Yes, during this busy month we had the IMSA race at Road America, the Porsche “Air Cooled” exhibit and Porsche lawn show and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

It started with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the 4.048 miles, 14 turn track at Road America. The weather was varied as they had rain and sunshine. It was a good weekend for Porsche as they won the GTLM and GTD classes.

The #79 WeatherTech Porsche with Cooper MacNeil and Matt Campbell won the GTLM class, with Matt turning the 2nd fastest lap of 2:02.374 to come within the fastest lap by Nick Tandy in the Corvette at 2:02.281. Interesting that two Porsche drivers, previously and present, both turned in the fastest laps and within hundredths of a second.

The #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche, with Laurens Vanthoor and Zach Robichon, won the GTD class. With heavy rain during Friday evening, before the Saturday morning practice with only 5 laps, they had an electrical issue but qualified fourth. With strategy and fast laps, the team won.

The #16 Wright Motorsports also climbed on the podium in third place with Trent Hindman. Pat Long turned in the fastest lap of Porsches in GTD at 2:08.936. Laurens Vanthoor was the next fastest Porsche at 2:08.950. Don’t blink or you will miss the fastest lap.

Lastly, the #88 Team Hardpoint EBM Porsche with Katherine Legge and Rob Forriol also produced a good result at 8th place out of 15. This was an improvement for them as we saw that they had stepped it up that weekend. Starting in 11th and going to 8th, Rob did a great job during his stint. Katherine held off the competition with clutch issues during her stint. A great effort for this new Porsche customer team.

I then went to the Saratoga Auto Museum located in Saratoga Springs, New York, a short drive from Connecticut. The Museum opened in June of 2002 and not only hosts a showing of cars, but also many car enthusiast events with car clubs and car iconic lawn shows during the year. When I was there they had Porsches.

The Museum is located in the 2500 acre Saratoga Springs Park, in an old Bottling Company building. There was the showing of part of the Steven Harris collection of Porsches called “Rare Air” with 356’s-speedsters, Cabriolet, GT Coupe, Roadster, Rally Car and 911s. Carrera RS, 964 RS/N-GT, 993 GT2 and a special Rally Car, one of twenty. Part of this collection will be at the 39th Historic Festival at Lime Rock Park, September 3-6th.

After this display there will be more Steven Harris Porsches at a show called “RS Rennsports Cars.” If you get a chance this fall, please go up to the Museum and enjoy a day there, as I will be back.

Lastly was the 89th 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s oldest active endurance racing event, located in the beautiful town of Le Mans, France. As comparison to the race track of Road America of 4.048 miles, Le Mans is 8.467 miles in length. Road America has 14 turns where the Le Mans track has 38.

Porsche won in 2015, 2016, and 2017 with the 919 Hybrid and also with the most wins of 19 overall victories including seven consecutive wins from 1981-1987. We watched the #79 WeatherTech Porsche compete in GT-Pro with Copper MacNeil, Laureens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber. They, unfortunately, had bad luck, compared to their win at Road America. During the 11th hour, with Cooper MacNeil driving early Sunday morning at the Ford chicane, he went into the tire barrier nose first, then spun and did more damage to the rear. He was able to drive to the pits for repair, but after accessing the damage and time to repair, it was decided to end its race. The other customer Porsche in GT-PRO, HubAUto Racing, which had started at pole position, was retired with a technical issue shortly after sunrise.

It was the works teams in GTE-Pro of Kevin Estre, Neel Jani and Michael Christensen that achieved a third place on the podium in their #92 Porsche 911 RSR. The sister car, #91 with Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz and Frederic Makowiecki ended up in fourth place. The #91 was fighting for the 3rd place but with about one hour left to the race, the #91 slid off the last chicane, and with rear damage, had to come in for repairs and a replacement of brakes yet still finished in fourth.

Fritz Enzinger, Vice President Motorsport commented, “Unfortunately, we lacked a bit of speed to be able to challenge the competition for class victory. The podium result for our number 92 car is still a nice reward for the passionate work that our employees have done at the racetrack and back at our headquarters in Weissach. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this achievement.”

In GTE-Pro, the #77 car of Dempsey-Proton Racing with drivers Matt Campbell, team owner Christian Ried and Jason Evans finished in 5th. The sister #88 car, which started in pole position, finished 13th while several other Porsche teams had to end their race early.

Looking to see you at a CVR event or car event in the future!