Some fantastic competition cars will be on the track on September 27-30 for the Porsche Rennsport Reunion VI, machines that represent a heritage of race-winning power and performance.
And some of them will be, well, tractors. As in plow-the-field-on-the-farm tractors. Porsche tractors, to be sure, but more attuned to the barnyard than the racetrack.
In what is believed to be a first-ever event, Porsche tractor racing will be featured during the motorsports gathering, Rennsport Reunion organizers have announced. Two tractor races are scheduled, one on Saturday, September 29, and one on Sunday, September 30.
Like Lamborghini, Porsche once produced a series of sturdy, stolid tractors, but this looks to be the premiere instance of their being lined up en masse and raced. Porsche tractors were built between 1956 and 1963, with more than 125,000 produced, many of them still used on farms worldwide.
The low-speed exhibition races will feature some of the slowest and most-awkward Porsches ever built, with celebrity drivers perched on the lofty seats wrestling with the broad steering wheels.
And yes, there will be a Le Mans-style start with the drivers sprinting across the track, hopping aboard, figuring out how to start the tractors, and chugging off in a slo-mo blaze of glory. Or something.
The race will be mercifully short, starting on the famed Laguna Seca straightaway, rounding the Andretti hairpin (hopefully) and ending with a checkered flag at Turn 5, well before the tractors would have taken turns tumbling down the corkscrew. The abbreviated course should last plenty long, though, considering the glacial top speeds involved.
But still, some of the highly competitive drivers could make things interesting.
“We are racecar drivers,” said one competitor, who would speak only on a solemn promise of anonymity, “so there is always going to be that competitive spirit to win, whether it’s behind the wheel of a 1,000 horsepower Porsche 917/30 or a Porsche tractor pumping out an impressive 14 horsepower.
“We’ll see who is laughing when I cross the finish line first and go down in the annals of Porsche history as the first-ever tractor race winner!”
The sixth staging of the Rennsport Reunion promises to be a massive gathering of the faithful for four days of racing events, exhibitions, a concours d’elegance, parade laps, celebrities and displays of Porsche’s motorsports heritage.
For tickets and information, visit the event website.