Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/721869
September / October 2016 45 M y passion for fast cars started at a very early age. For as long as I remember, my Dad and I talked about racing. More specifically, we talked about road racing. We would bench race and dream about different cars. My old man was really into the British stuff from the 50's and 60's, and my first car was even a 1967 MGB. But for me, one of my favorite drivers in the 1980's was Scott Good- year, when he was driving a 944 Turbo in the Rothmans' Porsche Turbo Cup series. This is where my passion for Porsche was born. Fast forward a few decades. I bought my first Porsche about five years ago; a 1984 944 NA. Ok, the bug had got me; I had always wanted a 911, so last August I found the car for me, a 2011 GTS Cabriolet. This was the car that finally got me on the race track. Did you know that there are several clubs (in- cluding PCA) that let you take your street car on the track? My first event was with NASA and the High Performance Driving Education (HPDE) at Raceway Park of the Midlands, just south of Omaha. By the end of my first day, I knew that I wanted to go wheel to wheel rac- ing, and I made it my goal to get a race car. Enter Wes, Karl and RennsportKC (www. rennsportkc.com), who are not only Porsche experts, but also racers. They saw the passion I had from running my 911 on the track and answered a zillion questions about getting into real racing. We talked about several options, including converting my street car into a race car… and then it happened. We had the talk about #5. For those of you unfamiliar with the #5 car, this was the car that Greg Wright raced for many years in PCA. After Greg's passing, Wes from RennsportKC purchased #5 from Greg's family. He then raced the car in both PCA and NASA racing for a few years. As other projects arose, #5 was eventually placed in storage. As we discussed my needs as a new racer, they thought they had the car for me. It was important to them that #5 be raced and cared for properly (it was a little like I was adopting a child), and they wanted the legacy of the car to be remembered. A deal was struck and #5 started to make its way back! Now for those of you that don't know much about #5, it is a 1989 Porsche 944 S2. That means it has the 3.0 liter motor putting out somewhere north of 200 horse power. It also has full racing suspension, Turbo S body work and basically no interior. Make no mistake, this is a race car. Not a street car that gets raced, it is a track only machine. But in grand Porsche tradition this thing is great on track; KRCPCA RACING By Jeremy Butcher The Rookie AWAKENS A RACER Photos by Jeremy Butcher