Reinhold Joest

Reinhold Joest (also spelt Reinhold Jöst; born 24 April 1937) is a former German race car driver and current team owner. During the last 25 years, Joest Racing has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans fifteen times.

Driving career Joest's driving career began in 1962 in a local hillclimb race in the Odenwald mountains. He had won two German championships in that category by 1967. Since 1966, he raced successfully on the Nürburgring, scoring a class win at the 1000 km Nürburgring. He won the race overall twice, in 1970 and 1980, and a total five class wins. In 1978 he also won the European Sportscar Championship.

Joest raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans nine times between 1969 and 1981. Joest's first entry was in a Ford GT40 co-driven by Helmut Kelleners and sponsored by a German car magazine. His first remarkable result came in 1972, after the dominating Porsche 917 and similar cars were not allowed anymore. Without any modern cars available, Joest borrowed an outdated 3.0 L Porsche 908/02 Langheck Coupé from the Jo Siffert Museum. He and his two co-drivers finished third with the 1969 model car. Despite being part of factory Porsche teams on several occasions, he never managed to be in their winning car. His best result was a second place finish in 1980 together with Jacky Ickx in his privately entered Porsche 936 that was called a "Porsche 908/80" as Porsche did not officially sell the 936.

Despite never winning as a driver at Le Mans, Joest ended his driving career in style. After winning the 24 Hours of Daytona in a Porsche 935 and on the Nürburgring with his Porsche 908/3 Turbo in 1980 (both with Rolf Stommelen), he went on to win several German DRM races in 1981 with a mighty Porsche 935 "Moby Dick". He retired after winning the Kyalami 9 Hours with Jochen Mass at the end of the year.

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 1969 Deutsche Auto Zeitung Helmut Kelleners Ford GT40 Mk.I S 5.0 341 6th 3rd 1971 Martini Racing Team Willi Kauhsen Porsche 917/20 S 5.0 180 DNF DNF 1972 Jo Siffert A.T.E. Racing Porsche 908LH S 3.0 325 3rd 3rd 1973 Martini Racing Team Claude Haldi Porsche 911 Carrera RSR S 3.0 54 DNF DNF 1975 Ovoro Joest Racing Jürgen Barth Porsche 908LH S 3.0 325 4th 4th 1976 Martini Racing Joest Jürgen Barth Porsche 936 Spyder S 3.0 DNF DNF 1978 Martini Racing Porsche System Peter Gregg Hurley Haywood Porsche 936/77 S+2.0 362 3rd 3rd 1980 Equipe Liqui Moly – Martini Racing Jacky Ickx Porsche 908/80 S+2.0 336 2nd 2nd 1981 Joest Racing Dale Whittington Klaus Niedzwiedz Porsche 908 S+2.0 60 39th 10th

References

Reinhold Joest

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