Rennsport Reunion 7: world’s biggest Porsche meet

Rennsport Reunion 7 is up and running at Laguna Seca Raceway, California – a huge four-day celebration of Porsche motorsport past, present and future held from 28 September to 1 October. With up to 80,000 fans expected to descend on the legendary US circuit, RR7 will be the world’s biggest Porsche gathering, attracting more visitors than many race weekends.

Wandering round the paddock I see everything from a delicate 1950s mid-engined 550 Spyder (the first car Porsche designed specifically for racing) to the brutish turbocharged 917/30 that dominated Can-Am in the 1970s and the 963 Le Mans Hypercar that carries Porsche’s flagship motorsport aspirations to this day.

There’s also everyone from F1 and Le Mans racer Mark Webber to engineering genius Norbert Singer. In the first half hour I spy 1970s and ’80s Le Mans drivers Derek Bell, Gijs van Lennep and David Hobbs and – embarrassingly – chat with Stefan Johansson without initially realising who the former McLaren, Ferrari and, yes, Porsche driver is.

Even away from the star cars and celebrity faces, just simply strolling around the club displays and car parks should keep Porsche fans occupied for hours.

It’s all a long way from the event’s relatively humble if impressive beginnings, when former Porsche 908 and 935 race driver Brian Redman organised the precursor to Rennsport Reunion at Watkins Glen back in 1999. His efforts inspired Porsche to officially back the event from 2001 and it’s returned six times since (at Daytona in 2004 and 2007, then Laguna for subsequent events in 2011, 2015, 2018 and 2023).

A huge part of Rennsport’s appeal is that many of the cars are being used in anger, and this weekend sees more than 200 entries running in seven different groups throughout the day. During the Werks Cup, I watch a 917, 908, 910 and 904 sports prototypes burst over the crest and down into the big stop for Turn 1, then I climb to the top of the circuit to see them cascade down through the legendary Corkscrew sequence. It’s an incredible spectacle.

‘The groups are based on era of car, type of car and performance of car,” explains racer, photographer and Rennsport committee member Jeff Zwart (you might want to Google his Pikes Peak runs later). “The attempt is to have each group be as competitive as possible so that there are not cars that are too slow or too fast for all the other cars in the group. Also we want the cars in the group to look like they would have raced with each other in the day.”

For the first time, the Porsche Deluxe Carrera Cup North America is also running throughout the weekend, holding rounds 13 and 14 of the championship’s total 16. It means there is always action somewhere on track or in the paddock.

To find out more, visit https://www.porscherennsportreunion.com/

Pics: Jordan Butters, Richard Pardon