Peter Boylan talks of his Australian GT Challenge Title and a Visit to Laguna

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Peter Boylan, Porsche 997 Cup
Peter Boylan, Porsche 997 Cup

Peter Boylan is no stranger to Australia’s motorsport scene.  Having raced on and off since the 1970s he has a long list of motorsport achievements.  Having been twice a class winner in the Bathurst 24 Hours, he has also competed at Dubai, Nurburgring, Spa and been on the podium at Macau.

He is also the current Vice-President of the ARDC – the Australian Racing Drivers Club and recently swapped his usual rides – Aston Martins, BMWs and Subarus for Porsches – to great success.

Competing in the Australian GT Championship for a full season campaign, Boylan was racing door-to-door in a great battle with Tim Poulton’s Lotus.  Boylan was able to better his rival to take the 2011 Challenge Class Championship – and we were able to catch up with him following that success.

Thanks Peter for joining me, 2011 Challenge Class Champion in the Vodka 0 Australian GT Championship – a great achievement.

I feel very honoured that I achieved that.  It was very close and we went in with only a 13 point lead after a horrible weekend at Bathurst where my friend, Greg Crick got sideways and I didn’t get completely past.  In the wet at Sandown I qualified 10th outright which was good and put myself in a position after the first race where I could just cruise home.

At Sandown and throughout the season, you had a great fight with the field in multiclass competition and particularly the Bundaberg Lotus in the Challenge class.

It is good and I think that with Tim, he is a lot younger than me and he drove very, very well.  He drove the car at 11-tenths to be honest.  He drove fast and drove cleanly and we had terrific races together.  In the one-hour race at Sandown we swapped positions, door-handle to door-handle I feel very proud to be racing against a young man like him and proud of how I did.

Going into Sandown, you did what you had to do to win the Championship, but were there any issues over the weekend?

No – there were no major issues at all.  The good thing about a Porsche is that there are few things that you need to adjust and we have learnt how to adjust it for the wet.  I am very lucky that I have Autohaus Hamilton and Steven Brook engineering the car.  He and I seemed to have clicked – it is the first year we have raced together and we sit down and discuss what the car is doing and I hopefully give him enough feedback and he does the adjustments.

You race in many different categories of racing too – I remember at Eastern Creek you raced in three different series in one weekend.

I raced a 997 in the GT Championship and immediately had to race in another series in the main car, although I can’t remember which race was first to be honest.  I also raced in a historic car in the 911 – 1973 911 Porsche Carrera which I only started to race this year too.  Then I had the opportunity to take the 911s with Jeff Morgan and David to Laguna Seca – the weekend straight after Bathurst.  I was then racing at Eastern Creek in the 911.  I will be driving with Bill Robertson in his 911 Carrera.  Yes I have been doing a lot of racing.

You went over for the Porsche Rennsport Reunion?

Yes that correct.

Yes, I’ll be back to defend the title.  I think there will be a number of new cars from talking to different people.

Can you take us through what it was like to be there at that weekend?

It was absolutely awesome.  There were all Porsches and I am not a Porsche person as such but to see so many fantastic cars and to race against 935s, RSRs in the same race – some 48 cars and to come second in class and 27th overall was fantastic.  I had never been to Laguna Seca before or seen the track before I got there – it was fantastic.  Jeff Morgan came first, I came second and David Withers came third.  Outright, Rusty French came first in his 935 so Australia was very well represented in that race we were in.

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Finally, looking forward to 2012 – will you be back to defend your Australian GT Crown?

Yes, I’ll be back to defend the title.  I think there will be a number of new cars from talking to different people.  The category is a very strong category with a lot of interest – maybe not with the Porsches but with the other exotic cars like the Auds, Mercedes, muscle cars and what not.  I think there will be more cars and it is a good series.  Bill West and Craig Denyer who were round with the Procar are now running it – it is also owned by Tony Quinn so I think it will be very good next year.  We will be kicking off at Clipsal and with one-hour races, which I will like.

Thank-you and congratulations again.

Thank-you.

Interview and article by Sam Tickell, November 2011