Joest Racing
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| Joest Racing | |
|---|---|
| Motor racing team | |
| Founded | 1978 |
| Country |  Germany |
| Team Principal(s) | Reinhold Joest |
| Current series | Le Mans Series |
| Former series | World Sportscar Championship Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft IMSA GT Championship Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft American Le Mans Series Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters |
| Drivers' titles | 0 |
| Teams' titles | 0 |
Joest Racing (currently Audi Sport Team Joest) is a racing team that was established in 1978 by former Porsche works racer Reinhold Joest. The head quarters in Wald-Michelbach, Germany.
During the last 20 years, Joest Racing won the 24 Hours of Le Mans seven times with various brands, making it the most successful team in sports car racing of the era. Joest Racing is known for the excellent preparation of their cars as well as quick work in the pits, which gives them an edge even when running against other teams with identical cars.
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[edit] Early years
As a combined driver/team owner, Reinhold Joest first began to race a Porsche 908/3 in the European Sports Car Championship, winning the driver's title. He then switched to Porsche 935s, winning the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1980. The team won the DRM back to back with driver Bob Wollek, in 1982 and 1983. During the 1982 season, whilst the Porsche 956 was only available to the works team, Joest adapted a roof onto a Porsche 936 to enter the Group C World Endurance Championship. They would race the car into the 1983 season until they took delivery of their 956 prior to Le Mans.
[edit] Le Mans successes
In 1984, in absence of the works team, Joest Racing would score their first of their seven wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Klaus Ludwig and Henri Pescarolo driving their "lucky #7" car a Porsche 956, chassis number 117. In 1985, the works team returned, and despite having little factory support, they defended their title with Ludwig, Paolo Barilla and incognito German businessman "John Winter" driving the #7 chassis number 117 again. This would make them the second team to score back to back wins with the same car, the other being JW Automotive in 1968 and 1969.
In 1986, 1988, and 1989 Joest won the Supercup title for teams and Wollek winning the drivers cup in 1989. They also took the Interserie title for drivers with Winter in 1985 and Bernd Schneider in 1991, and the teams title in 1991.
In 1989, FIA introduced the new 3.5 liter Formula One engine rule to Group C, which not many teams were happy about, because few, if any, such engines were available to privateer teams like Joest. The previous fuel economy based rules were gradually phased out in favour of short races with cars that were virtually two-seater Formula 1 cars; existing Group C cars such as Joest's Porsche 962s were given higher weights and lower fuel allocation to make them less competitive. The team would instead compete in the IMSA GTP category beginning in 1990, winning the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1991 with Wollek, Pescarolo, Frank Jelinski, "Winter" and Hurley Haywood. With their Porsche 962 now being outmoded by the Nissans, Jaguars and Toyotas, the team would not score any more victories. In 1993, the Nissan and TWR Jaguar team had withdrawn, and the AAR Eagle Toyota would continue to dominate the series final year. Joest managed to score the car's last IMSA victory at the Road America 500, due to Toyota's absence.
[edit] Joest & Opel
In the 1990s, the team also had a successful career developing and racing an Opel Calibra in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM). They first won the ITR Gold Cup at the Donington Park round in 1994 with Manuel Reuter driving, when the leading Alfa Romeo of Alessandro Nannini was disqualified for running out of fuel. They would continue to have a successful career there by the time the series became a full fledged international championship (ITC), winning the title for the final year in 1996 for Opel.
[edit] Return to Le Mans
In late 1995, Tom Walkinshaw Racing were commissioned by Porsche to produce a WSC car to compete in the 1996 Daytona 24 hour race. The resulting Porsche WSC-95 was based on the TWR's 1991 Jaguar XJR-14 chassis, with the roof removed and a flat-six Porsche engine fitted. The car was withdrawn because of a sudden rule change. For 1996 the concept was revived and Joest were chosen to run the WSC-95s at Le Mans as backup for Porsche's own team of works 911 GT1s. Joest won the race with Davy Jones, Manuel Reuter, and Alexander Wurz. They returned in 1997, this time without works support, but again with the same car wearing #7. The winning pilots were by Michele Alboreto, Stefan Johansson and Tom Kristensen, the latter scoring the first of his seven wins. As with the #7 956 of the 1980s, Joest attempted for a third straight win, although without success, as neither car finished, while the factory itself prevailed in the 1998 race.
[edit] Audi Sport Team Joest
In 1998, after being associated with Porsche for many years, the team signed a works contract with Audi (its CEO being Ferdinand Piech, a grandson of Porsche) to support them for the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans. Joest helped them build and develop a predecessor of the Audi R8, the R8R. Audi, not being sure which concept was the better one, also supported an LM-GTP entry, the R8C, developed by RTN. While the British R8Cs never worked properly, the two Joest R8R were reliable, yet too slow to finish better than 3rd and 4th against the works BMW V12 LMRs.
Audi and Joest went back to develop the highly successful R8, winning her maiden win at the 2000 12 Hours of Sebring, and going on the win at Le Mans. Between 2000 and 2002, the R8 cars took a hat-trick of wins at Le Mans, Sebring, and Petit Le Mans, and the American Le Mans Series titles in each year.
Audi scaled their sports car racing operation down at the end of 2002, preferring to focus their attention on the Bentley Speed 8 for a year, allowing it to win in 2003 (with support by Joest mechanics). In 2004, Audi returned to DTM touring car racing, now officially backing up the Abt Sportsline effort which had been called "private" since 2000. Joest and Abt fielded Audi A4s in the series.
In 2006, Joest began racing the new diesel-powered Audi R10 sports car. They began the 2006 season with a win at the 12 Hours of Sebring, and took also the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans, replicating that performance a year later.
