Porsche 917 In America Spotlight

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THE PORSCHE 917 IN AMERICA Five decades ago, America was home to many of the 917’s greatest successes. Now the cars live on and attract new fans thanks to US restorers, vintage racers, collectors, and museums. words by Jay Gillotti

UPON THE OCCASION of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance featuring the 917, it seems to be a good time to consider the important role America has played in the history of this iconic Porsche racing car over the past 52 years. The 917 won many important American races and championships in period. After its retirement from frontline racing, Americans were instrumental in collecting, preserving, restoring, and demonstrating the 917s through vintage racing events. This legacy is equally important to the 2021 celebration at Pebble Beach.

On track, the 917 had prodigious speed but was famously unstable until a better compromise between low drag and downforce was achieved. Once

Ex-F1 and Indy car mechanic Neil Brown watches over Chris MacAllister and 917 Chassis 016 at Rennsport Reunion VI, Laguna Seca, 2018. This car won the Six Hour race at Watkins Glen in 1970 driven by Pedro Rodriguez and Leo Kinnunen.

Photo by Karl Noakes 80

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the aerodynamic problems were resolved, the 917 brought Porsche its first two overall victories at 24 Hours of Le Mans. The 917 contributed most of the points to two World Sportscar Championships, in 1970 and 1971. The turbocharged Can-Am 917s won championships in 1972 and 1973 while in Europe, 917s won six Interserie championships in a row. Although not well known in the United States, the European interserie was similar to the Can-Am. In total, 917s brought Porsche more than 75 race wins in period.

The North American Can-Am Championship played an early role in the

en, race-winning team to represent the factory on track. The race was an overwhelming victory for Porsche as Pedro Rodriguez and Leo Kinnunen (with help from Brian Redman) won by 45 laps. The other Gulf-Porsche 917, with Siffert and Redman driving, finished second after losing over an hour to rebuild the clutch.

At the 12 Hours of Sebring race, the Gulf team had one of their worst outings, in part due to communication difficulties with Porsche in Germany. With repeated pit stops to change suspension components, the surviving GulfPorsche 917 could only finish fourth.

Later in the season, at Watkins Glen, the

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good friend, Gérard Larrousse, Vic finally notched up a win after nearly two years of trying in the 917. Vic had been plagued with mechanical failures and other bad luck in his 917 races.

Back at Watkins Glen, after Porsche had already clinched their third consecutive World Sportscar championship, the Gulf-Porsche 917s were beset with tire troubles and other mechanical problems. Derek Bell famously had to limp back to the pits with a broken throttle cable during the six-hour race but managed to finish third driving with Richard Attwood. Siffert and Gijs van Lennep finished second, but Alfa

Gerry Sutterfield went on to own five 917s over the years and assisted the Porsche factory with a cosmetic restoration of the ‘Pink Pig’ 917/20 in 1985.”

competition career of the 917. Not long after the first batch of 25 917s were built for homologation, Porsche built two open-cockpit ‘spyder’ 917s. One of these was sent to the United States to compete in the Can-Am. Driven by Jo Siffert with sponsorship from Porsche-Audi, the car became known as the 917 PA. Porsche’s goal was to test the waters in the CanAm, despite the relatively small size of the engine compared to the McLaren and Lola racers with their big-block American V8s. Running with a small team, Siffert raced the car seven times and recorded five top-five finishes.

In January of 1970, a momentous race took place at Daytona. It was the first in Porsche’s collaboration with the John Wyer team (sponsored by the US petroleum giant, Gulf Oil) and also the first for the newly reshaped 917 ‘K’. The new version of the short-tail resolved the evil-handling character of the 917. Outsourcing the official Porsche race entries to John Wyer gave Porsche a prov82

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Gulf team again blitzed the field, finishing first and second in the six-hour race. The endurance-racing 917s were then entered in the Watkins Glen CanAm race the following day and Jo Siffert finished second. As John Wyer said, Jo was “in some danger of winning the race” despite being pushed off the road at one point and having to stop for fuel (the Can-Am regulars carried fuel tanks large enough for the full race distance).

Daytona 1971 was another triumph for Porsche and Wyer’s JW Automotive Engineering. Rodriguez and Jackie Oliver were miles in the lead on Sunday morning when the transmission seized. By rule, the gearbox could not be changed, so the brilliant team of mechanics rebuilt the unit in the pit lane.

The team then stormed back from a three-lap deficit to win the race.

Sebring 1971 was a long-awaited triumph for loyal Porsche man and ardent 917 campaigner, Vic Elford. Driving for the Martini team and paired with his

Romeo won their third race of the season. After the death of Pedro Rodriguez two weeks earlier (driving a Ferrari in an Interserie race), the Gulf team were understandably half-hearted. Still, in six Championship endurance races held in the United States over two years, the 917K accounted for four wins.

The 917 was outlawed for the World Sportscar Championship at the end of 1971, so Porsche turned its attention to the North American market and the unlimited Can-Am Championship. For 1972, Porsche selected Penske Racing to represent the factory and campaign the 917/10. This open-cockpit 917 was Porsche’s first turbocharged car and the first successful attempt at using turbocharging in prototype sports car racing. As with the original 917 in 1969, development of the 917/10 was a challenge. But with help from engineer/ driver Mark Donohue and the Penske team, the car started coming into its own. Donohue was injured in a testing CLASSICS

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Above: JW Automotive/Gulf team rebuilding the gearbox at Daytona, 1971. Photo courtesy of the Porsche Archive. Below right: Gulf-Porsche 917 wins at Daytona in 1970. Photo courtesy of the Porsche Archive. Below left: John Wyer visits with Gerry Sutterfield and 917-016 at Road Atlanta, mid-1980s. Photo courtesy of the Sutterfield Collection. Previous page: Gerry Sutterfield and the “Pink Pig.” Photo by Leonard Turner.

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Above: Restored 917/30 Chassis 003, horizontal cooling fan perched atop the 5.4-liter, twin turbo engine. Photo by Russ Rocknak. Below: Mark Donohue won the 1973 Can-Am Championship in the Penske-entered Porsche 917/30. Photo courtesy of the Porsche Archive.

crash at Road Atlanta, so George Follmer drove for the majority of the 1972 season. Follmer won five races and never finished outside the top five, winning the championship by a wide margin.

Donohue won a single race and Porsche drivers finished in three of the top four spots for drivers’ championship.

For 1973, Porsche developed the ultimate iteration of the 917, the 917/30, with its 5.4-liter turbo capable of approximately 1,200 horsepower depending on boost level. The season started slowly for Donohue, with the first two 84

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Below: George Follmer substituted for the injured Mark Donohue and won the 1972 Can-Am Championship for Penske in the 917/10. “Let George do it!” became the sponsor’s and fans’ slogan after a difficult fifth-place finish for Follmer at Watkins Glen. Photo courtesy of the Porsche Archive.

races won by Rinzler/RC Cola-entered 917/10s driven by Charlie Kemp and George Follmer. Starting with the third race at Watkins Glen, Donohue put on a crushing display. Mark and Team Penske won the final six races in a row, securing Porsche’s second Can-Am Championship. The top four drivers were all in Porsche 917s with Follmer second, Hurley Haywood third, and Charlie Kemp fourth.

However, the Penske car was not done yet. After fuel economy rules rendered the 917 uncompetitive in Can-Am, the CLASSICS

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917 Above: George Follmer visits with his 1972 Can-Am 917/10, Chassis 003, at Rennsport Reunion VI in 2018. 917s always attract the crowds at events like Porsche’s Rennsport which can draw upwards of 50,000 spectators. Photo by Jay Gillotti.

team prepared the car in August of 1975 for a closed-course speed record attempt at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Although not ideally suited to continuous full throttle running, the team’s 917/30 was driven by Mark Donohue to a record speed of 221.12 mph.

In the early to mid-1970s, Porsche found itself with approximately 20 obsolete 917s in inventory. During this period, the finance department encouraged the racing department to clear this ‘stock’ of old cars. Several were retained for Porsche’s growing museum collection. However, several were also made available for sale in the nascent collector market for post-war racing cars. America became one of the leading destinations for 917s. California Porsche dealer, race entrant, and friend of Ferry Porsche, Vasek Polak not only campaigned 917s in the Can-Am, but he also began collecting them along with a huge store of spare parts.

In Florida, Gerry Sutterfield was a Porsche dealer and car collector who took a special interest in ‘plastic’ (fiberglass-bodied) Porsches. By the mid-1970s, buying and selling these cars became a profitable and interesting side business.

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In 1975, Sutterfield acquired two ex-Gulf 917s from Porsche. He kept Chassis 016 for himself and vintage-raced it numerous times over the next 20 years. He resold Chassis 017 (renumbered 004 in period) and that car was soon acquired

by LA Times Publisher Otis Chandler. Sutterfield went on to own five 917s over the years and assisted the Porsche factory with a cosmetic restoration of the ‘Pink Pig’ 917/20 in 1985.

Ohio Porsche dealer Chuck Stoddard became a major vintage Porsche parts supplier and 917 owner. Stoddard acquired 917 Chassis 018 which had been raced primarily in local events in Spain by the Alex Soler-Roig team. Stoddard vintage-raced his 917 enthusiastically and showed it at events like the Porsche Club of America’s Porsche Parade.

In 1978, former Sutterfield employee Kevin Jeannette started his own business named Gunnar Racing. Kevin’s shop has worked on all types of Porsche racing cars, with a special focus on the 917. Gunnar Racing has restored or worked on more than 10 917s. Jeannette has helped to advance the understanding of chassis history on the 917s as well as created molds that allow for accurate

recreation or repair of bodywork. On the west coast, Bruce Canepa’s design, sales, restoration, and vintage racing business has also developed a specialty in working on the 917s, particularly the Can-Am cars.

Starting with the Double 50 celebration at Watkins Glen in 1998, Brian Redman and Porsche Cars North America PR head, Bob Carlson, developed the Rennsport Reunion concept. The 917s have been prominent at every one of these events. Rennsport III in 2007 saw the largest gathering ever of 917s outside of Porsche’s own factory. Seventeen of the cars appeared at Daytona for that meeting. Rennsport has grown into an event of global significance for Porsche and the Porsche community. The 917s remain among the most popular cars at these celebrations of Porsche’s tremendous motorsport history.

Porsche Motorsports North America, based in Carson, CA, has also contributed to the 917 legacy and has the capability to work with the cars as needed. The North America group was entrusted with an especially important 917 from Porsche’s own museum collection. In 2014 they undertook restoration of 917 Chassis 035 (renumbered 015 in period), affectionately known as ‘The Taxi’. This car won the fastest sports car race ever run at Spa in 1971 and was later used to give VIP rides around Porsche’s Weissach test track.

This year’s Pebble Beach celebration will likely be the most significant gathering of 917s during the 52-year anniversary celebrations for the model. Collectors, restoration shops, and museums continue to preserve and showcase the history of the 917 as ‘spotters’ obsessively track appearances of the cars around the world. This writer’s best estimate is that more than 15 Porsche 917s currently reside in the United States and that represents about one third of the cars that remain. The fascinating story of the 917 in America should continue for many decades to come.

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Above: The 917 brought Porsche its first win at Le Mans in 1970 (Porsche Archive).

Below right: Porsche victory poster for Watkins Glen, 1970 (Porsche Archive). Below, three photos: 917 Chassis 004 renumbered 017, restored in Florida by Gunnar Racing for Canepa Motorsport. Photos by Josh Sweeney/SFD.

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