What’s behind the retro-look for Road Atlanta

Kiwi Porsche factory driver Earl Bamber gets to drive some pretty cool machinery.  This weekend he is back competing in the final round of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship 2018 in Braselton, Georgia.  Porsche will field two cars sporting the historic and unique factory livery from 1998, when the manufacturer won the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Back in 1998 at Le Mans, Porsche was up against the might of faster machinery of Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and BMW.

BMW in association with the Williams F1 team had their new BMW V12 M.  Toyota had entered three of their new GT-One cars.  But it was the Porsche 911 GT1 that shone through after the faster cars from Mercedes, BMW and Toyota retired with mechanical difficulties and accident damage.

Porsche then left the 24 Hours of Le Mans grid, not returning again until 2014.

Later that year, an identical Porsche 911 GT1 took pole position in the inaugural Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta with drivers Allan McNish, Yannick Dalmas and Uwe Alzen.  It was the seventh race for the 1998 IMSA GT Championship season, then known as the Professional SportsCar Racing series.  Unfortunately for Porsche it retired out of the race after 235 laps.

Now in 2018 at Road Atlanta,  Porsche have two 911 RSRs’ painted with the distinctive blue and red-orange stripes evoking memories of the 911 GT1.

The race gets underway on Saturday, 13 October, at 11.10 hrs local time.