Famous Drivers for
Porsche in Motor Racing
Source: Wikipedia
Jacques Bernard "Jacky" Ickx
(born January 1, 1945) is a Belgian former racing driver who achieved 25 podium finishes in Formula One and six wins in the 24 hours of Le Mans. He was born in Brussels.
Jacky Ickx was introduced to the sport when he was taken by his father, motoring journalist
Jacques Ickx, to races which he covered. Despite this family background, Jacky had limited interest in the sport until his father bought him a 50cc Zundapp motorcycle. Soon afterwards, Ickx won 8 of 13 races at the first season and the European 50cc trials title. He took another two titles before he moved to racing a Lotus Cortina in touring car racing, taking his national saloon car championship in 1965. He also competed in sports car races where he had already significant experience from taking part in the 1000km races at the Nürburgring.Ickx entered his first Formula One race at the Nürburgring in 1967, driving a Matra F2 car. Despite the disadvantage of driving a less powerful F2 car, only two F1 drivers qualified in front of him: Denny Hulme and Jim Clark. He was forced by the regulations to start behind the entire F1 field; nevertheless after 4 laps he was already 5th, overtaking 12 full-blown F1 cars. Unfortunately his front suspension broke and he was forced to retire after 12 laps. Despite his retirement he made a strong impression on the F1 team managers.
At Monza, he made his official F1 debut in a Cooper-Maserati, finishing 6th. In 1968 Ickx drove a Formula 1 car for Ferrari. He retired from his first two races, but at his home race at Spa-Francorchamps he started from the front row and finished 3rd. At the French Grand Prix at Rouen he took his first win, in heavy rain. Ickx also finished third at Brands Hatch and fourth at the Nürburgring after driving almost the entire race in heavy rain without his helmet visor. At Monza he finished the race in third position. In Canada his luck left him when he crashed and broke his left leg, which meant he could not compete for the two following Grand Prix.
In 1969, Ickx chose to drive for the Brabham team, which was focused around the owner and driver, Jack Brabham. His first results were poor, but when Brabham broke his foot, Ickx got use of the first car and his results immediately began to improve. Jacky finished third in France, second in England and won in Canada and in Germany on the Nürburgring, the last F1 race there before 'The Ring' was made less bumpy and dangerous. In the 1969 Mexican Grand Prix Jacky finished second and became runner-up in the drivers' world championship. He then decided to leave Brabham to return to Ferrari because he had become too good a driver to be the second man.
As in 1969, he had a weak start to the 1970 season. During the 1970 Spanish Grand Prix he had a crash and his car caught fire. It took at least 20 seconds for him to leave the burning car and was hospitalized with severe burns. After 17 days he was back in his car at the Monaco Grand Prix, but his Ferrari was no match for the Lotus of Jochen Rindt. The car started to improve and at the German Grand Prix (held at Hockenheimring as his favourite Nürburgring was boycotted for safety reasons) he fought with Rindt for the win, but finished a close second. At the Austrian Grand Prix it was Ickx that took the win. In Monza fate struck and Rindt lost his life during free practice. Ickx was the only driver with a chance to take the championship from Rindt who had already won 5 of 9 races in that season, with 4 more to go. Monza saw a win by Ferrari team-mate Clay Regazzoni while Ickx's car broke down. The Belgian took the win at Canada but in the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen he only finished fourth, with Emerson Fittipaldi scoring his first win for Lotus as well as the Championships for the team and his late team-mate. Despite winning the last race in Mexico, Ickx could not beat Rindt's points total.
In 1971, Ickx and Ferrari started as favourites, but the championship went to Jackie Stewart with the new Tyrrell, due to the fact that Ferrari traditionally started the season with its full attention on the sports car championship rather than Formula 1, a fact that had already caused John Surtees to leave in the middle of the 1966 season.
Ickx was able to win at Zandvoort in the rain with Firestone wet tyres, while Stewart had no chance with his Goodyear rubber. After that, he had a lot of retirements, while Stewart took one win after the other, despite Ickx giving him a good challenge on the Nürburgring once again, where both drivers shared victories from 1968 to 1973. That long and very challenging track was the favourite of Ickx, while Stewart had called it the 'Green Hell' as well as being a driving force behind the driver boycott of 1970 that urged the Germans to rework the layout of the track, which had been built in 1927. Stewart said the only thing that had changed since then were the trees growing bigger. As requested, those near the track were cut and replaced with a small run-off areas plus armco. So, the Scot and the Belgian not only fought on the track, but also off the track. Stewart was constantly fighting for more safety in F1, while Ickx thought by doing that the challenge was taken out of F1. In 1972, Ickx stayed at Ferrari and finished 2nd in Spain and Monaco. After that the Ferrari only got noticed for its retirements. Yet, once again it was the Nürburgring where Ickx was eager to show it was his track, giving his great rival Stewart no chance at all. As for Stewart one year later, and other champions such as Juan Manuel Fangio in 1957, it turned out that the last F1 win for Ickx came at Nürburgring, where superior driving skill could beat superior machinery.
In 1973, the Ferrari 312B3 was no longer competitive, and Ickx only managed one 4th place during the opening Grand Prix of the season. While being successful with their sports cars, which were driven to several wins by Ickx himself, the F1 program of the Italians was outclassed, and they even had to skip some F1 races, notably the Nürburgring. This was not acceptable to Ickx, who left the team halfway through the season. Instead, he raced the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring in a McLaren, and scored 3rd place behind the Tyrrells of Stewart and Cevert.
When Jacky signed with Team Lotus in 1974, a difficult period awaited him. Lotus had problems replacing the successful but aging Lotus 72 (which had its debut in 1970) and during the championship Ickx only managed a 3rd place in Brazil. Ickx could only prove that he was the Rain Master when he won the non-championship Race of Champions at Brands Hatch after having passed Niki Lauda by the outside at Paddock Bend. After the Brazilian Grand Prix it went downwards with the results of the Lotus-Ford.
1975 was even more disastrous for Lotus and Ickx left the team halfway through the season, even though he managed a 2nd place in the chaotic Grand Prix of Spain which was overshadowed by accidents.
It seemed as if the end of his career was near. In 1976 Ickx signed at the new teams of Walter Wolf Racing and later at Ensign. Only now and then did he race a Grand Prix. In 1979 he ended his career as a Grand Prix driver at Ligier, but still continued to win a lot of races in various sports car series, which Jacky had decided to concentrate on exclusively.
In 1966, Ickx teamed up with
Hubert Hahne in a BMW 2000TI to win the Spa 24 Hours endurance race in his native Belgium.In 1969 Jacky Ickx raced in the
24 hours of Le Mans for the first time. This race also saw the first appearance of the Porsche 917 in Le Mans, which was regarded by far as the favourite. The Ford GT40 that Ickx drove with Jackie Oliver appeared at that time was an obsolete car, outperformed by the new Porsche 917 but also by the older Porsche 908 and the new generation of 3-liter prototypes from Ferrari, Matra and Alfa Romeo.As Ickx was opposed to the traditional Le Mans start which he considered to be dangerous, he slowly walked across the track to his machine, instead of running. He locked the safety belt carefully and thus was the last to start the race, chasing the field. In lap one, a tragic event proved that Ickx was right: private driver John Woolfe had a fatal accident in his new and powerful 917 and fellow countryman
Willy Mairesse had an accident which ended his career. Neither of them had taken time to belt himself in.During the race the Porsche 917 proved unreliable, and none was to finish. The last four hours of the race turned into a duel between the Porsche 908 of
Hans Herrmann/Gérard Larrousse and the Ford GT-40 of Ickx/Oliver. In the last hour, Ickx and Herrmann continually leapfrogged each other, the Porsche being faster on the straights owing to having less aerodynamic drag, while being passed again under braking as the brake pads were worn and the team reckoned there was not enough time left to change them. Ickx won the race by the smallest of competitive margins ever, with less than 120 yards between the two cars, despite having lost a bigger distance intentionally at the start. He also won his case for safety: from 1970, all drivers could start the race sitting in their cars with the belts tightened properly.In later years, Ickx won a record 6 times at the 24h race at Le Mans, becoming known as "Monsieur Le Mans". Three of the wins were with
Derek Bell: this would become one of the most legendary partnerships. In 2005, Tom Kristensen surpassed him with 7 victories overall.From 1976 on, he was a factory driver for Porsche and their new turbocharged race cars, the
935 and especially the 936 sports car, which he drove to wins in Le Mans 3 times. These drives, as well as the losing effort in 1978, often in the rain and at night, were some of the finest ever. Jacky Ickx considers the 1977 24 Hours of Le Mans race to be his favourite win of all time. Retiring earlier on in another Porsche 936, which he shared with Henri Pescarolo, the team transferred him to the car of Jürgen Barth and Hurley Haywood which was in 42nd place. Ickx made up for lost laps to lead the race by early morning, but suffered a mechanical problem which forced the car to pit. The mechanics resolved the issue by switching off one cylinder, and Ickx went on to win the race. The win in 1982 came with the new and superior 956 model, though, which carried him to two titles as world champion of endurance racing, in 1982 and 1983.In 1983, Ickx was the team leader at Porsche, but a new team-mate was faster than him: young German
Stefan Bellof set new lap records at the Nürburgring in the last ever sports car race held on the original configuration of Ickx's favourite track. As it turned out, Ickx and Bellof would become involved in controversial events later on.In 1984, Ickx acted as F1 race director in Monaco, and red-flagged the race because of rain, when leader Alain Prost in a Porsche-powered McLaren was about to be caught by a young
Ayrton Senna. Also, Stefan Bellof had started from the back of the grid, as his underpowered Tyrrell-Cosworth could not provide extra boost in qualifying like the turbos of all others. Yet, in the wet race, he managed to pass many others and was on pace for catching both Senna and Prost when Ickx decided to stop the race. That saved the win for Prost, but owing to the short distance covered overall, only half the points for the win were awarded (4.5), less than for a second place in a full race (6). Prost subsequently lost the 1984 championship to Lauda by half a point.In 1985, Ickx was involved with Bellof again, but with tragic consequences. Bellof raced a privateer Porsche while waiting to join the Ferrari F1 team in 1986, which had promised him a seat after his performance in Monaco, similar to what they had done for Lauda after he outclassed Ickx there in 1973. At Spa, Ickx's home track, the young German in the private
Porsche 956 of Walter Brun tried to pass the experienced Belgian in the factory car. In Eau Rouge corner, it "seemed" that Ickx left a gap and Stefan squeezed into it. Both cars collided and crashed, Bellof being killed, while Ickx walked away. By some, Ickx is still held responsible for the crash. Others consider it a mistake by Bellof as he tried to overtake at Eau Rouge, the most dangerous corner of the entire circuit. http://www.forix.com/8w/ickx.html He would retire from professional racing at the end of the season.Ickx also co-drove to victory with Allan Moffat at the 1977 Hardie Ferodo Bathurst 1000 in Australia, became champion of Can-Am in 1979, and won the Rally Paris-Dakar in 1983 for Mercedes-Benz.
One of his other Le Mans 24 hour victories in a non-driving capacity was when he consulted for the Oreca team who were running a Mazda 787B for Mazdaspeed in 1991. Ickx was also selected to participate in the 1978 and 1984 editions of the International Race of Champions.
After he retired from his professional racing career, he continued to compete in the Paris-Dakar Rally, winning it in 1983 and even competing with daughter Vanina in recent years. Nowadays, he appears in historic events as a driver, such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Monterey Historics, usually on behalf of Porsche and Ferrari. He still acts as the Clerk of the Course for the Monaco Grand Prix and is still a resident of Brussels.
Peter Holden Gregg
(May 4, 1940–December 15, 1980) was a racecar driver during the golden age of the Trans-Am Series and a four-time winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona. He was also the owner of Brumos, a Jacksonville, Florida car dealership.
Gregg was born in New York City, the son of a mechanical engineer and manufacturer of marine incinerators. He had a passion for auto racing and continued his race driving after he had become financially successful with a car dealership and bank directorships.
He graduated from the Deerfield Academy, a private prep school, in 1957 and moved on to Harvard University, where he earned a degree in English. He moved into a career in film making, coupling that with a stint as a squash player and then as an automobile racer. He began with gymkhanas and ice races after an initial appearance in a hill climb in 1958 in Laconia, New Hampshire. After his graduation from Harvard, he moved to Europe and attended the Centro-Sud Driving School. He then joined the U.S. Navy and became an Air Intelligence Officer, and was assigned to the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida. He was at this time married to Jennifer Johnson and had two sons, Jason Gregg and Simon Gregg.
April, 1963 he drove an unmodified production Corvette in Osceola County, Florida and won the SCCA sanctioned race. He became a serious Porsche racer in 1964 with a Porsche 904 and then moved into competition with a Carrera. In August 1965 he purchased a local Porsche dealership named Brumos Porsche after the death of the owner, Hubert Brundage. He was the SCCA's Southeastern Division champion in 1967 in two classes and had scored victories in Daytona and Sebring. In 1968 he acquired a Mercedes-Benz dealership. In 1968, he entered competition in the SCCA's Under-2-Litre section of the Trans-Am Series. He won six Trans-Ams and the title in 1969 and also took the SCCA's B Sedan National Championship. In 1970, he opened a third dealership called SportAuto selling Fiats and MGs.
In 1971, he was part of the major Trans-Am Series, driving Bud Moore Ford Mustangs, alongside teammate George Follmer. He won the Trans-Am Series in 1973 in a Brumos Porsche and again in 1974. By this time, he was involved with IMSA and won the IMSA GTO overall championship in 1971 and 1973 earning him the nickname "Peter Perfect" possibly a reference to a character in a Hanna Barbera Cartoon called the "Wacky Races" and his clean cut Naval Officer image. In 1973 he won the 24 Hours of Daytona in a Porsche Carrera co-driven by Hurley Haywood. He then announced his retirement, to lead a life as a director of the Jacksonville National Bank, a club tennis player and a speedboat racer out of the Ponte Vedra Yacht Club.
He retracted his retirement and went on to win the 24 Hours of Daytona three more times, in 1975, 1976, and 1978. He won IMSA GTO overall championships in 1974, 1975, 1978, and 1979, giving him six career titles in the class. But in 1980, he was due to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a 924 Carrera GTS for the Porsche factory team along with fellow American Al Holbert, but was injured in a road accident and his place was taken by Derek Bell.
Peter Gregg died December 15, 1980 at age 40 shortly after getting married to Deborah. The official finding was suicide. Reports at the time suggested that Gregg was suffering from a progressive and incurable nervous system disorder which would have slowly degraded his physical capabilities and would have eventually been fatal - and that this, in the context of his perfectionism, was what motivated his suicide.
At the time of his death Gregg had achieved a reputation as one of America's greatest and most successful road racers.
Deborah would subsequently take over the business. Gregg's endurance racing partner, Hurley Haywood, would assist Deborah Gregg (herself a racer), and son Simon (another racer too) in the dealership, with Haywood being the main partner in Brumos today in both the dealership and racing operations.
In 1991, Brumos Porsche entered a two-car Porsche team in the newly created IMSA SuperCar series and won three straight manufacturer’s championships for Porsche with a pair of traditional white, red, and blue 911 Turbos.
Hurley Haywood
(born May 4, 1948 in Chicago) is an American race-car driver who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1977 (Porsche 936), 1983 (Porsche 956) and 1994 (Dauer-Porsche 962) and is the most winning driver at the 24 Hours of Daytona with 5 (1973, 1975, 1977, 1979, and 1991). He also drove in the 1980 Indianapolis 500 finishing 18th. He also represented IMSA four times in the International Race of Champions (1986, 1989, 1992, 1995). In 1970, he was drafted into the Vietnam War where he served as Specialist 4th Class. By the time he returned from his tour of duty, he returned to his winning ways with his first IMSA GT title in 1971.
After Peter H. Gregg's death, he has been the main leader behind Brumos Automotive dealerships, which he is at today.
He is quoted to have said, "If you have one ounce of energy left, then you haven't done your job properly".
He is currently the Chief Driving Instructor at the Porsche Sport Driving School held at the Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.
Jürgen Barth
(born December 10, 1947 in Thoum) is a German engineer and a former racecar driver. He is the son of Formula One driver and sports car racer Edgar Barth.
Barth started out as an engineer but became one of the most successful driver in sports car racing. He won the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1977 in a Porsche 936, with Jacky Ickx and Hurley Haywood, and in 1980 he won the 1000km Nürburgring with Rolf Stommelen.
Barth is co-author of the book about Porsche's racing history, Das große Buch der Porschetypen, and later would help in the creation of the BPR Global GT Series.
(4 November 1943–March 16, 2001), nicknamed "Brilliant" Bob, was a race car driver from Strasbourg, France. He was killed on March 16, 2001 at age 57 in a road accident in Florida while riding a bicycle to prepare for the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Prior to an skiing accident which ended his skiing career, Wollek began racing cars when he entered the Mont-Blanc Rally in 1967 driving a
Renault 8 Gordini and won. The following year, when his career ended, he started his career when he entered a Volant Shell scholarship taking place at Le Mans' Bugatti Circuit, finishing runner up to François Migault. Wollek later entered the Alpine Trophy Le Mans which he was the winner, earning himself a place for the 24 hour race where he finished 11th on his debut.In 1969, Wollek made his debut in single seater series competing in Formula France, then graduated in the French Formula Three Championship.
During a round at Rouen-Les-Essarts, Wollek was involved in a fatal accident which killed Jean-Luc Salomon, when the pair plus Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, Richard Scott and Mike Beuttler was all fighting for the lead in Scierie, a two-lane road.
In 1971, Wollek switched to Formula Two driving for Ron Dennis's Rondel Racing. Despite a shaky start with only one points that year, he improved his performance for the following year with a single win at Imola and 21 points, placing him seventh. Despite this, he abandoned his Formula One ambition to concentrate in sportscar racing which he bacame synomous with.
Wollek had already won there in 1985 with A. J. Foyt, driving a Porsche 962. Despite being over 50 years of age and still racing competitively, Wollek had developed a fitness regime of riding bicycles to stay in good physical condition, especially for the longer races such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In the mid-1970s, he raced a Porsche 935 entered by the Georg Loos' Gelo Racing team from Cologne.
During his three decades of sports car racing, almost exclusively in Porsches, he won the 24 Hours of Daytona four times (1983, 1985, 1989, 1991) and the DRM in 1982 and 1983, with the Porsche 936 and Porsche 956 entered by the Joest Racing team.
For many years, Monsieur Porsche challenged the factory teams with privately entered cars, as he was seldom part of the official Porsche crew. In 1981, he even raced a Group C-spec Porsche 917, about a decade after these cars were retired initially.
Wollek never managed to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall, despite coming close in a few of his thirty attempts. In 1997, his leading Porsche 911 GT1 suffered damage in a minor incident, so the factory entry had to retire. In 1998, Porsche scored a 1-2 win, but Bob was once again on the less-lucky car.
After the 1998 season, Porsche retired it fastest cars from the FIA GT Championship, providing only Porsche 911 for the lower classes. In 2000, Wollek scored many class wins at the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) in a Porsche 996 GT3.
Typically of many other racing drivers, Bob ran a car dealership for Jaguars.
On Friday, March 16, 2001, while leaving Sebring International Raceway following practice for the 12 Hours of Sebring, Wollek continued a tradition of cycling between the circuit and his accommodation, which took him west on Highway 98. While he had been riding close to the edge of the pavement, he was struck from behind by a van driven by an elderly driver from Okeechobee, Florida at approximately 4:30 p.m. He was transported to Highlands Regional Medical Center in Sebring and was pronounced dead on arrival. As a result, the driver was stripped of his license. Wollek was due to start in the Petersen Motorsports Porsche 996 GT3-RS with Johnny Mowlem and Michael Petersen, however out of respect the car was withdrawn from the race. On race day, the organisers held a one minute silence in memory of Wollek. Prior to his death, he announced he would retire from racing to serve as an ambassador for Porsche, and was due to sign this agreement upon returning home after Sebring.
| 24 Hours of Le Mans career | |
| Participating years | 1970 - 1983, 1985 - 1996 |
|---|---|
| Teams |
Scuderia Ferrari John Wyer Automotive Ecurie Francorchamps Gulf Racing Grand Touring Cars Renault Sport Porsche System Rothmans Porsche Richard Lloyd Racing Joest Porsche Racing ADA Engineering Courage Compétition Gulf Oil Racing David Price Racing |
| Best finish | 1st (1975, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1987) |
| Class wins | 5 (1975, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1987) |
Derek Bell
(born October 31, 1941 in Pinner, Middlesex) is a former racing driver from England who was extremely successful in sportscar racing, winning 5 times at Le Mans. He also raced in Formula One for the Ferrari, McLaren, Surtees and Tecno teams.
He grew up on a farm and helped to run a caravan site near
Pagham Harbour before being encouraged by his stepfather Bernard Hender to take up racing in 1964 with Lotus Seven. He graduated to Formula 3 in the following year in a Lotus 31 and in 1966 switched to a Lotus 41 scoring his first victory at Goodwood. In 1967 he enjoyed seven wins. He entered Formula 2 in a privateer Brabham BT23C fielded by his stepfather's Church Farm Racing team and had several promising performances, which caught Ferrari's eye and made his Grand Prix debut at Monza. In 1969 he raced at Silverstone with Ferrari and also raced the four-wheel-drive McLaren M9A in its only race in the British Grand Prix.Bell was also a runner in the 1970 European
Formula 2 Championship driving a March. In 1972 he got the drive in the Tecno F1 team, along with Nanni Galli. He later raced a number of times for the Surtees team but also built a strong reputation as a fine sports car racer.He won two
World Sportscar Championship titles (1985-86), three in the 24 Hours of Daytona (1986-87 and 1989) and five victories at Le Mans (in 1975, 1981, 1982, 1986 and 1987), mostly teamed with Jacky Ickx in one of the Porsche 936 and Porsche 956/Porsche 962 models. Ickx/Bell is nowadays considered as one of the most famous pairings in motorsport history.Bell was awarded the
MBE in 1986 for services to motorsport.Bell was hired as chairman for the failed
Spectre R42 project between 1996 to its demise in 1997 and was hired to consult for the Bentley team in 2001, helping them to win Le Mans two years later. He now splits his time between the United States and Bognor Regis, and commentates on Formula One races which he has done for and drives in historic events, as well as performing an ambassadorial role for Porsche. Bell is currently an operating partner of Bentley Naples in Naples, Florida.His son,
Justin Bell is also a racer. The two raced together in the 1991 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 1992 24 Hours of Le Mans. Bell was to race in the 2008 Daytona 24 hours with Justin, however the car dropped out of the race early and Derek did not get to run in the race.
more drivers to be added soon