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Colin Paton enjoyed a successful weekend in his 1965 2-litre Porsche 911, built and run by Tuthill Porsche, at the recent Spa 6 Hour endurance race.
Driving alongside Ross McEwen and Aaron Scott, and racing at Spa for the very first time, Paton put a lot of preparation into his Belgian weekend; visiting a UK simulator to run a virtual SWB 911 around the Francorchamps circuit, testing brakes and suspension at Silverstone and arriving at Spa early in the week of Europe’s most famous historic endurance race, to clock up as many track miles as possible.
The preparations paid off in an excellent qualifying session. The 911 got quicker and quicker, putting in a 3:07 on its very last lap and giving the drivers ninth in class for the start of the Six Hours. The race went well for the trio, who managed to come home as fourth 911 overall after six hours of racing. Fastest race lap for the number 12 Porsche was a 3:06.5, so well with reach of the qualifying pace. Well done to all of the drivers on their terrific weekend.
It was a sad Spa 6 Hours for Mark and James of EB Motorsport, when their race ended early with an alternator failure. Having qualified the 1965 2-litre 911 with its Tuthill Porsche engine as second fastest Porsche 911 overall, the brothers went on to pass the sole Porsche in front, setting an exceptional race pace with a fastest lap of 3:04.2. It would be the quickest lap of any 911 all weekend. Losing the opportunity to repeat their feat of two years ago as first 911 home was a real disappointment.
EB had a better race with the 1974 911 3.0 RS in Masters Historic Sport Cars. Qualifying first in class, the car secured the class win and claimed maximum championship points at Spa, helped along by a fresh Tuthill engine build. The result took some of the edge off losing the 6-Hour silverware. One more Masters Historic championship round remains, in Estoril, Portugal: the EB team has not yet decided whether or not it will race.
Our race season is far from done. Next event for the Tuthill Porsche 2-litre SWB race cars is the Hungaroring Classic Festival, from September 29 to October 1. David Huxley will be competing in his beautiful Brumos-liveried SWB around this magnificent circuit just outside Budapest. The car showed great pace at Monza earlier this year, so we look forward to a very exciting weekend!
