Jörg Bergmeister reveals how a haircut led to his first Porsche factory contract.
The episode features an interview with Jörg Bergmeister, a professional racing driver with deep ties to Porsche. Bergmeister describes being born into a motorsport family where his grandfather raced motorcycles and his father competed in hillclimbs with Jägermeister sponsorship. He started karting at age two and received his first racing kart for his communion. Bergmeister explains how he and his brother learned karting techniques directly from Michael Schumacher, who worked at their family's Audi-VW dealership. His career path included Formula König and Formula Opel before switching to Porsche due to his height. A chance conversation at his family friend's hairdressing salon led to his first major sponsorship from Johnson Controls. Bergmeister details his intense rivalry with Timo Bernhardt in the Carrera Cup, which Porsche resolved by forcing them to share a car at Daytona in 2002. He discusses racing extensively in America, preferring tracks with real consequences for mistakes. Bergmeister won the 2003 Daytona 24 Hours overall in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS against prototypes. He describes the famous 2009 Laguna Seca finish where he and Jan Magnussen made continuous contact in the final corner. The conversation covers his brother's serious accident at Fuji in 2012 and how it affected him. Bergmeister explains why his height and weight kept him in GT cars rather than prototypes. He now works as a Porsche test driver, developing GT models and Manthey kits, and discusses the evolution of Porsche performance cars. The interview concludes with Bergmeister's dream drive: a 2017 RSR with a special exhaust system at Suzuka.
