Gerhard Mitter

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Gerhard Mitter (born 30 August 1935 - died 1 August 1969) was a German Formula One and sportscar driver.

Gerhard Mitter
Gerhard Mitter

Mitter was born in Schönlinde in the Sudetenland, but his family was expelled from there, to Leonberg near Stuttgart.

After racing motorbikes, he switched to Formula Junior, becoming the best German driver with 40 victories. In addition, he sold Two-Stroke-Engines for FJ. In 1963, Gerhard Mitter won the Formula Junior Eifelrennen at the Nürburgring.

Gerhard Mitter driving Lotus in 1965 at the Nürburgring
Gerhard Mitter driving Lotus in 1965 at the Nürburgring

Mitter also participated in seven Grands Prix, debuting on 23 June 1963. He scored a total of three championship points in his home 1963 German Grand Prix with an old Porsche 718 from 1961. Impressed by this, Team Lotus gave him a chance in the following years.

In sportscar racing and hillclimbing for Porsche, he scored many wins, eg. the 1966-1968 European Hillclimb Championships against Ferrari, the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona (Porsche 907) and the 1969 Targa Florio (Porsche 908) as his final major win.

Due to the long Nürburgring track, it was possible to take part in the German Grand Prix with Formula 2 cars that were classified in their own contest. Mitter was killed there at Schwedenkreuz while practising for the 1969 German Grand Prix with BMW's 269 F2 project. As a suspension or steering failure was suspected, the BMW team with Hubert Hahne and Dieter Quester withdrew from the race, as did Mitter's teammate at Porsche, Hans Herrmann.

[edit] Complete Formula One results

Gerhard Mitter on August 1, 1969
Gerhard Mitter on August 1, 1969

(Note: Grands Prix in bold denote points scoring races.)

Yr Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Team
1963 Pors MON BEL DUT FRA GBR DEU ITA USA MEX SAF     Pors
1964 Lotu MON DUT BEL FRA GBR DEU AUT ITA USA MEX     Lotu
1965 Lotu SAF MON BEL FRA GBR DUT DEU ITA USA MEX     Lotu
1966 Lotu MON BEL FRA GBR DUT DEU ITA USA MEX       Lotu
1967 Brab SAF MON DUT BEL FRA GBR DEU CAN ITA USA MEX   Brab
1969 BMW SAF SPA MON DUT BEL FRA GBR DEU ITA CAN USA MEX BMW
Preceded by
Jo Schlesser
Formula One fatal accidents
July 7, 1968
Succeeded by
Piers Courage

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