Photo : D.R - Archives ACO

The Australian driver will be one of the former Le Mans winners to come to the Le Mans Classic next weekend. He remembers his passion for Porsche and his victory in 1983 with Hurley Haywood, Al Holbert and the Porsche 956.

“I knew about Porsche, because everyone wants to own a 911 when you are a schoolboy. I saw the Gulf 917 race at Brands Hatch with Jo Siffert and Pedro Rodriguez. It was just before the time when I started racing, but I was really fascinated by the Ford GT40s and the Porsche 917s. When I finished third at Indianapolis in 1981, I received a call from Porsche, and they asked me to come over to Le Mans as a replacement for Rick Mears, who had facial burns from a pit stop at the Indy 500. So I joined Jochen Mass and Hurley Haywood at La Sarthe. So Professor Helmut Bott asked me to drive again in 1982, and again I teamed up with Jochen, finishing second. My passion for Porsche really started at that moment.” What could better seal it than a win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans the following year?

In 1983, the fate of the 24 Hours was sealed as early as the second lap, when Jacky Ickx and Jan Lammers tagged each other towards the end of the Hunaudières straight, right under Vern Schuppan’s nose. The Aussie settled in first place after the fifth hour with his two American co-drivers. “I remember two things,” says Vern Schuppan. “I remember when the car’s door flew off. I drove for three or four laps without the door, because I wanted to make sure that the mechanics would be ready to replace it when I come back to the pit. But the officials did not agree because the new door was strapped in place and we could not open it, so the car came back to the pit again to fix this, so that the door could be opened normally. Another memory was when the engine broke approaching the finish line. Hurley and I were heading to the podium and we saw the smoke coming out from the exhaust on television and I said: “Oh my God, we won’t finish!” Al, Hurley and I didn’t feel any pressure during our long period leading, prior to the latter two incidents, which happened towards the end of the race.” For Vern Schuppan, it meant the pleasure of climbing onto the highest step of the podium for his third participation in a row as a factory driver for Zuffenhausen, though he never drove a Porsche at Le Mans before 1981!

Jean-Philippe Doret