Australia. Porsche’s top racers and professional drivers were the standout performers in a treacherous and tricky 2017 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 yesterday.
2007 Porsche Carrera Cup Australia (PCCA) champion David Reynolds and leading Porsche Sport Driving School (PSDS) instructor Luke Youlden took a maiden Bathurst victory; fending off wet weather, driving carnage and an errant kangaroo on their way to an epic victory over seven hours in the making.
Former PSDS pilot and current Porsche Carrera Cup driving coach Warren Luff secured second spot on the Bathurst podium while 2005 PCCA Champion Fabian Coulthard completed the Porsche podium trifecta with third place.
In all, five former PCCA champions raced in the 2017 edition of Australia’s Great Race – Alex Davison (2004), Coulthard (2005), Reynolds (2007), Steven Richards (2014) and Matt Campbell (2016) who finished a strong fifth.
The 2017 – and sixth – Carrera Cup champion also featured in yesterday’s enduro and will be crowned in a fortnight at the 2017 PCCA season finale on the Gold Coast – looking highly likely to be either current PCCA series leader David Wall or Andre Heimgartner who were both prominent in the Supercar event finishing 13th and 9th respectively.
Further evaluation of yesterday’s Supercars grid revealed two current PSDS instructors in Dean Canto and Steve Owen as well as no less than a further six drivers who honed their racing skills in Porsche Carrera Cup Australia – 2016 Bathurst 1000 winner Jonathon Webb, Nick Percat, James Moffat, Dean Fiore, David Russell and Karl Reindler.
In all, a staggering 17 former or current Porsche pilots started yesterday’s Supercars race.
“It’s not until you scan the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 entry list that you see so many of the top flight drivers have some degree of Porsche racing or professional Porsche driving experience,” says Porsche Cars Australia Motorsport Manager, Troy Bundy.
“It’s rewarding when you see former young Carrera Cup champions like David Reynolds and Fabian Coulthard racing successfully at the absolute elite level of Australian motorsport while young guns like last year’s Carrera Cup champion Matt Campbell continue to impress behind the wheel of whatever race car comes their way.”
The eighth and final round of the 2017 PCCA will be held through the concrete lined streets on the picturesque Gold Coast from October 20-22.
