Stefan Bellof was a German racing driver. Bellof was the winner of the Drivers' Championship in the 1984 FIA World Endurance Championship, driving for the factory Rothmans Porsche team. His lap record on the Nordschleife configuration at the Nürburgring, set while qualifying for the 1000 km race in 1983, stood for 35 years, when it was beaten by Timo Bernhard in 2018. He also competed in Formula One with Tyrrell Racing during 1984 and 1985. Bellof was killed in an accident during the 1985 1000 km of Spa, a round of the 1985 World Sportscar Championship.
The Porsche 956 was a Group C sports-prototype racing car designed by Norbert Singer and built by Porsche in 1982 for the FIA World Sportscar Championship. It was later upgraded to the 956B in 1984. In 1983, driven by Stefan Bellof, this car established a record that would stand for 35 years, lapping the famed 20.832 km (12.93 mi) Nürburgring Nordschleife in 6:11.13 during qualifying for the 1000 km Sports Car race. The record was finally surpassed by Timo Bernhard in a derestricted Porsche 919 Evo on 29 June 2018.
Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with Group A for touring cars and Group B for GTs.
The World Sportscar Championship was the world endurance racing series run for sports car racing, sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), from 1953 to 1992. The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance, and road racing events in Europe and North America with dozens of gentleman drivers at the grid to a professional racing series where the world's largest automakers spent millions of dollars per year.
Klaus Karl Ludwig is a German racing driver.
The 1986 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 54th Grand Prix of Endurance as well as the third round of the 1986 World Sports-Prototype Championship. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on 31 May and 1 June 1986. This year saw the return of a full Jaguar works team, to take on the strong Porsche works and customer teams. However, with the fuel regulations relaxed, the turbo-charged cars would be able to use more of their potential power to outrun the normally-aspirated 6-litre Jaguars.
The 1985 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 53rd Grand Prix of Endurance, as well as the fourth round of the 1985 World Endurance Championship. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on 15 and 16 June 1985. The works Porsche team returned, with a Group C version of the 962. As favourites, they could expect from their customer teams and the works Lancias. In qualifying, Hans-Joachim Stuck set a new lap record in his works Porsche, with an average speed over 250 km/h for the first time. Mercedes returned for the first time in 30 years, as engine supplier to the Sauber team. The return was short-lived though, as the car got airborne in practice and crashed. With tighter fuel regulations this year from FISA, the teams would have to be more mindful of fuel economy and speed. However, from the start the Joest and Richard Lloyd Racing teams had the measure of the field. Working in tandem, Klaus Ludwig and Jonathon Palmer took turns leading and slipstreaming behind the other. Then at 9pm Jean-Claude Andruet had a major accident when his WM had a tyre blow out a high speed at the Mulsanne kink, sending him into the Armco barriers. Andruet was uninjured, but the race went behind the pace-cars for a half-hour as repairs were done. Just as the race resumed James Weaver pitted the RLR Porsche with an engine misfire. Traced to a faulty sensor, they returned to the race in 7th.
The 1984 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 52nd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 16 – 17 June 1984. It was also the third round of the 1984 World Endurance Championship. There were two big stories going into the race weekend: the absence of the Porsche works team and their drivers, and the return of Jaguar. Bob Tullius had commissioned the new Jaguar XJR-5 to run in the IMSA series and entered two for Le Mans. Earlier in the year, FISA had announced abrupt changes to the fuel regulations to bring them more in line with IMSA. Porsche and Lancia objected strongly because of their strong investment in the existing rules. In the absence of dominant Porsche works team, the race was left wide open between Lancia and the number of strong Porsche customer teams.
The 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans was a motor race staged at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France on 18 and 19 June 1983. It was the 51st Grand Prix of Endurance and was also the fourth round of both the 1983 World Endurance Championship and the 1983 European Endurance Championship. The 1983 race was held eight days before the 60th anniversary of the inaugural race held in 1923.
Sandown International Raceway is a motor racing circuit in the suburb of Springvale in Melbourne, Victoria, approximately 25 km (16 mi) south east of the city centre. Sandown is considered a power circuit with its "drag strip" front and back straights being 899 and 910 m long respectively.
The 1984 World Sportscar Championship season was the 32nd season of FIA "World Sportscar Championship" motor racing. It featured the 1984 FIA World Endurance Championship, which was open to FIA Group C1, Group C2 and Group B cars and to IMSA GTP, GTX, GTO and GTU cars. The championship was contested over an eleven race series which ran from 23 April to 2 December 1984.
Porsche has been successful in many branches of motorsport of which most have been in long-distance races.
Allan Maxwell Grice, known to motor-racing fans as "Gricey", is an Australian former racing driver and politician, most famous for twice winning the prestigious Bathurst 1000, and as a privateer driver of a Holden in the Australian Touring Car Championship.
The Lancia LC2 was a series of racing cars built by Italian automobile manufacturer Lancia and powered by engines built by their sister company Ferrari. They were part of Lancia's official factory-backed effort in the World Sportscar Championship from 1983 to 1986, although they continued to be used by privateer teams until 1991. They were also the company's first car meeting the FIA's new Group C regulations for sports prototypes.
The 1985 1000 km Spa was the seventh round of the 1985 World Endurance Championship. It took place at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium on September 1, 1985. In the first half of the race the two leading drivers collided, which resulted in the death of defending Drivers Champion Stefan Bellof. The race organisers ended the race early, thus allowing the Martini Racing Lancia of drivers Mauro Baldi, Bob Wollek, and Riccardo Patrese to win their only victory of the year. It was also the last victory scored by the Lancia LC2.
Alfredo Costanzo is a retired Italian born Australian racing driver. From 1980 to 1983 Costanzo won four Australian Drivers' Championships in a row, equalling the record set by Bib Stillwell from 1962 to 1965.
The 1983 1000 km of Nürburgring was an endurance race held at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. It was Round 3 of the 1983 FIA World Endurance Championship. The race was the last international race to be held at the Nordschleife until the 2015 FIA WTCC Race of Germany, and the following year, the new GP-Strecke track was completed and all international racing was held on that section of the track. It was also the race where West German driver Stefan Bellof recorded a then-record 6:11.13 around the track in his factory backed Rothmans Porsche 956, which was unofficially beaten in 2018.
JPS Team BMW is a former Australian motor racing team that ran from 1981–1987. The team's main focus was touring car racing but also ran in sports sedans and GT cars as well. The team, under the management of former British Touring Car Champion and Formula One racer Frank Gardner, was based in Sydney and completed almost all of their testing at the old Amaroo Park circuit with Gardner himself doing most of the test miles in the various BMW's the team raced.
The Romano WE84 is an Australian designed and built, mid-engined closed top racing car built to CAMS Group A Sports Car specifications. The car began its life as the Kaditcha K583 when it first appeared in the 1983 Australian Sports Car Championship and was built by the Queensland based Kaditcha owner and former McLaren engineer Barry Lock after he was approached by Brisbane accountant, property developer, timber mill owner and former speedway racer Bap Romano in 1981 with the idea of building a Le Mans type coupe. When the car first appeared in 1983, it was the first closed top Sports Car seen in Australia and looked like an FIA Group C Sports Car rather than the open cockpit Can-Am style cars of previous years. This led to the false belief that it was built to the Group C regulations
The Veskanda C1 is a one-off, Australian designed and built, mid-engined closed top racing car built in 1985 to CAMS Group A Sports Car specifications. Powered by a Chevrolet V8 engine, the car is generally regarded as the fastest sports car ever built in Australia and as of 2016 remains one of Australia's fastest race cars.
