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Reinhold Joest

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Reinhold Joest
NationalityGermany German
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years1969, 1971 - 1973, 1975 - 1976, 1980 - 1981
TeamsDeutsche Auto Zeitung, Martini Racing, Jo Siffert A.T.E. Racing, Joest Racing
Best finish2nd (1980)
Class wins0

Reinhold Joest (also spelt Reinhold Jöst; born 24 April 1937) is a former German race car driver and current team owner. During the last 25 years, Joest Racing has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans fifteen times.

Driving career

Joest's driving career began in 1962 in a local hillclimb race in the Odenwald mountains. He had won two German championships in that category by 1967. Since 1966, he raced successfully on the Nürburgring, scoring a class win at the 1000 km Nürburgring. He won the race overall twice, in 1970 and 1980, and a total five class wins.

Joest's first entry in the 24 Hours of Le Mans was in 1968, with a Ford GT40 co-driven by Helmut Kelleners and sponsored by a German car magazine. His first remarkable result came in 1972, after the dominating Porsche 917 and similar cars were not allowed anymore. Without any modern cars available, Joest borrowed an outdated 3.0 L Porsche 908/02 Langheck Coupé from the Jo Siffert Museum. He and his two co-drivers finished third with the 1969 model car. Despite being part of factory Porsche teams on several occasions, he never managed to be in their winning car. He came close in 1980, finishing second together with Jacky Ickx in his privately entered Porsche 936 that was called a "Porsche 908/80" as Porsche did not officially sell the 936.

Despite never winning as a driver at Le Mans, Joest ended his driving career in style. After winning the 24 Hours of Daytona in a Porsche 935 and on the Nürburgring with his Porsche 908/3 Turbo in 1980 (both with Rolf Stommelen), he went on to win several German DRM races in 1981 with a mighty Porsche 935 "Moby Dick". He retired after winning the Kyalami 9 Hours with Jochen Mass at the end of the year.

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1969 Germany Deutsche Auto Zeitung Germany Helmut Kelleners Ford GT40 Mk.I S 5.0 341 6th 3rd
1971 Germany Martini Racing Team Germany Willi Kauhsen Porsche 917/20 S 5.0 180 DNF DNF
1972 Germany Jo Siffert A.T.E. Racing Italy Mario Casoni [it]
Germany Michel Weber [de]
Porsche 908LH S 3.0 325 3rd 3rd
1973 Germany Martini Racing Team Switzerland Claude Haldi Porsche 911 Carrera RSR S 3.0 54 DNF DNF
1975 Germany Ovoro Joest Racing Italy Mario Casoni [it]
Germany Jürgen Barth
Porsche 908LH S 3.0 325 4th 4th
1976 Germany Martini Racing Joest Germany Jürgen Barth Porsche 936 Spyder S 3.0 DNF DNF
1978 Germany Martini Racing Porsche System United States Peter Gregg
United States Hurley Haywood
Porsche 936/77 S
+2.0
362 3rd 3rd
1980 Germany Equipe Liqui MolyMartini Racing Belgium Jacky Ickx Porsche 908/80 S
+2.0
336 2nd 2nd
1981 Germany Joest Racing United States Dale Whittington
Germany Klaus Niedzwiedz
Porsche 908 S+2.0 60 39th 10th

See also