Porsche 911 2 Litre Cup, Circuit de Catalunya

The Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona played host to the first round of the 2019 Peter Auto season - the “Espiritu de Montjuic” which took place across the 5th - 7th of April, the same weekend as Goodwood’s 77th Members Meeting. Alongside the 5 well established Series, 2019 marks evolution of the Global Endurance Legends from a demonstration into a fully fledged race series and an impressive grid of cars lined up for both races in Barcelona including a Le Mans Winning DBR9, Ferrari 333SP and a rare Bentley Speed 8 (LMP1) which would go on to win race 1 making driver and owner Shaun Lynn only the fourth ever man to win a race in this legend of Le Sarthe. Also enjoying huge acclaim is the new 911 only “2 Litre Cup”. This competitive championship will see as many as 40 identical SWB 911s competing on track at all 6 Peter Auto meetings. (Barcelona, Spa, Dijon, Hungaroring, Monza and Paul Ricard). Tight technical scrutineering should prevent an arms race in development and keep the results all about the driving (So often not the case in Historic Motorsport!). A driver grading system which classifies the “Elite” and “Gentlemen” Drivers is another way of gaining transparency in the results. DK’s Harvey Stanley was in Barcelona competing in the 2 Litre Cup with Richard Cook in Richard’s rare 1964 Dolphin Grey 901. A very promising qualifying session saw the 901 qualify as fourth fastest car and the fastest “non Elite” starter. As Sunday’s race start loomed closer so did the rain clouds and sure enough a heavy rain shower meant the race started wet ensuring a lively few laps. As the 90 minute race settled in Richard found himself in 4th place and on a drying track beginning to reel in the French Carrera Cup driver Xavier Dayrault. At the pit stop and driver change Harvey went out within 2 seconds of the the Frenchman within a couple of laps had navigated his way past him into third place and into 1st in class. However the battle was not over and for the following 40 minutes the two cars were never more than 1.5 seconds apart and regularly swapping places in a mighty battle for the podium. On the very last lap Xavier in the red 911 pulled off a brave move to narrowly clinch a third place finish. 4th place and 2nd in class made for a superb result for Richard and Harvey after their first race start with the Porsche. The championship continues on the 18th of May at the famous Spa Francorchamps in Belgium.

Photography kindly provided by Mathieu Bonnevie