1981 World Sportscar Championship season

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1981 World Sportscar Championship season
Previous: 1980	Next: 1982

The 1981 World Endurance Championship for Drivers and Makes season was the 29th FIA World Sportscar Championship. The season ran from January 31, 1981 to September 27, 1981 and was comprised of 15 races including races run with the Camel GT Championship as well as the Spa 24 Hours. This was the first year in which the World Challenge for Endurance Drivers was combined with the World Championship of Makes to form two championships.

Contents 1 Schedule 2 Season results 3 Championship for Drivers 4 Championship for Makes 4.1 Over 2000 cc 4.2 Under 2000 cc 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Schedule

All fifteen rounds of the season were counted towards the Drivers Championship. Only six of the fifteen rounds counted towards the Championship for Makes, and are marked as Both below. The rest counted solely for the Drivers.

Rnd	Race	Circuit	Championship	Date
1	24 Hours Pepsi Challenge	Daytona International Speedway	Both	January 31 February 1
2	Coca-Cola 12 Hours of Sebring	Sebring International Raceway	Drivers	March 21
3	Mugello 6 Hours	Mugello Circuit	Drivers	April 12
4	1000km Monza	Autodromo Nazionale Monza	Both	April 26
5	Los Angeles Times Toyota Grand Prix (6 Hours)	Riverside International Raceway	Drivers	April 26
6	Silverstone 6 Hours	Silverstone Circuit	Both	May 10
7	1000km Nürburgring	Nürburgring	Both	May 24
8	24 Hours of Le Mans	Circuit de la Sarthe	Both	June 13 June 14
9	Coppa Florio (6 Hours)	Autodromo di Pergusa	Drivers	June 28
10	6 Hours of Daytona Champion Spark Plug Challenge	Daytona International Speedway	Drivers	July 2
11	6 Hours of Watkins Glen	Watkins Glen International	Both	July 12
12	24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps	Drivers	July 26 July 27
13	Molson 1000 Kilometres (6 Hours)	Mosport Park	Drivers	August 16
14	Pabst 500 Miles	Road America	Drivers	August 23
15	Flying Tigers 1000 Kilometres	Brands Hatch	Drivers	September 27

[edit] Season results

Although a multitude of classes contended for the Championship of Drivers and Makes, only the overall race winners are listed here.

Rnd	Circuit	Overall Winning Team	Results
		Overall Winning Drivers
1	Daytona	#9 Garretson Racing	Results
		Bob Garretson Bobby Rahal Brian Redman
2	Sebring	#86 Bayside Disposal Racing	Results
		Al Holbert Hurley Haywood Bruce Leven
3	Mugello	#14 Osella Squadra Corse	Results
		Giorgio Francia Lella Lombardi
4	Monza	#3 Weralit Racing Team	Results
		Edgar Dören Jürgen Lässig Gerhard Holup
5	Riverside	#1 John Fitzpatrick Racing	Results
		John Fitzpatrick Jim Busby
6	Silverstone	#22 Vegla Racing Team	Results
		Harald Grohs Walter Röhrl Dieter Schornstein
7	Nürburgring	#12 GS Tuning	Results
		Hans-Joachim Stuck Nelson Piquet
8	Le Sarthe	#11 Porsche System	Results
		Jacky Ickx Derek Bell
9	Pergusa	#3 Grid Team Lola	Results
		Guy Edwards Emilio de Villota
10	Daytona	#38 Mandeville Racing	Results
		Roger Mandeville Amos Johnson
11	Watkins Glen	#1 Martini Racing	Results
		Riccardo Patrese Michele Alboreto
12	Spa	#40 Tom Walkinshaw Racing	Results
		Tom Walkinshaw Pierre Dieudonné
13	Mosport	#3 Andial Meister Racing	Results
		Harald Grohs Rolf Stommelen
14	Road America	#3 Andial Meister Racing	Results
		Harald Grohs Rolf Stommelen
15	Brands Hatch	#3 Banco Occidental Ultramar Lola	Results
		Guy Edwards Emilio de Villota

[edit] Championship for Drivers

The drivers championship was open to various categories of cars recognized by the FIA as well as by IMSA. This included all sports prototype classes, all grand tourer classes, and all touring car classes.

American Bob Garretson won the inaugural World Endurance Championship for Drivers title.

[edit] Championship for Makes

Unlike the Championship for Drivers, the Championship for Makes was only open to select classes which participated in the six designated rounds. This included the FIA's Group 5 Special Production Cars, Group 4 Grand Touring Cars, Group 3 Series Production Grand Touring Cars, Group 2 Touring Cars, and Group 1 Series Production Touring Cars. Also included was IMSA's GTX class of cars. Two championships were awarded, for cars over 2000 cc and for those under 2000 cc.

Points were awarded for the top ten finishers in each division in the order of 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1, with only the best five results out of the six races being totaled. Only the best placed entry of each make in each division was eligible to score points, with any other points earned by that manufacturer skipped.

Half points were awarded at Round 7 due to the race being stopped before the half distance.

[edit] Over 2000 cc

Pos	Manufacturer	Rd 1	Rd 4	Rd 6	Rd 7	Rd 8	Rd 11	Total
1	Porsche	20	20	20	(7.5)	20	20	100
2	BMW	8	15	15	10	4		52
3	Ferrari		3			15		15
4	Lancia				6			6
5	Morgan			2				2

[edit] Under 2000 cc

Pos	Manufacturer	Rd 1	Rd 4	Rd 6	Rd 7	Rd 8	Rd 11	Total
1	Lancia	20	20	20	(10)	20	20	100
2	BMW			15	7.5			22.5
3	Opel				5			5
4	Ford				4			4
5	Toyota				2			2
6	Alfa Romeo				0.5			0.5

Lancia and Porsche scored an equal number of total points in their respective championships, as well as an equal number of wins in their category. However, having had a higher total of points over the six rounds, Lancia was awarded the overall Championship of Makes.

[edit] References

• (1982) Autocourse 1981/82. 
• (1982) Automobile Year, 1981/1982. 
• (1995) The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing. 
• (1999) Time and Two Seats. 

[edit] External links

• 1981 World Endurance Championship Race Results
• 1981 Daytona 24 Hour photos
• 1981 Silverstone 6 Hour photos
• 1981 Le Mans 24 Hour photos

World Sportscar Championship seasons v • d • e
1953 • 1954 • 1955 • 1956 • 1957 • 1958 • 1959 • 1960 • 1961 • 1962 1963 • 1964 • 1965 • 1966 • 1967 • 1968 • 1969 • 1970 • 1971 • 1972 1973 • 1974 • 1975 • 1976 • 1977 • 1978 • 1979 • 1980 • 1981 • 1982 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992
Separate World Championship for Makes seasons
1976 • 1977