Former Autofarm front man, Josh Sadler, has made a dream come true by flying his former Porsche factory 911 development car and now 1970 Porsche 911 ST to California for this weekend’s Rennsport Reunion V at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey.
A passionate racer for decades, Sadler was uncertain whether his entry would be successful, but didn’t hang around to book his transport when the thumbs up came through. Our headline photo shows the car in transit through Heathrow en route to California, where the 911 has since been unloaded and issued with a temporary Californian registration (below at Half Moon Bay).
Rennsport Reunion: an Iconic Event
“This event is iconic in the Porsche world and I simply had to do it before I got too old,” said Josh. “I was fortunate to gain an entry and thought I’ll crate up the car and do it! I ‘ve never been to Laguna Seca and don’t have an Xbox to practice on. I’m sure we’ll work out which way it goes and have a bit of fun.”
I’ve done a track day at Laguna Seca in an early Porsche 911 and I can testify that indeed it is a bit of fun: the circuit is incredible. All 911s are somewhat similar on track and Laguna is not super complicated, so Sadler’s car will deliver plenty of racing excitment when it heads on track this Saturday. Hopefully it will survive unscathed, but I do believe Josh will give it the beans.
Autofarm Porsche 911 ST
First registered in Stuttgart in July 1969 as a 2.2-litre 911S, the car was run by Porsche for two years until 1971, when it was sold to employee, Gebhard Ruf, with a 2.2T engine fitted. It was punted around Germany for a number of years, until it came to the UK in 1977, owned by Mr Paul Flanagan.
Two years later, Josh bought the car in damaged condition (69 S with a T engine in 1979: don’t ask the price unless you’re already depressed), sold the T engine and stored what was left for almost twenty years. Known for his detailed records of 911 Carrera RS heritage, it didn’t take Sadler too long to realise the significance of the car’s early years. By then, 911 values were rising so the car was rebuilt as an FIA-papered 2.3-litre ST.
I’ve seen the car up close a number of times and it is every bit as crisp as one would expect from a student of Porsche history and someone who has sold RS Carreras in volume. As ever with Josh, the car is for sale at the right price but, in the meantime, it’s great to see it being used as intended.
Just had this photo (below) from Jeff Gamroth at Rothsport Racing in Sherwood, Oregon. Jeff is the US distributor for EB Motorsport Porsche parts and the pic shows a package of EB Porsche body panels arriving at the Rothsport workshop in time for trailering to Rennsport Reunion V, which takes place next weekend at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California.
Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway bills Rennsport Reunion V as “the world’s greatest gathering of Porsche race cars and the drivers who drove them to victory. Hosted by Porsche Cars North America, Rennsport assembles the widest variety of Porsche’s historic racing models from the nimble 550 Spyder of the mid-’50s through the mighty 917 and 956/962 of the ’70s and ’80s to the highly successful RS Spyder of the last decade. There are seven groups in which to enjoy the racing action as they navigate the technically demanding 2.238-mile road course and The Corkscrew.”
The previous Rennsport Reunion was held at Laguna in 2011, to coincide with the launch of the 911. I enjoyed the plentiful supply of great cars and catching up with Porsche friends from all across the USA, but the erstwhile presence of Porsche Cars North America’s marketing department and a few heavy-handed security guards was perhaps more pronounced than necessary, and there wasn’t much actual racing across the three days.
Consequently, I’m not feeling urgently in need of returning for this one, but Jeff will be there, ably assisted by EB Motorsport boss, Mark Bates, fresh from his top twelve finish in the team’s ’65 911 SWB at this weekend’s Spa 6 Hours. Make sure to say hello to Yorkshire’s finest Porsche pilot if you’re at Laguna: no doubt he’d love to say hello to classic Porsche fans from that side of the pond. 911 owner and race artist Nicolas Hunziker will also be at the festival: big boss Heather has organised a ton of merchandise to bring to Rennsport, so say hello to those guys also.
Rennsport Reunion V 2015 Schedule
Trucks will start arriving for Rennsport Reunion weekend on Thursday morning, but the event kicks off properly on Friday, with cars on track from 8am to noon as the seven race groups get their first practice sessions in. There’s a lunchbreak for track workers and plenty of VIP demo laps before practice starts again from 13:20-17:20.
Saturday starts with qualifying for all groups from 08:00-11:50. Everything on track is worth watching, but the groups most fans will aim for is Group 2 (the Gmünd Cup) for Spyders and 4-cam 904s, Group 4 (the Weissach Cup) for 906, 908 and 917 and Group 6 (the Stuttgart Cup) for 956, 962, GT1 and the hot works 911 racecars.
The first three races take place after lunch on Saturday, with Group 2 on track from 13:05. That’s followed by the classic 911s and then the first race for the GT3 Cup Challenge. Racing wraps up at 15:10, so there’s less than two hours of racing on Saturday. The day ends with a pit lane concours that goes on for two hours. This is longer than the racing, so make of that what you will.
On Sunday, the first of two races starts at 10:45 and the second is finished by 12:15. Lunch break follows, with the first afternoon race for the Weissach Cup group at 14:00-14:30. Then comes the Group 5 race from 14:45-15:15 and finally the Stuttgart Cup event from 16.05-16:35. When that final flag drops, the event is over, so it’s a long way to go for just four and a half hours of racing.
Everyone will have a great weekend and I’ll likely regret my decision not to attend this Rennsport Reunion, but such is life. Too much going on here with the builders on site and lot of work stuff happening. I note that I’m not alone in my decision, with R Gruppe friends living much closer than me also deciding not to attend. I’m heading out to Cali next spring, so I’ll catch up with all the post-event news at whatever EASY meet coincides with my visit!
I hadn’t planned on two weeks of radio silence following Porsche’s win at Le Mans, but such was the time absorbed by Le Mans and my schedule at this time of year. Having helped eldest offspring through some important exams, restarted a garage & office building project and completed a surge of Porsche insurance valuations, two weeks had passed in the blink of an eye. Suddenly it was time to go to Belgium for the legendary Ypres Rally: round two of the Delecour/Dumas rally Porsche battle.
Round one was the Monte Carlo Rally last January. There’s no love lost between these French drivers, so bundles of needle was brought to the Alps. Dumas’ advantage with the lighter, more powerful 4-litre 997 GT3 RS over Delecour’s 3.8-litre GT3 Cup was negated on the cold icy roads of the mountains around Monaco, and it almost came down to who took more risks.
At the end of three days, Delecour emerged as the winner, but not on great terms with his rivals. Despite more than five months to go round two, there was absolutely no way that things would calm down in the interim. So it was that Team Tuthill arrived in Ypres last Monday, with a dry weather forecast and an opponent keen to redress the balance.
Imagine the tension before the rally got started, and you’ll still be nowhere near how knife-edge it was over two days of racing. Delecour is mercurial: completely electric to be around. A proven rally winner, but always in the background lies that legendary temper. Dumas is also an exceptional talent: a world-class endurance racer with pitch-perfect poise in a rally car.
These guys are at the very peak of driving ability, so watching them literally go to war in two 911s across a rally stage is incredibly powerful. FIA rally radio revelled in each driver’s desperation to know the times at the end of a stage.
In qualifying, Dumas went quickest. This gave him a nice early slot in the running, out of harm’s way amongst the ERC front runners. But as the rally got started, it was clear that running up front was a double-edged sword. Dust and gravel strewn across the roads was not being cleared quickly enough for the wide 911s.
Running straight on at a junction on stage three wiped out Romain’s early advantage and handed the lead back to François. Dumas was apoplectic on radio at the end of the stage: not the sort of talk your mother wants to hear. Delecour set a quicker time on stage four, but after that it proved impossible to stay the four-litre. Delecour dropped back down to second, and Dumas claimed the overnight lead.
With four R-GT cars entered in Belgium, Ypres was the strongest round yet for the fledgling GT rally car series. Former Ypres Rally winners, Patrick Snijers and Marc Duez, had also entered R-GT Porsches. Snijers had not been able to test his car ahead of the event, so made a slow start, but his skills soon freed up more speed.
Day two was ten stages: one hundred and seventy kilometres of rallying. The pace was absolutely flat out: none could have made those cars go any faster. On the first stage, Dumas went straight on at a junction: advantage Delecour. Until the stage end, where we found out that François had done precisely the same. The stage times were identical.
Delecour then had another small off, and Dumas stretched his lead. Then disaster for Delecour: the Porsche cut out mid-stage and could not be restarted. Eight minutes passed before Delecour and co-driver Dominique Savignoni used the proper reset sequence to get the car going and finish the stage.
Delecour in Tuthill Porsche R-GT
Victory was now out of the question, but all was not lost in the championship. The FIA R-GT Cup has the same points structure as all FIA series’ including Formula 1, so there was still plenty to fight for. R-GT leader Delecour had to keep going. Francois returned with his war colours on, chasing Marc Duez for third position. Snijers was more than three minutes ahead, but Duez could be caught with some luck.
Then, as so often happens in motorsport, the wrecking ball swung away from the chaser and back to the leader. On the penultimate stage, Dumas’ Porsche overshot a junction and went head-on into a wall of hay bales, causing immediate retirement (video below). All Delecour now had to do was finish to earn fifteen points towards his championship lead. In the end, there was no stopping François, who powered past Duez to second.
“Hats off to Romain Dumas for a lion’s drive this weekend,” said Tuthill team boss, Richard Tuthill. “We would rather have won head-to-head, but survival is all part of rallying. Second place is a good result for the R-GT championship. Our cars have taken wins in both Ypres historic rallies, so we leave here satisfied.
“Now we look towards round three: WRC Rallye Deutschland. Tuthill Porsche brought the first R-GT car to this rally last year, and we’re delighted to see R-GT growing, with four cars fighting in Ypres. This series has just started and the energy this weekend has been incredible.”
While much of the Porsche glitterati rested on its laurels in Goodwood, polishing museum exhibits and reminiscing past winners, the diehards were racing. Dumas, Delecour and the Tuthill Porsche team were flat out in Belgium. Tandy, Bergmeister and co were on the US campaign trail, and the Falken Porsche RSR claimed another Porsche win in a series it departs this year.
Winterkorn’s Volkswagen may build, sell and discount all the new Porsche luxury it can produce, but the root of this Porsche cult is in competition. That will never be lost while the real racers stick with it. Ferdinand Piëch personnifies this connection, just as his uncle did, as do Delecour, Dumas, Tandy, Enzinger and so many more. Kudos to the motorsport brethren: you are the heartbeat.
Here’s some Delecour in-car video: watch the eyes.
Following an incredible day of absolutely flat-out racing at the historic Le Mans circuit, Porsche claimed an emphatic win in the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours. Perhaps most incredible of all was that the winning drivers were the three LMP1 rookies: Nico Hülkenberg, Nick Tandy and New Zealand’s Earl Bamber.
Hülkenberg was the man who took the chequered flag for Porsche. As rain descended upon the Circuit de la Sarthe for the final fifteen minutes of racing, hearts were held in mouths as we waited to see if the rain would increase sufficiently to require pitstops for rain tyres.
In the end, the most extreme precipitation came only from the eyes of works drivers, Porsche Racing team personnel and Dr. Wolfgang Porsche himself, who had joined Porsche CEO, Matthias Müller, in the 919 garage. Rounding Arnage with less than a minute remaining, Porsche number 19 slowed to a crawl to prevent another lap at racing speed in the mist, crossing the line in first place after 24 hours and 24 seconds of racing.
The emotions hit home as 919 LMP1 Hybrid number 19 rolled underneath the chequered flag to claim Porsche’s 17th overall win at Le Mans: Hülkenberg breaking into tears of joy over the radio in a moment that obviously resonated deeply for the F1 driver who had stuck his reputation on the line this weekend.
“I am speechless right now to be honest,” said Hülkenberg. “To come here on my first attempt and end up on the top step: I am super super happy and also very happy for Porsche. We are incredibly proud that Porsche is back at Le Mans. We couldn’t expect to come here on our first time and win this: the car was reliable, we made no mistakes and that is what got us the top prize this weekend.”
“I couldn’t think of two guys I would rather share this car with,” said a tearful Nick Tandy in the winners’ arena. “We’ve run here not just for 24 hours but we’ve done the test here, two weeks ago we did the complete practice; we haven’t put a mark on this car, all the guys have not made a single mistake.
“We’re stood here talking to you guys (Eurosport) because we’ve just won the biggest race in the world. I could retire from racing tomorrow and I could look back on today and I’m sure I’d be happy for the rest of my life: I can keep this video for all my family forever. Many people don’t get a chance to race in this event, let alone get a chance to come here and win. I’m very, very happy.” Tandy’s expression started wobbling here and I was starting to go also. What huge emotion and what a mega drive.
Earl Bamber, Nico Hulkenberg and Nick Tandy took their victory exactly 45 years to the day after Porsche’s first win at La Sarthe. This was a 1-2 for Weissach, as Bernhard, Hartley and Webber took second place in the number 17 919. Further behind the LMP1 cars, Patrick Dempsey, Patrick Long and Marco Seefried took second place on the podium in GTE-Am: an extraordinary achievement for the team.
“It’s hard to put into words what this means,” said Pat Dempsey, also welling up before getting on the podium. “What the effort was and the support we got from everybody to make it possible to be here. The team did a great job in all the pitstops, and Patrick and Marco drove beautifully through the whole race and into the night when it was really tough.
“Patrick’s been pushing me and coaching me all year and putting me in every kind of crazy car I could get into. It makes a big difference to be here and now, to be up there (eyes podium) is definitely a dream come true. This is what we were focusing on all year.”
This is all just sinking in at the minute: no doubt more details will emerge when the drivers get a chance to tell their stories. Can’t wait to hear from our heroes but until then, well done to the entire Porsche Racing team! This is a dream come true for us all. Here’s a Porsche video from the start of the race: who would have thought that the rookies could do it?!
Twelve hours into the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours, Porsche holds the overall lead thanks to Nico Hülkenberg, Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy. Good job too, as the Porsche team had begun to look ragged following a fire and retirement for the 92 911 RSR, retirement of the 88 911 and a stop-and-go penalty for the leading 919.
As night fell at Le Mans, Hülkenberg was first to hit the front with stunning lap after stunning lap. Tandy retook the lead after his pit stop and stuck seconds per lap on Audi’s, Andre Lotterer. The cooler temperatures of the evening seemed to suit the number 19 car, as Tandy began to set laptimes within a tenth of a second of his qualifying pace, in marked contrast to the car’s early pace.
Number 19 had started third on the grid but, as the race found its feet, the car was passed by not one but two Audis, much to the delight of the Audi team. Keeping in touch with the pack, the team eventually modified 19’s strategy to fit with a series of safety cars. At the nine-hour stage, the LMP rookies in number 19 were fourth overall.
Big Red, the number 17 919 LMP1 of Bernhard/Hartley/Webber ran out front from the start, but eventually picked up a one-minute stop/go penalty for passing under yellows. The other 919 had a rather disastrous first half of the race due to a problem with braking: Romain Dumas getting quite agitated with his engineers over team radio.
The call came for Romain to brake later in corners to heat up the front brakes after he went straight on through a run-off section at the end of the front straight. As the braking seemed to get progressively less effective, Dumas eventually flew off the track, clouting a wall at Mulsanne. The car was pushed back out on track, only to run off the track at Arnage later on, needing recovery by a hydraulic loader.
At time of writing, it is Porsche-Audi-Audi-Porsche-Audi-Porsche. Fastest race lap so far is a 3:17.647 from the number 9 Audi. Fastest Porsche time is a 3:18.674 from the Tandy 919, so one second slower than the Audi. There is still a long way to go and these cars are racing flat out, putting huge stress on the mechanicals. It’s hard to believe that the Audis can be beaten, but stranger things have happened. No doubt this is already a classic Le Mans.
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