Spiel

MAY 2020 44 Gulf 917 entered by JWAE at Le Mans 1970, Siffert/Redman. I first got to know John a little bit in 2011 when he agreed to do an interview by email for the Spiel. Although I didn't quite realize it at the time, it was another small step along the road to writing my book. Even though John's excellent 2006 book, "Racing In The Rain", sold well, I still felt his behind-the-scenes role was a bit under- appreciated. In 2016 we started to think about doing celebrity events for the PNWR. Our team, led by John Mueller, thought this would not only be fun but also a boost to our charity efforts. I suggested John Horsman as our first guest to test the concept and because I thought it would be great to reunite John with our local Gulf 917. John's work on solving the aerodynamic problems with the 917 was a vital step toward Porsche's first two overall wins at Le Mans and the World Sportscar Championships in 1970 and 1971. Along the way in 2016, I pretty much decided I would retire from the corporate world and I wanted to write a chassis-by-chassis history of the Gulf 917s. I hoped that if we had a good event in the PNWR, John might be willing to share more of his knowledge and his archival documents for my book project. The event did go well and it was wonderful to have John and his wife Janet stay with us. There was a rather poignant moment in the presentation when Mark Greene asked what John felt was his greatest success and he replied, a bit emotionally, that it was his marriage to Janet. Never mind about those Le Mans victories. John Horsman showing and telling at our 2016 event. Later research for Jay's book solved the mystery of the fender flares on 017/004.

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