Porsche Rennsport Reunion VI to be held at Laguna Seca this weekend

Championship winning race cars, the engineers who designed them and the men who drove them to victories around the world will be united again at the Weathertech Laguna Seca  Raceway near Monterey, CA this weekend. 

The four day “family reunion” will take place from September 27th to September 30th, the first time for Rennsport Reunion to be held over 4 days.  The fifth edition in 2015 saw nearly 60.000 people coming to Laguna Seca for Rennsport Reunion V.  It’s the world largest gathering of vintage and contemporary race cars, those who have driven and engineered them and fans.  Hosted by the Porsche Club North America, Rennsport Reunion VI will again feature the widest variety of historic racing cars in competition as Porsche celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. 

The 2018 theme “Marque of Champions” focuses on the legends of the Porsche brand and will bring together the world’s largest gathering of Porsche race cars and enthousiasts. 

© Porsche

The list of attendees includes a lot of names and personalities who have shaped Porsche’s rich and long history: Hurley Haywood, the most successful American endurance racer; Brian Redman, co-creator of Porsche Rennsport Reunion and racing driver extraordinaire; Vic Elford, celebrating the 50th anniversary of his legendary 1968 season; Norbert Singer, known as the “father of the Porsche 962 and Jacky Ickx, Monsieur Le Mans and Paris-Dakar winner, will all be attending Rennsport Reunion VI alongside many others.  Overall more than 50 legendary drivers will be at Laguna Seca, making their appearance on track and signing autographs. 

Twelve factory drivers will also be on hand this weekend at the Monterey track; including Patrick Long, Earl Bamber, Timo Bernhard and this year’s Le Mans winners in GTE Pro: Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Michael Christensen. 

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Not only the people will be the stars and heroes of Rennsport, but also the cars.  The 919 Hybrid Evo which already shattered laptime records at Spa-Francorchamps and the Nordschleife will be on site and perform a daily demo drive. In pit row, a special Champions Garage will be on display, showing 11 victorious and legendary Porsche race cars, including the 1960 Porsche 718 RS Spyder which won the first major endurance race for Porsche in 1960 at the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 2008 Porsche RS Spyder which won over three years three manufacturer championships in the ALMS and scored an overall win in the 2008 Sebring 12 Hours, beating the top prototype class for the first time in 14 years.  A third legendary car is the Porsche 911 (953) Carrera 3.2 4x4 Paris-Dakar in which Porsche tackled the desert race for the first time. Porsche scored an outright win at Dakar in 1984, after which the 953 was replaced by the 959 in 1985.

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Porsche doesn’t only brings its cars from the past to Rennsport, but also looks forward to its new challenges in the future. Linking the rich history of Porsche cars to the future of e-mobility, the 356 “N°1” Roadster will be at Laguna Seca alongside the electric concept study “Mission E”.  Other displays include more than 1.300 cars in the Porsche corrals and an exciting collection of 70 significant race cars in the Porsche Heritage tent. 

Overall 350 Porsche race cars will be competing in seven different classes, from the 356 through the mighty 917 to modern 911 GT cars and many, many more.  

Action on the WeatherTech Laguna Seca raceway gets underway on Thursday September 27th at 8 am with the first practice sessions.  Throughout the whole weekend there will be practice sessions for all 7 classes, with their respective races on Saturday afternoon Sunday. The 919 Evo will have daily exhibition laps, as well the 917 and 918, a lot of cars and vendors are to be seen in the paddocks, a 959 gathering on Sunday, Concours on pitlane on Friday … enough action on and off the track for 4 days of Stuttgart finest. 

To keep up with all the news and action from Laguna Seca, download the Porsche Rennsport Reunion VI app on the Apple store or at Google play, with lots of info about RRVI such as schedules, driver and car info’s, etc. Or visit the Club Arnage website and facebook page throughout the weekend.  We’ll try to put up some daily pictures and news updates during the weekend and more pictures in the week following Rennsport Reunion. 

Schedule

Kristof Vermeulen

ELMS: Victory for United Autosports in rain shortened Spa-Francorchamps

With heavy rain & severe weather conditions predicted for race day, it was decided to move the start of the 4 hours of Spa-Francorchamps forward with 1h15’ to 10h45.  Despite the earlier schedule trying to avoid the worst weather, track conditions were very tricky at race start.  The 40-car field started behind the safety car, before being unleashed after 4 laps on a soaked track.  Drivers were very cautious on the wet and slippery track, but that didn’t prevent a lot of incidents bringing out three safety cars before the race was red flagged. 

© ELMS/JEP

Andrea Pizzitola in the #26 G-Drive held on to the lead at the start, but immediately had Nicolas Jamin in the #29 Duqueine Engineering under his rear wing. Jamin kept pushing and got into the lead when he passed Pizzitola at Fagnes a few laps into the race.  Jean-Baptiste Lahaye kept the lead in the LMP3 class early in the race, but eventually had to let Job Van Uitert pass in the #15 RLR MSport after a strong start from fifth position.  In the LMGTE class, Ricardo Pera had a perfect start, overtaking the #88 Porsche of Gianluca Roda and going straight into the lead. 

The first safety car was deployed when Jean-Baptiste Lahaye, under pressure of Matia Drudi in the #11 Eurointernational, lost control of his #17 Ultimate Norma and went into the barriers at the exit of Fagnes.  The safety car came back in after 20 minutes after the #9 AT Racing also was recovered when it stopped on the Kemmel straight.  Most of the teams used the safety car period to bring their cars into the pits and do their first driver changes. 

© Bob Ten Kley

The #26 G-Drive Racing Oreca was back into the lead after the pitstops but Pizzitola now had Gustavo Menezes behind him in the #31 APR-Rebellion who was pushing hard for the lead. Menezes forced Pizzitola to run wide at Stavelot and took the lead of the race. Pizzitola ran wide again the second lap at the same spot when he had to avoid the #12 Eurointernational Ligier who got stranded in the middle of the track.  The #26 G-Drive tumbled down to ninth place, Pizzitola now coming into the pits to hand over the car to Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne. 

© Bob Ten Kley

More incidents occurred when Nic Jonsson in the #83 Krohn Racing Ligier was pipped by Alexey Chulkin in the #5 Nefis BySpeed Factory Ligier in La Source and ran into the back of the LMP3 car. Jonsson made it back to pitlane but was forced to retire while Chulkin received a drive through penalty for causing a collision. 

© Bob Ten Kley

Meanwhile in LMP3, Job Van UItert was still in the lead but now faced Antonin Borga in the #4 Cool Racing Ligier who quickly closed the gap with the #5 RLR M-Sport. After an intense battle which lasted for several laps, the Dutchman ran wide at Fagnes and lost his lead to Borga

© Bob Ten Kley

Filipe Albuquerque took over from Phil Hanson in the #22 United Autosports Ligier and stormed into the lead in the team’s first race on Michelin rubber. Julien Canal followed in second place with the #23 Panis Barthez Competition, another Ligier with the #24 Racing Engineering Oreca close behind in third. Meanwhile G-Drive Racing was not having the race they hoped for.  After dropping down the order, their problems weren’t over yet. While Vergne was fighting for position with Ryan Cullen in the #31 APR Rebellion, Vergne pushed Christian Ried’s Porsche off the track at the brake zone into the Bus stop chicane, sending the Porsche sliding over the grass and straight into Cullen. Race over for both cars. 

© Bob Ten Kley

Minutes later disaster struck again for Algarve Pro Racing when their #25 Ligier got into the grass at the start of the Kemmel straight. At the same time the #7 Ecurie Ecosse went off at Combes. Conditions got worse again with several cars struggling to stay on track, and the third safety car was brought out again to give the marshalls the chance to recover the stranded APR Rebellion. Rain kept falling down and track conditions got even worse, forcing race director Eduardo Freitas to red flag the race after just over two hours of racing.  The cars lined up on the grid, but would never get to race again as weather conditions all but improved and 20 minutes later the race called off. 

© Bob Ten Kley

Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson were leading the race when the red flag was waived and won the 2h20’ of Spa-Francorchamps. Second place was for the #21 Dragonspeed of Henman, Hanley and Lapierre, with the #23 Panis Barthez Competition of Buret, Canal and Stevens in third place on the podium.  A remarkable fourth was the #28 IDEC Sport which came into the pits very early in the race, and fought it’s way up through the field up to fourth place. 

Despite finishing on 12th position (their 2 minute stop & go penalty was converted into a 2 min 30 seconds time penalty), the #26 G-Drive was crowned champions with Roman Rusinov and Andrea Pizzitola winning the drivers title. 

© Bob Ten Kley

A double win for United Autosports this weekend, as John Falb and Scott Andrews finished first in the LMP3 class, ahead of the #15 RLR MSport Ligier of Job Van Uitert, Rob Garofall and John Farano. 360 Racing took hold of the third and final podium spot.

© Bob Ten Kley

Ebimotors scored their first victory in the European Le Mans Series after an almost perfect race up to the red flag. Riccardo Pera, Fabio Babini and Bret Curtis  went to to front of the class in the opening stages of the race, only to hold on to the lead, able to expand it every time when the safety car was called in again.  The #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Duncan Cameron & co finished second, with the #88 Proton Competition Porsche in third.  

Kristof Vermeulen.
Pictures: Bob Ten Kley/Jellybaby.media/ELMS-JEP

Race results

ELMS: Vergne takes pole for G-Drive and closes in on the title

After a thrilling final minute in today’s qualifying session, Jean-Eric Vergne scored championship leaders G-Drive’s first pole position this season. 

© Bob Ten Kley

It seemed like Filipe Albuquerque was about to clinch first spot on the grid tomorrow when he drove a 2.00.912 in the final minute of the session.  Vergne responded however and set a stunning 2.00.735 to take pole position for the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. An incredible lap, 1.7 seconds faster than last season’s pole time.  The second row of the grid will be filled by the #29 Duqueine Engineering of Nelson Panciatici and the #28 IDEC Sport of Paul Loup Chatin. Rounding out the top 5 is the #31 APR - Rebellion Racing Oreca of Gustavo Menezes. 

© Bob Ten Kley

Pole position gives the G-Drive crew an extra point in the championship, increasing their lead over the #24 Racing Engineering Oreca to 35 points. Roman Rusinov & co will be out for the championship tomorrow and their fourth win in a row this season. 

© Bob Ten Kley

Mathieu Lahaye scored the third pole position for Ultimate in the LMP3 class with the #17 Norma M30. With a laptime of 2.13.699, the Frenchman outpaced  Mattia Drudi in the #11 Eurointernational with only 0.065 seconds. Ross Kaiser put the #6 360 Racing Ligier on third position (2.13.874), followed by Colin Noble in the #7 Ecurie Ecosse Ligier.  Championship leaders RLR Msport will start from fifth place. Once again, the LMP3 qualifying session was very close with the first 10 cars within a second.

Porsche continued to dominate the LMGTE class, with all three Porsches taking the top spots in the session. Once again Matteo Cairoli was the fastest man on track, scoring pole position with a laptime of 2.15.654 in the #88 Proton Competition 911 RSR.  Dennis Olsen took second place in 2.16.354, exactly 0.7 seconds behind Cairoli in the #77 sister car.  Riccardo Pera set the #80 Ebimotors Porsche on third place for tomorrow’s race.  Best of the Ferrari’s was Miguel Molina in the JMW F488 GTE, but already over 2 seconds behind the leading Porsche. 

Free Practice 2

Earlier today the G-Drive crewe took the top spot in the second and final free practice session at Francorchamps. With 2 red flags, a full course yellow and a mid-session splash of rain, it was quite an entertaining 90 minutes.

© Bob Ten Kley

Vergne set a quickest time of 2.02.348, followed by Nicolas Jamin in the #29 Duqueine Engineering Oreca in 2.02.348.  Paul Loup Chatin (#28 IDEC Sport) and Gustavo Menezes (#31 APR Rebellion) followed close to make it a top 4 Oreca finish again. Fifth fastest and first Ligier was Hugo De Sadeleer in the #32 United Autosports. James Allen was the biggest victim of the weather conditions wen he went off at the pif-paf and into the barriers with the #40 Graff run G-Drive Oreca 07. 

© Bob Ten Kley

Job Van Uitert was fastest in the championship leading RLR MSport Ligier JSP3, in a time of 2.14.423. Matthieu Lahaye followed close as his #17 Ultimate Norma came up to pace, just 0.066 seconds behind the Dutchman. Monza winner Mattia Drudi set the third fastest time in his #11 Eurointernational Ligier.  Rounding out the top 5 were the #4 Cool Racing and the #2 United Autosports Ligiers. 

© Bob Ten Kley

In LMGTE the Porsche domination continued Dennis Olsen now quickest in the #77 Proton Competition in 2.19.290. Ricardo Pera in the Ebimotors 911 and Giorgio Roda Jr in the second Proton Porsche rounded out the top three. JMW once again was the quickest Ferrari this morning in 2.20.016 set by Alex MacDowall. 

Today's results: 

Free Practice 2

LMP2 Qualifs 

LMP3 Qualifs

LMGTE Qualifs

RACE UPDATE !! 

Due to the weather forecast and for the safety of all, the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps start will be given at 10:45 tomorrow morning.

Kristof Vermeulen

Pictures: Bob Ten Kley