1981 World Sportscar Championship season

1981 World Sportscar Championship season
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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 composed 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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

References

External links

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