different reasons we didn’t do it. So, in the 2019 season, we have to make up for that.

All the factory drivers recently had their fitness checks at Porsche. I am one of the few that look forward to it. We also had some other end of the year things while we were all in Stuttgart: meetings and planning for next year with our new boss Fritz Enzinger.

Now I’m basically two weeks at home. I warned my wife she will be sick of me while we’re waiting for our baby girl to arrive.

She’s due the 31st of December, but I’m praying she comes early because I’m home for awhile and it’d be nice to spend as much time with her as possible.

My wife wants the baby to come soon too; she’s pretty fed up with being pregnant. I’ve been giving her lots of tea and she’s been taking a lot of warm baths to try and entice the baby out.

So I’ll be a dad any day now. I’m kind of nervous. I don’t know what to expect.

I’ve thrown myself pretty hard into training these days. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t buy a new bike (or two) already. That’s what happens in the offseason; you get bored and lose money.

I would like to train more, but the weather is pretty bad in Germany. The roads are wet. It can be a bit depressing.

In my next life I wouldn’t mind living in LA or Florida or the south of France to have good weather all year round. I guess it might be too late for a move now with a baby coming!

So yeah, not much going on this time of year, just being a boring husband at home I guess.

Laurens Vanthoor (@VanthoorLaurens) is the 2019 IMSA GT Le Mans champion and former FIA GT World Cup champion driving for Porsche GT Team in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

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