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Race stars and race cars celebrate PCGB Christmas party

On Sunday the 3rd of December we celebrated ‘A Porsche Christmas’ with Porsche Club GB at the Warwickshire Events Centre. There was a brilliant turn out of Porsche road and race cars as well as some of the original drivers to drive them.

The display of cars spanned throughout Porsche’s rich history including our Works Rothmans 962, the Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963, 3.0 RSR in iconic Jägermeister livery and a display of various generations of 911 RS cars including the original 2.7 RS.

The special guest talks were hosted by Alan Hyde and featured John Watson, John Fitzpatrick, Richard Atwood and Mike Wilds as well as the next generation of Porsche racers including Gus Burton and Toby Trice. There was also an onstage interview with Dickie Meaden and Henry Pearman discussing the recent 000 Magazine feature of the collection.

John Watson is known by many for his Formula One career however following this he raced successfully in the World Sportscar Championship. Over the course of his career Watson raced the Le Mans 24 Hours seven times, including in 1985 when he drove another of our Works Rothmans cars (962-004). In 1984 he partnered Stefan Bellof to win the 1000km of Fuji in a Works Porsche 956, he also came 2nd in the World Sportscar Championship in 1987 for Jaguar.

John Fitzpatrick has had an extremely successful and versatile racing career from winning the BSCC championship in a Ford Anglia to becoming a team owner and being the only privateer team to run a double entry of Porsche 956s. The JFR team made a clear statement of intent by beating the Works team to win the 1983 Brands Hatch 1000km. JFR also famously ran the Skoal Bandit livery in the 1984 season as maintained on our 956-114.

Richard Attwood is a name synonymous with Porsche racing history. Attwood took Porsche’s first ever outright Le Mans win alongside Hans Hermann. The win came in 1970 in the now iconic red Salzburg livery Porsche 917-23. Arguably this win set Porsche on its path for top-level endurance racing domination, taking 12 overall wins from 18 Le Mans races between 1970 and 1987. It is also lesser known that Attwood took part in a few Group C races during the 1984 season in the Nimrod NRA C2 car from Aston Martin.

Mike Wilds raced in a number of single seater championships including Formula 1. He also raced multiple C2 cars in period as well as competing in the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans with Win Percy and Allan Grice in a Works Nissan R88C. In more recent times Wilds partnered Henry Pearman for a championship win in the 2008 Group C championship with Pinky (962-201).

Dickie Meaden is a legendary motoring journalist and racer. He recently wrote a feature for 000 Magazine featuring his first drive in a Porsche 962 (962-007) and a look into our collection and story behind it.

Our Rothmans Works 962 has a rich and interesting racing history. This car was the last of six factory team cars built to race in the iconic Works Rothmans colours. It was raced by a hugely impressive driver line-up including Derek Bell, Has Stuck, Jochen Mass, Bob Wollek, Vern Schuppan, Klaus Ludwig, Mario, Michael and John Andretti. That’s five Le Mans winners in the period driver roster.

The car made it’s debut for the 1987 season and scored a podium on every race it finished as well as three consecutive pole positions in the season. Unfortunately after securing pole position at the 1987 Le Mans 24 hours the car was forced to retire within 16 laps due to suspected poor fuel causing a burnt piston.

Rebuilt to the new MP1.7-spec 008 returned to Le Mans in 1988 as one of the three Works team entries and repainted in Shell Dunlop colours. This car was the car in which Mario, Michael and John Andretti hoped to become the first family affair to win the race. Had they done so, Mario would have also joined Graham Hill as the only person to have claimed racing’s holy trinity: the F1 world championship, the Indy 500 and Le Mans. In the end, after running as high as second place, sixth was the final result.

All in all it was a great celebration of all things Porsche, there were also plenty of activities to keep the youngsters entertained. It’s brilliant to see the Porsche passion sparked nice and early in the next generation!