Because the 1998 fifty year anniversary events held at
Laguna Seca and Watkins Glen were such emotional, artistic and financial
successes Porsche wanted to do more, so along with Brian Redman they scheduled
what they called the Porsche Rennsport Reunion. The Reunion was this past
weekend and Porsche Cars North America and Brian Redman put on a spectacular
event at Lime Rock. While not as grand in total number of cars the Lime Rock
Porsche Rennsport Reunion was a wonderful event with lots and lots of wonderful
Porsches. Because it was not held in conjunction with something like Steven
Earl‘s historic weekend it was a much more intimate event. It was more like
Brian’s 50/50 held at the Glen in 1998. There were many 956s and many 962s…
maybe more than at Laguna Seca in 1998, I don’t know. But at least they got
more of them on the track than they did at Laguna Seca. They claimed that they
had 23 of these cars at Lime Rock and that this is the largest gathering ever.
The event actually ran from Wednesday July 25 through Sunday July 29, 2001. Wed started with registration and media rides and interviews and practice by race group. Thursday was more of the same, but with a technical seminar in the evening featuring Alwin Springer (Porsche Motorsport North America), Norbert Singer (Father of most of Porsches race cars after the 917) and Klaus Bischoff (the Porsche Museum Curator and former race mechanic). We didn’t get in until Wednesday evening so we missed all of that early fun and started with Friday‘s activities. Both PCA club racers practiced as well as the historic cars.
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| Brian Redman and Jacky Ickx |
One of my highlights of the weekend, that is aside from just being there, happened Friday after noon when I got to take tow hot laps with Hurley Haywood in the Brumos 917/10. All that I can say is WOW, what a unique driving (riding experience). On that little tight course it felt more like riding on a roller coaster than in a car. After that I also got to ride with Brian Redman in a 996 and at that much reduced pace I could actually get a feel for where the course went. I asked Brian what he thought of the course and he said it was rough and not at all well suited for the 962s and 956s as poor Fred Schwab would later find out.
Roger Penske drove both of the 917/30s that were there, the
factory museum car and the car that Dave Morse had and recently sold to the guy
in Virginia. He said that the car that was Dave’s was a much better car than
the factory car. He was great! He put several laps on both cars and ran right
until we ran out of time at 6:00 PM.
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| Roger Penske |
After the days activities Friday there was a Friday night dinner for all the entrants and honored guests. This was Brian’s dinner and most everyone was there. Large group that was a lot of fun.
There were historic cars from all over. The factory brought
about ten cars from their Museum, Brumos had a bunch of cars there. There were
several other collectors with marvelous collections of cars, and lots of people
with two or more cars.
Dale Miller was there with two of his 909/03s that he has
been putting together for the past couple of years. Dale drove the one that he
built for Rudy Junko and that Rudy raced at Laguna Seca last year. Rudy has
lost interest and sold the car back to Dale. The other car was the one finished
last fall that is in Martini colors and owned by Phil Daigrepont from New
Orleans. Right now there are four of these cars that Dale has Jerry Woods and
Big Ron Gruener building, two done and two still in the works. Both Jerry and
Ron were there for the race, to have fun and support the cars. The cars both
ran great and Phil qualified first for his race group. Both cars looked great
out there, but Dale was a lot more cautious than Phil and not a contender.
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| Phil Daigrepont |
Bruce Canepa and his guys were there with Bruce’s 917/10 and his 935. Bruce ran in the same race with his 935 as Phil with his 908/03. Even though Phil out qualified Bruce, Bruce had the last laugh. Bruce turned up the boost and blew by Phil’s 908 right at the start finish line on the last lap and took the victory. Phil was second and another friend, Henry Payne, placed third with his 907 long tail coupe.
Another friend, Jim Newton, was also there with a bunch of
cars both for club racing and for Roy Walzer for the historic stuff. Roy had a
911R, a 911ST, a 914/6 GT and something else. Newton also had his own car a 2.8
RSR that he drove in the Club racing part of the event.
All of the races were held on Saturday because one of the
initial requirements for the track when it was built is that they not race on
Saturday because of a near-by church.
Saturday night Porsche Cars North America had a small
intimate dinner for all of the Porsche celebrities, guests and the press…
that’s how I got in. There were about eighty people at this dinner and you
almost had to be someone to be there, or at least be with someone to get in.
This was a really nice even and even I was introduced as a celebrity… wow.
There were lots of celebrities including; Paul Newman who
drove a couple of the Brumos cars, Milt Minter, Vic Elford, George Follmer,
Elliott Forbes-Robbinson, Jim Busby, Joe Buzzetta, Rob Dyson, Tony Adamowicz,
Bob Akin, Derek Bell, Bob Garretson, Bruce Levin, David Murry, Brian Redman,
Roger Penske and my favorite Jacky Ickx. Fred Schwab, president of PCNA, and
Leon Mandel, publisher of AutoWeek, were the Co-Grand marshals of the event.
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| Jacky Ickx and Norbert Singer |
Rob Dyson told an interesting story about his car the first air cooled 962 for IMSA racing. They had put it away in 1986 when they quit racing it. They had to take a wall out and lift it out with a fork lift. They cleaned it up and tuned it up for the weekend.
Brumos received the most carnage for the weekend: Fred
Schwab whacked their 962, Paul Newman was in an accident, not of his own fault,
in their 914/6 GT and sustained serious collision damage. Something else blew
up all on Saturday. Bob Snodgrass, President and CEO of Brumos, apologized for
being late to diner Saturday night, but he said he had tried to hang himself in
the trailer, but the rope had broken.
Fred Schwab wasn’t the only PCNA executive in trouble, Rich
Ford, Executive VP of Marketing had the factories road going GT1 off course big
time. He thought that he had gotten away with his indiscretion, but he had
picked up a load of dirt while of course and dumped it right at start finish
for everyone to see. He thought that he had gotten away with it until I told
him I saw that he had had a problem with the GT1. He said that he was glad that
he hadn’t done it where everyone could see. That was when I told him about the
dirt cloud display at start finish.
Sunday was the final event a Concours for the race cars that
had participated in the weekend’s race or exhibition events. I was fortunate
enough to be invited to judge the 935s and my Co-Judges were Norbert Singer and
Judy Boles. We had a great time, and Picked Bruce Canepa’s 935 as our winner,
our second place car was a Joest 935 and our third a Kremer K3.
While I was with Norbert Singer I asked him how long he had
until retirement. He said a little over three years. So I asked if there were
any fun projects coming up and he smiled, got the magic twinkle in his eye and
said yes. He would tell me no more. But I traded that knowledge into what I can
only guess is what Porsches racing future might be. The stillborn car from a
couple of years ago was code named Black Beauty. McNish drove it in September
1999 and said it was good. The rules will change for the WSC class for 2004 and
maybe then we will see some car based on Black Beauty or at least the V10
engine from that car in a car racing again... lets hope!
Another Special moment for me was after the Concours judging
when I went to the Porsche Hospitality Chalet. We had about a half hour between
the judging and Sunday’s lunch and awards banquet. When we walked in Brian
Redman and Jack Ickx were sitting at a table reminiscing, as more and more
people showed up this became the Brain and Jacky show… great entertainment. Had
Brian not been such a great race driver I am sure that he could have made a
living as a stand up comedian, he is great. At first he told Jacky Ickx stories
and they were all funny. He said that when he first started driving with Jacky
that Jacky was twenty and he called him the Brussels Sprout.
They told about racing at Le Mans with Ferrari. Jacky had
qualified the car they shared on the pole. Brian said that Jacky came to him
before the race and asked Brain to start. Brian asked why and Jacky said that
he would race and he know that Brian had preached that a 24 hour race is not a
race it is an event. Brian said that there were 10 prototypes and at the end of
his first stint they were tenth. At 22 hours they were leading the race, but
unfortunately the car broke in the 23rd hour.
Brian told another story about the two of them again with
Ferrari, this time at Nürburgring. The team orders were that if one of the
Ferraris was leading at half way the other team members were not to pass.
Towards the end of the race the same aggressive Italian, who Ickx was afraid he
would race with earlier at Le Mans was attempting to catch and pass Ickx and
Redman. On the others cars last pit stop the three largest crew members pried
his fingers from the steering wheel and pulled him out of the car so that his
co-driver who would follow the team rules could finish the race. Our Duo won
the race and Jacky said that he had never heard the story about their
competitor being forced from the car. The entertainment progressed from racing
stories to Brain reading us from the Stanley Holloway Monoloques. The first he
actually had memorized. All and all a wonderful weekend.
