The top five Porsche motorsport victories of 2015
Porsche has enjoyed another incredibly successful year in the world of motorsport. From victories by the factory team to independent wins, this has been one of Porsche’s best seasons since the heady Group C days of the dominating 956/962s. Here are our five favourite triumphs.
5) East African Safari Classic Rally
The first victory on our list is the most recent. Tuthill Porsche is something of a Safari Rally specialist having won the bi-annual event with the late Björn Waldegârd in 2011 and finished second in 2013.
This year, the team returned to the top step of the podium with rally legend, Stig Blomqvist taking victory in the gruelling nine-day event across Kenya and Tanzania. The Swede and co-driver, Stéphane Prévot finished eight minutes ahead of Tuthill teammates, Richard Göransson and Emil Axelsson.
4) Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
Jeff Zwart is no stranger to success on the fearsome Pikes Peak International Hill Climb course in Colorado however his 2015 triumph in the famous Race to the Clouds is undoubtedly his best yet.
Racing in the Time Attack 1 class, Zwart took his turbocharged 997 GT3 Cup car up the hill in 9m46.24s to decimate his competition and finish a barely believable fourth overall.
3) Six Hours of Nürburgring
Formerly known as the Nürburgring 1000km, one of the most prestigious endurance events in Europe returned to the world championship for the first time since 1991 this year.
Porsche’s factory cars completely dominated with a one-two finish in both the LMP1 and GTE-Pro classes. The victorious no. 17 Porsche 919 Hybrid and no. 92 Porsche 911 RSR would go on to take their respective world titles last weekend in Bahrain.
2) Petit Le Mans
Winning any endurance race is hard. Winning an endurance race in a GT car against a field of prototypes is even harder. But, that’s exactly what Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet did in the no. 911 Porsche North America Racing 911 RSR at Petit Le Mans.
In atrociously wet conditions, the Anglo-French duo had the pace to win outright and, when the race was conclusively red flagged after eight hours, found themselves in the lead. Victory secured all three United SportsCar Championship crowns for Porsche.
1) 24 Hours of Le Mans
Undoubtedly Porsche’s greatest victory of 2015 was Weissach’s historic 17th overall triumph at the 24 Hours of Le Mans courtesy of the no. 19 Porsche 919 Hybrid raced by Earl Bamber, Nico Hülkenberg and Total 911’s very own columnist, Nick Tandy.
After securing the lead around midnight, some blistering night time pace from the trio saw them eventually come home one lap ahead of the sister no. 17 car driven by Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley.
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