Rolf Stommelen

Rolf Stommelen

Born	11 July 1943(1943-07-11)
Died	24 April 1983(1983-04-24) (aged 39)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	German
Active years	1969- 1976, 1978
Teams	Brabham, Surtees, March, Lola, Hill, Arrows, Eifelland
Races	63 (54 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	1
Career points	14
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1970 South African Grand Prix
Last race	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.

Stommelen driving for Brabham at the 1976 German Grand Prix.

Stommelen driving a Porsche in 1977.

Career

One of the best Sports Car Endurance race car drivers of the '60s and '70s, Stommelen won the 24 Hours of Daytona 4 times; in 1968, 1978, 1980 and 1982. He 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 Embassy-Hill- Lola broke, resulting in the deaths of four spectators.

After his recovery, Rolf returned to sports car racing, winning races for Alfa Romeo and also winning the 24 Hours of Daytona three times and 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 Rolf had not been constantly 25 seconds faster than his team mates per lap. He also drove Toj sportscars with some success against the works Alfa team (Toj was a small German manufacturer).

In his early years, he was successful in hillclimbing and at the notorious Targa Florio.

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.

In the late 1970s, he raced Porsche GTs, winning the German championship Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft in 1977 for the Gelo Racing Team. A master at the vicious Nurburgring, he was a constant winner of races held there.

Death

Rolf was killed in a vicious crash during an IMSA Camel GT event at Riverside International Raceway on 24 April 1983 after the rear wing of his Porsche 935 broke. With this, the racing world lost one of its most likable and talented drivers.

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	T370	Ford Cosworth DFV	ROC 9	INT	SUI 12