I've been fortunate to witness two of Porsche's more unlikely and most stunning performances in endurance racing - both at the Sebring 12 Hours. The first was the amazing 1-2 finish of the pesky little Type 718 RS 60s in 1960 (VM, 12.2 Mar/Apr 2012). The second was the win of Wayne Baker, Jim Mullen and Kees Nierop in a 934 at the 1983 12 Hours.
Despite a record starting field of 84 cars, the quality of the 1983 entry wasn't top-notch as cars anticipated for IMSA's new Grand Touring Prototype GTP category hadn't materialized. The field was filled with the smaller cars of the GTO and GTU classes, so perhaps 1983 was to be the year of the underdog and the unexpected.
Enter the 934 of Wayne Baker. This was no ordinary Porsche as its story will reveal. It began when Bob Garretson, driving for Dick Barbour Racing, crashed a 935/77 chassis at Le Mans in 1978. The crashed chassis was discarded and replaced with a new 935/79 chassis (009 0030) and new and salvaged parts were combined to build a new car. Dubbed the "Made in Mountain View, California by Garretson Enterprises" car, it was 2nd overall and won the IMSA GTX class as a 935 at the 1979 Le Mans 24Hours.
Garretson bought the car from Barbour and raced it in 1980, converting it to K3 specs after the Daytona opener. As a 935 K3, the Garretson Enterprises car won the 1981 World Endurance Drivers' Championship and Porsche Team Cup. By now, the car had earned the nickname "Warhorse 935" In 1982, it was relegated to a rent-a-racer, and Wayne Baker bought it in the fall of 1982.
Baker converted it to 934 specifications, including a 600hp 3.2 liter single turbo engine, to compete in IMSA's GTO class. In Betty Jo Turner's article, "Unexpected Victory: Sebring 1983" in Porsche Panorama (May 2008), Baker explained, "I was looking for reliability. We refined Porsche's development only in the sense that we turned the intercooler around, developed our own header and waste gate system, using the big K36 turbo which wasn't known to be great on throttle response but had been exceptionally reliable."
Baker's first race with 0030 was the Daytona 24 Hours in 1983, finishing 9th overall and 4th in GTO. Next was Sebring with Baker, Mullen and Nierop - all had experience at Sebring. Mullen, writing in
MotorSport, described the car as "... a junkyard dog among pedigreed greyhounds, garishly painted in school bus yellow with sponsors' names often in press-on lettering." Gene Felton's Camaro qualified fastest in GTO and 0030 qualified over five seconds slower in 14th. Hardly the stuff of legends, but stay with me.
At race end, many of the faster GTP cars had fallen short. Amazingly, a GTO car, the Racing Beat Mazda RX-7, had led hours nine and 10 until sidelined by suspension problems. See, 1983 was shaping up to be the year of the underdog and the unexpected. By the 11th hour, 0030 was a solid 3rd place when suddenly the leading Bayside Disposal 935 and 2nd-place GRID-Plaza S1-Ford Cosworth retired. Baker abruptly assumed the lead with around 20 minutes to go. He recalled, "I had a car that was ill-handling and low on fuel, I was lowering the boost, driving at half throttle, trying to keep the times where the crew wanted them..." Baker's crew wouldn't let him pit.Unbelievably, he didn't know he was now 1st overall, and the crew kept him in the dark until after the checkered flag. Baker ran just 11 laps (of 231) in 1st overall, crossing the finish line 94.802 sec ahead of the fast-closing (7sec a lap) Bob Akin Motorsports 935.
After the race, the crew found the right side suspension had collapsed and the left side fell down as 0030 was pushed into the truck - obviously the cause of the ill handling. It had been an exciting race with eight different leaders and 23 lead changes - both records at the time. It was the first time a GTO-class car was 1st overall in an IMSA competition. It was a race some have called one of the greatest upsets in endurance racing.
Baker went on to secure the 1983 GTO championship with 0030, winning at Sebring, Road Atlanta, Riverside International Speedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway. In late 1983, the car was converted back to a 935 K3, running in 1984 as a 935. Baker sold the car to Chet Vincentz in late 1984, who reconfigured it back to a 934 and raced it in GTO with Electrodyne sponsorship from 1985 through 1987.
Several sources indicate the old warhorse of many guises and lives ran 72 races from 1978 through 1987, winning two major international races, two major championships and numerous class wins in probably as many as 70,000 racing miles. I'd say the well-traveled car more than earned the nickname "Junkyard Dog!"
All material and photos are credited to Jeff Allison and Vintage Motorsport
