{"id":459930,"date":"2003-05-01T15:00:29","date_gmt":"2003-05-01T15:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=107181"},"modified":"2025-01-06T00:45:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T00:45:25","slug":"spa-fast-917s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/spa-fast-917s\/","title":{"rendered":"Spa &#038; Fast 917s"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='memberful-global-teaser-content'>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One of the races I remember well from my career was winning the 24-Hours at Spa in 1968. I drove the Porsche 911 to 1st overall, and it was a beautiful race for me although it had the usual Spa weather with rain for more than 18 hours. I was very happy to win that with my co-driver, Helmut Kelleners, and it left me with a good feel- ing about racing at Spa.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_698424\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-698424\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2003\/05\/LS200305-p1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-698424 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2003\/05\/LS200305-p1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2003\/05\/LS200305-p1.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2003\/05\/LS200305-p1-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2003\/05\/LS200305-p1-71x100.jpg 71w, https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2003\/05\/LS200305-p1-293x410.jpg 293w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-698424\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willi Kauhsen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">My first race at Spa had been in 1965 in a Mini-Cooper with a Downton engine, and then in 1966, I had a 1000-cc Fiat-Abarth with the open engine cover. I came back again in 1967 which was the year I won the European Championship in the Fiat-Abarth. This was a good build-up to winning the 24-Hours in 1968. I also did some of the 1000 Kilometer races at Spa, and of course, all these races were on the old, longer circuit which is not like any- where else in the world. Le Mans is fast, and so is Monza, but there is no experience like pushing a very quick car through the corners at Spa. The risk is very big but so is the thrill, and the sense that you have done something well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n        .memberful-global-teaser-content p:last-child{\n            -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n            mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n        }\n    <\/style>\n<div class='memberful-global-marketing-content'>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content-wrapper\">\n<h2 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-title\">No Subscription? You&#8217;re missing out<\/h2>\n<p class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content\">Any Text Here<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"a07online-global-marketing-prompt\" href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/checkout?plan=86696\">Get Started<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">\n<h4 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">Already a Member? <a href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/account\">Sign in to your account here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the races I remember well from my career was winning the 24-Hours at Spa in 1968. I drove the Porsche 911 to 1st overall, and it was a beautiful race for me although it had the usual Spa weather with rain for more than 18 hours. I was very happy to win that with my co-driver, Helmut Kelleners, and it left me with a good feel- ing about racing at Spa. Willi Kauhsen My first race at Spa [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":448,"featured_media":818424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,11272,261,16906,18207],"tags":[17152,17140,548,89,20710,584,22593,3799,22567,22929,504,17143,17220],"class_list":["post-459930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-culture","category-members-only","category-motorsport-racing","category-porsche","category-special-feature","tag-car-culture","tag-members-only","tag-motorsport","tag-porsche","tag-porsche-featured","tag-porsche-917","tag-porsche-917-featured","tag-porsche-race-cars","tag-porsche-race-cars-featured","tag-race-cars-featured","tag-spa","tag-special-feature","tag-vrr-column-legends-speak"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Spa &amp; Fast 917s<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Porsche racer and factory test driver Willi Kauhsen relives the harrowing days of racing and testing the monstrous 917s.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/spa-fast-917s\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/spa-fast-917s\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spa &amp; Fast 917s\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Porsche racer and factory test driver Willi Kauhsen relives the harrowing days of racing and testing the monstrous 917s.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/spa-fast-917s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Supercars.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Supercars.net\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2003-05-01T15:00:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-06T00:45:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2003\/05\/LS200305-p2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"510\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Willi Kauhsen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Willi Kauhsen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/spa-fast-917s\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/spa-fast-917s\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Willi Kauhsen\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6727ae433e6fffd42e85ecc3e1685d07\"},\"headline\":\"Spa &#038; 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