There has been much chatter on the Internet and on various social media platforms recently as to what would happen to the WEC in 2018. Well, to some extent, the wait is over as the FIA/ACO issued a press release last Friday at the Mexican round of the championship in which they revealed some of what the new look WEC for 2018 will consist of: The President of the Automobile … [Read more...]
The Old Warhorse
This is a story of the incredible career of Porsche 935 009 00030, one of the most amazing race cars ever, or as someone once said, the car of a thousand faces. Also known as the ‘Old Warhorse’, Porsche 935 009 00030 is one of the most storied cars ever to race. It has a long and distinguished history, racing in IMSA and World Championship events from 1979-1987. It has won some … [Read more...]
Rolf Stommelen – a driver for all circumstances
Rolf Stommelen was one of Germany’s leading racing drivers for over a decade and if as the title (above) of his biography implies, he could drive anything anywhere, this was largely true. Although his Formula 1 career with mediocre teams was patchy, in production cars he was reliably top class. But it was with Porsches that Stommelen was at his best, from amateur wins in his … [Read more...]
Early 1980 IMSA GT Championship
By the time that we reached the IMSA Riverside Los Angeles Times Grand Prix in April, the Dick Barbour Racing team’s IMSA GT championship season had been a mixed one. 24 Hour Pepsi Challenge – Daytona (2/3 February) We had started at the Daytona 24 Hours with a new Porsche Kremer K3 935, chassis #000 00009, a Kremer-built K3 from a factory chassis. That car had crashed at … [Read more...]
Conversations with Peter Gregg
Peter Gregg was the IMSA driver every one strived to beat. He started in the early ‘70s with Porsches and had done very well. He won the first championship in 1971, sharing a Porsche with Hurley Haywood in the GTU class (under 2.5-litre). By 1973 he was running the iconic Porsche Carrera RSR and he would win the IMSA title in 1973, 1974 and 1975. By then he was known as ‘Peter … [Read more...]
12 Hours of Sebring 2017: Race Report
Following their second- and sixth-place finishes at Daytona a few weeks back, the Porsche GTLM squad were understandably upbeat about their chances in the 12 Hours of Sebring 2017 race this past weekend. This was not to be, however, as the two works Porsches finished in seventh and eighth places in the second long-distance classic of the 2017 IMSA SportsCar … [Read more...]
12 Hours of Sebring 2017: Pre-Race
The 65th Annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring fuelled by ‘Fresh from Florida’ takes the green flag at 10:40 am (local time) on Saturday, March 18th 2017. The gates opened on Wednesday, March 15, and will remain open 24 hours a day through Saturday. First run in March 1952, 12 Hours of Sebring saw some of the tightest racing over the ensuing 64 years, and this year, the … [Read more...]
12 Hours of Sebring 1986 – Things go better with Coke
The 2.6-litre Porsche 956 which raced in the 1982/1983 seasons in Europe, was not accepted for racing in the USA, and so the 962 was developed by the factory. The sticking point was that the pedal box of the 956 sat just ahead of the front axle centre line, and so Porsche was forced to move the front axle forward by 4¾ in/120mm. The 962 was also not permitted to run twin … [Read more...]
1983 Sebring 12 Hour – David and Goliath
The 1983 Sebring 12 Hour was an epic event. Back then the race was run on the ‘old circuit’ which was over 5.2 miles in length, bumpy, in disrepair, and it was a real battle to even finish a 12- hour event there, being very hard on both driver and equipment. Since about 1971, it had been the domain of Porsche as they had repeatedly won there with cars from the 917 to the … [Read more...]
Peter Seikel – the winning Porsche privateer
The Seikel Motorsport team last raced in the 2007 Le Mans, having participated on no less than eleven occasions in the 24-hour race. The team’s highlight in la Sarthe was in 2001 when they won the GT category, finishing sixth overall. Peter Seikel was born in 1948 in Freigericht, a village located 30km east of Frankfurt. While his father used to race motorbikes, he died when … [Read more...]
