peoplepill id: volker-weidler
VW
Germany
1 views today
1 views this week
Volker Weidler
Racecar driver

Volker Weidler

The basics

Quick Facts

Intro
Racecar driver
Places
Gender
Male
Place of birth
Heidelberg, Karlsruhe Government Region, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Age
62 years
The details (from wikipedia)

Biography

Volker Weidler (born March 18, 1962 in Heidelberg) is a former racing driver from Germany, best known for winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1991.

Career

Formula racing

In 1985, he became German Formula Three champion.

In the 1989 Formula One season, Weidler entered 10 Formula One Grands Prix, racing for the Rial team, but failed to qualify the uncompetitive car on every occasion.

After Formula One, he moved to Japan and raced in the Japanese Formula 3000 Championship and the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. He often fought over the title with Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Ross Cheever and others in the Japanese Formula 3000, and became popular in Japan.

GT / Sportscars

In 1991, Weidler teamed with Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot to win Le Mans behind the wheel of the Wankel engine-powered Mazda 787B, marking also the first and only win of the legendary French race by both a Japanese manufacturer and engine supplier. This Wankel engine-powered car was noted for being very loud.

Possibly related to the hours spent in the noisy Mazda, Weidler began to suffer from an ear problem (sensorineural hearing loss) which eventually forced him to retire prematurely from the Japanese Formula 3000 Championship during the 1992 season though Weidler was leading the championship at that time.

When Weidler left the Japanese team, Nova Engineering, he recommended Heinz-Harald Frentzen as his successor.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

YearEntrant1234567891011DCPoints
1986Bromley Motorsport
Rial
SIL
10
VAL
7
PAU
Ret
SPA
DNQ
IMOMUG
16
PER
DNQ
ZEL
9
BIRBUGJARNC0
1988Onyx RacingJER
Ret
VAL
12
PAU
DNQ
SIL
14
MNZ
9
PER
Ret
BRH
6
BIR
4
BUG
DNS
ZOL
Ret
DIJ
10
15th5

Complete Formula One results

(key)

YearEntrantChassisEngine12345678910111213141516WDCPts.
1989Rial RacingRial ARC2Ford Cosworth DFR (Mader) 3.5 V8BRA
DNPQ
SMR
DNPQ
MON
DNPQ
MEX
DNPQ
USA
DNPQ
CAN
DNPQ
FRA
DNPQ
GBR
DNPQ
GER
EX
HUN
DNQ
BELITAPORESPJPNAUSNC0
Source:

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans Results

Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of the winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).

YearTeamCo-DriversCarClassLapsPos.Class
Pos.
1987Germany Porsche Kremer RacingDenmark Kris Nissen
Japan Kunimitsu Takahashi
Porsche 962CC16DNFDNF
1989Japan Mazdaspeed Co. LtdJapan Yojiro Terada
Belgium Marc Duez
Mazda 767GTP33912th3rd
1990Japan Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.Belgium Bertrand Gachot
United Kingdom Johnny Herbert
Mazda 787GTP148DNFDNF
1991Japan Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.United Kingdom Johnny Herbert
Belgium Bertrand Gachot
Mazda 787BC23621st1st
1992Japan Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.
France Oreca
United Kingdom Johnny Herbert
Belgium Bertrand Gachot
Brazil Maurizio Sandro Sala
Mazda MXR-01C13364th4th
The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
Lists
Volker Weidler is in following lists
comments so far.
Comments
From our partners
Sponsored
Volker Weidler
arrow-left arrow-right instagram whatsapp myspace quora soundcloud spotify tumblr vk website youtube pandora tunein iheart itunes