Gallery: Porsche Le Mans legends at SpeedWeek
One of the most significant celebrations we had at Goodwood SpeedWeek presented by Mastercard was the 50th anniversary of Porsche’s first win at Le Mans. Fifty years ago this year, in 1970, the Salzburg-liveried Porsche 917K of Richard ‘Dickie’ Attwood and Hans Herman crossed the line victorious at the 38th Grand Prix de Endurance. It was the first of nineteen victories to come at Le Mans for Porsche, which is a marque now synonymous with the legendary race.
So whatever we did at SpeedWeek, it had to be special. And special it was. Two runs out on track with a selection of Porsche heroes from across its seven decades of history for victory laps celebrating 50 years of wins at the world’s greatest motor race. Joining the original winning 917 were the 936/81, the 1997 winning WSC 95 along with a fleet of 956 and 962 Group C monsters and more.
What’s more, two of the winners we had running at SpeedWeek were piloted in the demonstration by their winning drivers from Le Mans. The WSC 95 was in fact the first winning car for the current most successful driver ever at Le Mans, Tom Kristensen. He was racing at SpeedWeek, too, and obviously couldn’t turn down being reunited with the WSC 95 over 20 years on. Then of course, there’s the 917, with Dickie Attwood himself on hand, in his rightful place behind the wheel. Sadly the 919 Hybrid was on static display only but, you know, you can't have everything at Christmas time.
Now all we need to know is when Porsche will be going for win number 20...
Photography by James Lynch, Nick Dungan and Jayson Fong.
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