The Rennsport Reunion at the Laguna Seca Raceway in California is a fascinating journey through Porsche’s racing history.
The largest event worldwide with historic Porsche race cars and legendary Porsche race drivers lured over 50,000 spectators to the dune circuit close to Monterey over the weekend.
Eleven Le Mans winners from Porsche were at the track greeting fans from all over the country. The youngest was Earl Bamber at 25 years old, the oldest Hans Herrmann, who won the long distance classic in 1970 and turned 87 on 23 February. The other Le Mans winners in attendance were Richard Attwood (1970), Jacky Ickx (1976, 77, 81, 82), Gijs van Lennep (1976), Hurley Haywood (1977, 83, 94), Jürgen Barth (1977), Derek Bell (1981, 82, 86, 87), Vern Schuppan (1983), Hans-Joachim Stuck (1986, 87) as well as Nick Tandy who won Le Mans this year with Earl Bamber.
The only Porsche racing legend who has attended all five Rennsport Reunions between 2001 and 2015 is Hurley Haywood. “The event has never been as organized as this and we’ve never seen as many beautiful cars as we’re witnessing here this weekend,” says the American, who has won Le Mans three times for Porsche and the Daytona 24-hour classic five times.
Porsche’s LMP pilots Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Neel Jani made their first appearance at a Rennsport Reunion. The demonstration laps with the Porsche 919 Hybrid was the first time that many of the 50,000 plus visitors along the Laguna Seca Raceway witnessed the innovative Le Mans winner in action.
One of the many other highlights of the Rennsport Reunion was the US debut of the new Porsche 911, unveiled by the model range director August Achleitner.
