Old Dog, New Tricks

- Johnny Tipler 

 

The 928 never had a particularly long or exalted racing record: a singleton French car placed 22nd overall at Le Mans in 1983 and 20th in ’84, but the model was just not cut out for track action like its 911 sibling – or its four-cylinder 924 GT/R sisters, either.

On the other hand, our man Richard Attwood, who we’ve come to watch racing a 928 in the HSCC’s Road Sports event at Croft, has had an extraordinarily long career in top-line motor sport. He began racing Formula Junior Lolas in 1961, graduated to Formula 2 in 1964, and entered F1 with BRM the same year, as well as driving the works Ford GT40 and Ferrari P330-P3/4s from the mid-’60s onwards. He was a member of the works Porsche team from 1969 to 1971, helming Martini-Salzburg and Gulf-JW-Automotive 917s and 908s. In the midst of top-line successes, his sparkling career culminated in the legendary 1970 Le Mans win alongside Hans Herrmann in the famous red 917/023, and he retired (temporarily) in 1972. In the Croft paddock I notice a neat legacy from his crowded past, a Formula 2 Lola T60 he drove for BRP in the mid-’60s, waiting its turn for another historic race.

Richard has campaigned a 928 once before: at the 1984 Daytona 24 Hours, sharing a Brumos-entered car with ‘Quick’ Vic Elford and a couple of American drivers, placing 15th overall. More recently he’s been instructing punters at the Porsche Experience Centres at Silver stone and Millbrook, where he once mentored me aboard a Cayenne on the off-road course for