All-American Hero, Andrew Lawley’s ‘New’ Porsche

For the latest in our series of catch-ups around the drivers, car preparers and the cars themselves involved in the Masters Endurance Legends series we switch to a GT driver.

Andrew Lawley is the very proud new owner of a car that this writer remembers well from his early days reporting on world-class endurance racing – it was quite a memory jogger too to see that the car bore a sponsor logo that survives to this day as a backer of #TWISC – The Week in Sportscars podcast – The Justice Brothers!

The car itself was a familiar (and many would say iconic) sight both in the USA and at Le Mans – So Andrew, just exactly what is your new toy?

“It’s the Petersen White Lightning Porsche 996 GT3 RS from 2003. Built by the factory and sold new to the team who were based out of Las Vegas at the time.

“They raced the car with Craig Stanton and Johnny Mowlem (with Nic Jonsson joining for Sebring and car owner Michael Petersen for several other rounds). The car actually gave the team their first GT class win the American Le Mans Series at the Road America 500 plus a second place at Sebring and a podium at Laguna Seca.”

So how have you come to be campaigning this American Le Mans Series race winning car in the Masters Endurance Legends?

“I grew up in a very small family. My father was always into rallying so I grew up surrounded by cars and was was desperate to be a racing driver when I grew up.

“I started off in modern cars, actually. I did some single make stuff in MGs and then the Ferrari Challenge in a 355 Challenge car, which I really enjoyed.

“But it was really a visit to Goodwood with my father for one of his landmark birthdays, and we just really loved the atmosphere of the racing and historic scene so I switched to historic racing shortly after that and bought an Alfa GTA, which I’ve been running for 10 years, really enjoying it and always with the guys in the Masters Series.

“I’ve observed over the last few years a shift of interest in historics towards slightly more modern cars. I think that era of GT racing, and prototype racing in the 2000s is a really exciting category, and that the cars are still quite approachable for most drivers, reasonably analogue in terms of using the car, but also also pretty affordable to run.

“The cars were built for 24 hours. So all of the consumables are massively over engineered for a 40 minute sprint race, which is what the cars do now.

“So for me, it’s been a really nice combination of my love of Le Mans and endurance cars and also the historic racing scene, particularly with the guys from the Masters.

“So I can bring along both cars, I can enjoy the weekend and race something a little bit more modern with slicks and wings, which is close to my heart.”

Tell us a bit about the experience in the driver’s seat.

“It’s incredibly solid. It’s quite approachable, steering extremely connected as all 911s are.

“But then the engine is just utterly feral. So it’s a pure racing engine. And it just revs incredibly quickly through the range and the gear ratios.

“It’s a conventional manual, H-pattern gearbox, beautiful, crisp, and there’s only around 500 revs between the ratios. So you’re go up and down the gears really quickly. So it’s an electrifying experience.”

Is this the time to be looking these cars as even an investment? I know you’ve bought this not as investment but for enjoyment but these cars are never going to get cheaper?

“It’s a foolish guy who predicts predicts valuations for cars.

“I think you should always always do what you love and buy cars for the right reasons. My take on this, I think is that this is a reasonably undervalued category right now, given the provenance of the cars and the fact that they’re manufacturer made, Le Mans spec cars. There’s not many of them and I think they compare quite well to other categories of historic racing right now.

“I think what’s appealing is that the running costs are quite containable. So they run in relatively short races. 40 minute races, some raes as long as an hour and, as I mentioned earlier, because the cars are built for much, much longer distances, there’s so much contingency in them. So the running costs are actually, I’m crossing my fingers here, but are actually quite affordable.”

And parts are still available?

“With Porsche, it’s amazing because they have such a powerful customer service programme, you can still get stuff from Porsche, you can still ring thm up and they can source the bits for you, which is great. And it comes with an owner’s manual with a setup guide it really is all incredibly, incredibly helpful for any owner and particularly for a new owner!”

Quite a contrast to your Alfa GTA!

“Yeah, that’s a bit more ‘home-made’!”

So in terms of what’s involved in terms of the the seasonal running costs, a rebuild once a year?

“It depends on how many events you do. It’s around about 30 hours between freshen-ups. So that’s a lot of running, when you think that a typical weekend might be two to three hours. So you can do a lot of events, between between engine rebuilds, potentially a couple of seasons if you are doing a handful of races each year.

“We bought the car this year. So this is relatively new to us. And we’re just getting on top of getting it set up, learning the car and transitioning back from a pre ’66 touring car into a 2000s GT car. That takes a little bit of recalibrating, but, you know, we’re getting used to the car and with the guys from Race Works Motorsport. They’re doing a great job getting the car set up and making it ready to go. So I can’t wait to get racing in it properly.”

You’re not just here to enjoy the racing, you’re here to enjoy the social aspect of this too?

“Absolutely, and that’s really important. Because if you spend a weekend somewhere after you’ve travelled across Europe, you want to have a pleasant time when you are there.

“The great thing with Masters in particular, it’s a really premium experience. It feels like a high profile event. It attracts some amazing cars, and some really talented drivers.

“So whilst it’s historic, the racing is still really firm and people really, really try hard, but are very respectful. So it’s a beautiful mix and I’m really excited about this GT formula in particular, I grew up enjoying that racing back in the day and to be part of it as it starts to flourish in the historic scene. I think it’s got a really interesting appeal to people like me coming from historics into a more modern car, and maybe too people racing more modern cars coming to the historic scene.

“It’s quite a sweet spot. So yeah, I’m really, really excited about the season to come, the joy of being able to take the car and the team and friends and family over to Europe to somewhere sunny, in the south of France or Italy, to enjoy some racing and some food and drink with friends. It’s really hard to beat. So it’ll be lovely to get back to doing that again after this year!”

The post All-American Hero, Andrew Lawley's 'New' Porsche first appeared on dailysportscar.com.