MOORESVILLE, N.C. — The recent Porsche Rennsport Reunion 7 at California’s WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca was spectacular, as Porsche fans gathered to celebrate their love for cars, music, esports, culture and community.
Yes, it is a single-marque event, but who doesn’t love a Porsche 917 in Gulf Oil livery? There were a handful of them in attendance along with several of the legendary men who raced them.
Porsche Rennsport Reunion is not an annual event. It takes place every three to four years when Porsche officials deem the timing to be right. Rennsport 7 was supposed to have taken place a couple of years ago but was delayed by COVID-19. The gap ended up being five years as Porsche execs opted to celebrate the company’s 75th birthday in conjunction with Rennsport 7. It was well worth the wait.
The cars are definitely the stars at Rennsport. This year’s headliners included 10 Can-Am machines, the behemoth 917-30 Sunoco Can-Am monster that Mark Donohue drove for Roger Penske and Porsche 917s in every configuration, including Gulf Oil-liveried coupes.
There were Porsche 935 Turbos, including A.J. Foyt’s Rolex 24 At Daytona winning Swap Shop Moby Dick longtail version. Finally, there were more 962s than the combined fields of Daytona and Le Mans from the late 1980s.
Porsche does a fantastic job of reaching out to collectors and also brings numerous vehicles from its museum in Stuttgart, Germany.
Another Rennsport tradition is the opportunity for fans to interact with legendary Porsche drivers. Among those making laps, sharing stories and signing autographs this time were Derek Bell, Jacky Ickx and George Follmer.
I’ve been attending races at Laguna Seca since I was a kid and had never known an event to be totally sold out – not in the heyday of CART nor even for MotoGP. However, every single ticket was spoken for during the Saturday portion of Porsche Rennsport Reunion 7.
Congratulations to Barry Toepke, the track’s director of heritage events and public relations, and the staff at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for a job well done.
■ Congrats to Jade Avedisian, of Clovis, Calif., on being the first female driver to secure a national midget series championship. Driving for Keith Kunz Motorsports, Avedisian won five features in 29 series starts en route to the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series title.
She is one of the many fast, young drivers in the Toyota Driver Development Program. Good work Jade!
■ The Toyota Driver Development Program is arguably the best of its kind in the history of racing, and the pipeline continues to crank out gifted drivers. Christopher Bell, Rico Abreu and Kyle Larson are just a few of the those who have come through the Toyota program.
I recently met another large group of promising young Toyota hopefuls. They were competing in the season finale of Toyota’s all-new Gazoo Racing GR Cup North America Championship on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Tyler Gonzalez earned the title and banked $50,000 to cap the series’ inaugural season. Toyota has committed a $1 million purse and prize package for the 2024 edition of the single-make series.
■ Kudos to Graham and Bobby Rahal on the introduction of their newest race team. The Rahals were already competing in IMSA and the NTT IndyCar Series. Now, they are fielding a team in the MotoAmerica SuperSport Championship.
The Rahals, who are exceptionally accomplished at racing and winning on four wheels, have hired 2009 World Superbike champion and five-time AMA titlist Ben Spies to be the team principal for their first foray into two-wheel competition.
Graham Rahal owns two Ducati motorcycle dealerships — Rahal Ducati Indianapolis and Rahal Ducati Cleveland. That explains why Rahal Ducati Moto will campaign a pair of Ducati Panigale V2s with sponsorship from XPEL. Riders will be announced soon.
The first race for the new team will be the famed Daytona 200 on March 7-9 at Daytona Int’l Speedway. Best of luck to Graham, Bobby and Ben.
■ Have you downloaded the SPEED SPORT1 app? It’s FREE – and available now at the App Store.
