“Of course, Randy, you know that since 1949 there have been more than 28,000 Porsche racing victories….”
As I finished research and interviews for Porsche 60 Years, Porsche’s photo archivist Jens Torner and Director of Archives Dieter Landenberger told me they had a book idea for me: They wanted me to do the history of Porsche racing. Because it was a subject I had been researching and writing about for nearly 20 years, and one that is of huge interest to me, I hesitated barely a second before agreeing. Then Dieter put it in perspective: “Of course, Randy, you know that since 1949 there have been more than 28,000 Porsche racing victories….”
The first round of interviews for this project involved 26 individuals and yielded 56 hours of recorded materials. In Archives, there is a locked room with nearly 100 meters of confidential race and engineering documents and reports. The interview list Dieter and I developed now has 125 additional names on it. Our timing is nearly perfect; while we have missed some significant individuals – Ferry Porsche, Huschke von Hanstein, among them – dozens of others are anxiously telling us stories they have held for years.
