Gallery: Porsche Le Mans heroes power into the night

The cars followed the reason they were there, the 1970 Le Mans-winning Salzburg Porsche 917K, the first Porsche Le Mans winner, driven by the man who drove it to victory, Dickie Attwood.

While the 917 spluttered and howled with its flat-12 spitting flames, its furiously turbocharged descendants followed on. Various 956s, 962s, a 935, 911s, the Le Mans-winning 936 and of course Tom Kristensen in the 1997 Le Mans-winning WSC-95 were respectful in their distance from the original winner. A grand moment celebrating the five-decade story of Porsche as a winning marque at the world’s greatest motor race, made all the more evocative as the silhouettes of the cars faded further into the dusk.

By the end of the parade the cars themselves were washed out by the bright blow of their enormous halogen lights. Where once they illuminated a chicane-less Mulsanne straight, here they lit up the start-finish at straight in celebration of a lifetime of Le Mans success. We couldn’t think of a better way to end the event. That 917 was the belle of the SpeedWeek ball.

Photography by Joe Harding, Nick Dungan and Pete Summers.