Page 25 - One Last Turn

The Vasek Polak team heads out to do battle at the 1973 Laguna Seca Can-Am. #0 is Jody Scheckter, #3 is Brian Redman. (Vintage Racing Motors)
personal loss for Springer because the two had become close friends. Porsche Motorsport fell dormant.
During 1989, the factory approached Springer to take Holbert’s place as head of Porsche Motorsport in North America (PMNA). The reactivation was done besides his full-time job running Andial Racing. It was a tough assignment, but his excellent crew and partner Dieter Inzenhofer helped to overcome the many tough challenges. PMNA grew into a solid business while Andial supported the Porsche customers with engine rebuilds. Starting on January 1, 1997, Springer and all Andial Racing people became Porsche employees. Springer was at the helm until his retirement in 2004. When he started in 1990, “Porsche was only selling about 3,500 to 4,000 cars per year, so things were not going well here. We didn’t have a race car. It was a tough time. I personally feel I put Porsche Motorsport in the right direction again after we had nothing. I have expertise on the engine side and on the managing side.”
Alwin Springer’s ability to work with both the factory and with private Porsche racing teams also helped turn Porsche Motorsport in the right direction. As the factory necessarily put its resources into developing the Cayenne and Carrera GT, the GT3 race cars helped develop the racing engines and kept the brand’s name high up in customer awareness, and international racing success.
Alwin Springer
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