Savage!

In its first year of competition, the Porsche 917 proved quite temperamental and difficult to develop in 1969, to the point that drivers were terrified behind the wheel. Despite Rolf Stommelen’s pole position at Le Mans, John Woolfe’s fatal accident tragically reinforced this impression.

Development continued during the summer and a first success came at the 1000 km of Zeltweg, which inaugurated the new Östreichring circuit in the green hills of Styria, where two cars were entered: the #29 victorious of Jo Siffert/Kurt Ahrens and the #30 of Brian Redman/Dick Attwood classified third one lap behind, behind the Lola T70 of Scuderia Filipinetti driven by Jo Bonnier/Herbert Müller.

For the occasion, both 917s sported side flaps on the front bumper to improve handling. Porsche would return to the Austrian track at the end of the season to finalize the development phase and determine the characteristics of the 917K that would dominate the following two seasons.