Porsche Rennsport Reunion VI - 919 Evo and 911 RSR

The Porsche 919 Evo makes its attempt on the unofficial Laguna Seca lap record.

The Porsche 919 Tribute Tour has been creating headlines almost everywhere it goes by breaking the unofficial lap records  at famous circuits such as Spa Franchorchamps and the Nurburgring Nordschliefe.  The car they are using for these records is a 919 Evo which is a development of the World Championship winning 919 Hybrid.  With incredible amounts of extra power and extra downforce it is faster than a modern F1 car at many circuits.

So for the Porsche Rennsport Reunion VI, Porsche brought along their 919 Evo and drivers such as Neel Jani, Earl Bamber and Timo Bernhard.  Their target was a time set in 2012 by Marc Gené in a 2003 F1 Ferrari F2003 GA.  It was a time of 1 minute 5.786 seconds.  On Sunday around lunch time the Porsche team appeared to be really trying hard to break that record.  They were in and out of the pits making set up changes and changing tyres but ultimately they failed.   You could see the drivers were really trying and it was fun to watch.  But Laguna Seca is a real challenge with eleven corners packed in its 2.2 miles and doesn't really have any long straights.

They had been building up to it all weekend and on Saturday I had seen over 190mph clocked on the relatively short start finish straight.  However, 2003 F1 cars were fast and thus the Laguna Seca record will be difficult to beat.   Never mind.  It was great to see a few modern cars amongst the hundreds of classic Porsches.

The 919 has just clocked over 190mph on the start finish straight when I moved to Turn Four and  took this photo.

The drivers were really trying and clattered over the kerbs at the Corkscrew on a couple of occasions.

World Endurance Championship winning Porsche 919 Hybrid.

Great to see Mark Webber at Leguna Seca.  He was of course WEC champion with Porsche in 2015.

This pair of 911 RSRs put on an entertaining display of very close fast driving.

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Porsche 911 RSRs at Turn 4