Last in our series (at least for now) of Porsche RS Spyder chassis features is 9R6-704. This chassis started life in the hands of New York-based Dyson Racing in IMSA competition. Dyson ran the car in 2007 and 2008. Drivers in 2007 as #16 were primarily Andy Wallace and Butch Leiztinger with guest appearances from Andy Lally for the longer races at Sebring and Petit LeMans. The 2008 schedule found Marino Franchitti taking over for Wallace with Leitzinger and guest Lally remaining as the car ran with #20.
The best result for the Dyson team was the second place overall at the 2008 12 Hours of Sebring. Other finishes flirted with the podium, but the team faced stiff competition from Audi for overall victories and Penske Racing for LMP2 class victories.
[Side note: Dyson also ran 9R6-705 in 2007 and 2008. It ran as the #20 in 2007 and #16 in 2008. The car suffered a crash at Lime Rock in 2008 which required a new tub. A tub that would have been chassis 713 is believed to have been used as a replacement for 9R6-705. The story of Dyson’s fraught race at Lime Rock which resulted in accidents for both Porsches and the very quick repair job to make the race in Mid-Ohio two weeks later is
here. The new tub was flown in from Germany and delivered straight to the Mid-Ohio paddock on Wednesday before the race where the Dyson mechanics completely rebuilt the car. There is some confusion whether the rebuild was for 9R6-704 or 9R6-705, but the pieces appear to point to 9R6-705 as the chassis with the new tub.]
At the end of 2008, the car was sold to Greg Pickett and Muscle Milk Racing. Muscle Milk ran a partial schedule in 2008 with outings at Mid-Ohio, Road America, Petit LeMans and Laguna Seca. Greg Pickett and Klaus Graf split the duties at most of the races with Sascha Maassen driving at Petit LeMans.
2009 saw another partial season with five outings. 9R6-704 won the LMP2 class at the 12 Hours of Sebring and then claimed an overall victory at Lime Rock in the car’s last race in July. Pickett and Graf again did most of the 2009 driving with Maassen and Memo Gidley joining where needed.
As always, grateful thanks to
At Rennsport Reunion IV at Laguna Seca, the car was on display with the Porsche Motorsport North America Vintage support program. Difficult to think of the RS Spyder as “vintage”, but in 2011 it was several years removed from active motorsport competition and cars were in customer hands. 9R6-704 did not run at Rennsport IV, but was on display only.
The car found its way to Bruce Canepa’s hands and he listed it for sale in mid-2014 –
the listing is gone, but a large photo album is still on Canepa’s website. (The original listing is replicated here on Flatsixes.com.) It moved to the Gunnar Racing stable in mid-2015, just in time for the Porsche Rennsport Reunion V at Laguna Seca in September 2015.
Gunnar Jeannette drove the car and showed very competitive pace in qualifying before a wiring harness problem intervened and prevented the car from making the race.
The photos are a mix from Rennsport Reunion IV and V. Enjoy!