Rolf Stommelen

Rolf Stommelen

Born	(1943-07-11)11 July 1943 Siegen, Germany
Died	Riverside, California
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	German
Active years	1969–1976, 1978
Teams	Brabham, Surtees, March, Lola, Hill, Arrows, Eifelland
Entries	63 (54 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	1
Career points	14
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1970 South African Grand Prix
Last entry	1978 Canadian Grand Prix

Rolf Johann Stommelen (11 July 1943 – 24 April 1983) was a racing driver from Siegen, Germany. He participated in 63 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, achieving one podium, and scored a total of 14 championship points. He also participated in several non-Championship Formula One races.

One of the best endurance sports car racing drivers of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, Stommelen won the 24 Hours of Daytona 4 times; in 1968, 1978, 1980 and 1982 and the Targa Florio in 1967 in a Porsche 910.

Career

Stommelen driving for Brabham at the 1976 German Grand Prix.

File:Porsche935-Stommelen1977-05-29.jpg

Stommelen driving a Porsche for Georg Loos in 1977.

Stommelen won the pole position for the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Porsche 917 a year after finishing third in a Porsche 908. In this year, he became the first man to reach speeds exceeding 350 km/h (217 mph) on the Mulsanne Straight in his Porsche 917 LH. In 1970, he made his Formula One debut with Brabham with sponsorship obtained from the German magazine Auto, Motor und Sport and raced both sportscars (Toj and Porsche works teams) and Formula 1 throughout the 1970s.

Unfortunately, he would play a role in the end of the Spanish Grand Prix's tenure at Montjuich Park in Barcelona when he crashed there in the 1975 race after the rear wing of his Hill-GH1 broke, resulting in the deaths of four spectators and him being seriously injured.

After his recovery, Stommelen returned to sports car racing, winning races for Alfa Romeo and also winning the 24 Hours of Daytona a further three times.

In 1976 Stommelen had the honour to drive the maiden race of the Porsche 936 at the 300 km Nürburgring race. With a black body and without the air-intake, the 936 of this race became known as the black widow. He qualified second, between the factory Renault Alpine A442 of Patrick Depailler and Jean-Pierre Jabouille in first and third. The Renault team was eager to win at Porsche's home soil. On race-day in heavy rain, Stommelen managed to overtake the Renault in front right after the start. Now in the lead, he rushed towards the Nordkehre, braked and let deliberately room for the Renaults in pursuit to overtake. The Renaults, wanting to take back the lead after 2 of 300 km, rushed past Stommelen into the water puddles and crashed into the catch-fences in tandem, with Stommelen taking back the lead again. This led to the saying "On the Nordschleife, you can never brake later than Rolf Stommelen!". After the sixth lap, the throttle cable of the 936 stuck in the "open" position. But instead of giving up, Stommelen continued the race by turning off the master switch at the bends to brake, and turning on the master switch again after the bends to accelerate throughout the rest of the race, taking second place at the end of the race.

In 1978 he was given the task by the Porsche factory to drive the Porsche 935 "Moby Dick" in Martini Colors. The 78 "Moby Dick" had a 3.2-litre Turbo Engine that produced 845 HP and Stommelen was, with 235 mph, (365 km/h) the fastest man on the Mulsanne Straight, faster than the prototypes like the Porsche 936 and the A442B which won the race. Due to high fuel-consumption of the engine, Stommelen had to pit too often to battle for the win.

He continued at Le Mans with the Porsche 935, nearly winning the 24 hours of Le Mans with Dick Barbour and actor Paul Newman as co-drivers in 1979 in a Porsche 935, only to be set back by a 23 minute long pit stop caused by a stuck wheel nut. The team would not have come so far, if Stommelen had not been constantly 25 seconds faster than his team mates per lap.

He also drove Toj SC320 prototype sportscars with some success against the works Alfa team (Toj was a small German manufacturer).

He also competed in one NASCAR Grand National series event in 1971 at Talladega Superspeedway in a former Holman-Moody Ford which Mario Andretti used to win the 1967 Daytona 500, which was rebuilt as a Mercury Cyclone, with Jake Elder as crew chief. That car eventually was sold to independent driver Darrell Waltrip to use a year later in his Winston Cup Series debut in 1972, starting a career which led to Waltrip's International Motorsports Hall of Fame induction in April 2005.

He was also active in the German GT Championship Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft, winning the championship in 1977 for the Gelo Racing Team in a Porsche 935. A master at the Nürburgring, he was a constant winner of races held there.

In the 1980s he was still a sought after prototype pilot and raced successful on Kremer CK5, Lancia LC1 and Porsche 956.

Death

Stommelen was killed in a crash during an IMSA Camel GT event at Riverside International Raceway on 24 April 1983. He was running a John Fitzpatrick entered Porsche 935 with codriver Derek Bell. Stommelen had just taken over the car from Bell and was running in second place when the rear wing broke due to mechanical failure at 190 mph. The car became uncontrollable, slammed against a concrete wall, somersaulted and caught fire. Stommelen died of head injuries.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1969	Roy Winkelmann Racing Ltd	Lotus 59B F2	Ford Straight-4	RSA	ESP	MON	NED	FRA	GBR	GER 8	ITA	CAN	USA	MEX						NC	0
1970	Auto Motor Und Sport	Brabham BT33	Cosworth V8	RSA Ret	ESP Ret	MON DNQ	BEL 5	NED DNQ	FRA 7	GBR DNS	GER 5	AUT 3	ITA 5	CAN Ret	USA 12	MEX Ret				11th	10
1971	Auto Motor Und Sport-Eifelland Team Surtees	Surtees TS7	Cosworth V8	RSA 12																20th	3
		Surtees TS9			ESP Ret	MON 6	NED DSQ	FRA 11	GBR 5	GER 10	AUT 7	ITA DNS	CAN Ret	USA
1972	Team Eifelland Caravans	Eifelland Type 21	Cosworth V8	ARG	RSA 13	ESP Ret	MON 10	BEL 11	FRA 16	GBR 10	GER Ret	AUT 15	ITA	CAN	USA					NC	0
1973	Ceramica Pagnossin Team MRD	Brabham BT42	Cosworth V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	ESP	BEL	MON	SWE	FRA	GBR	NED	GER 11	AUT Ret	ITA 12	CAN 12	USA		NC	0
1974	Embassy Racing	Lola T370	Cosworth V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	ESP	BEL	MON	SWE	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	CAN 11	USA 12		NC	0
1975	Embassy Racing	Lola T370	Cosworth V8	ARG 13	BRA 14															NC	0
		Lola T371				RSA 7
		Hill GH1					ESP Ret	MON	BEL	SWE	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT 16	ITA Ret	USA
1976	Martini Racing	Brabham BT45	Alfa Romeo Flat-12	BRA	RSA	USW	ESP	BEL	MON	SWE	FRA	GBR	GER 6	AUT		ITA Ret	CAN	USA	JPN	20th	1
	Hesketh Racing	Hesketh 308D	Cosworth V8												NED 12
1978	Arrows Racing Team	Arrows FA1	Cosworth V8	ARG	BRA	RSA 9	USW 9	MON Ret	BEL Ret	ESP 14	SWE 14	FRA 15	GBR DNQ	GER DSQ						NC	0
		Arrows A1													AUT DNPQ	NED DNPQ	ITA DNPQ	USA 16	CAN DNPQ

Non-Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1971	Team Surtees	Surtees TS9	Ford V8	ARG Ret	ROC	QUE	SPR	INT	RIN 7	OUL	VIC
1975	Embassy Hill	Lola T370	Ford Cosworth DFV	ROC 9	INT
		Hill GH1	Ford Cosworth DFV			SUI 12