Walter Röhrl

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Walter Röhrl
San Remo Rally
Last rally1987 Acropolis Rally

Walter Röhrl (German pronunciation:

auto racing driver, with victories for Fiat, Opel, Lancia and Audi as well as Porsche, Ford and BMW. Röhrl has scored 14 victories over his career, with his notable achievements including winning the World Rally Championship twice: in 1980 in a Fiat Abarth and in 1982 while driving for Opel. He has also competed in other forms of motorsport, such as endurance racing, winning in the GTP +3.0 class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1981 with the Porsche System team. Röhrl also set the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record in 1987 driving an Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2
. He is often regarded as one of the greatest rally drivers of all time.

Career

Röhrl grew up as the youngest of three children of a stonemason in Regensburg, Bavaria, near

Bishop of Regensburg along with six further Bishops in Bavaria, and skied in his spare time. In time he became a qualified ski instructor and a keen driver, and became the chauffeur to the commercial director, covering up to 120,000 kilometres annually. Some unqualified reports have stated he was once the Bishop's own driver, but this has been acknowledged as untrue. Having also now been active in sports like skiing
, Röhrl was invited to drive his first rally in 1968.

Röhrl was a

1982 that impressed most of all, with Röhrl fending off audacious four-wheel drive opposition, led by Audi's resurgent Michèle Mouton, to take the title, by virtue of consistency, in his increasingly outmoded rear-drive Opel Ascona 400. It was also during this time that he won the African Rally Championship, in 1982.[1] However, shortly after winning the championship he was fired from the team by team manager Tony Fall because he disliked competing in the RAC rally (the rally he had little success in).[2][3] Röhrl had already had severe arguments with Tony Fall about publicity activities for the team sponsor, tobacco company Rothmans. Röhrl, as a strict nonsmoker, simply refused to do any filming for Rothmans publicity spots, claiming that he had been hired as a driver, not an actor, and that he could not see any sense in promoting tobacco as a nonsmoker anyway.[4]

Audi S1 Pikes Peak

In

1984, to the four-wheel drive Audi Quattro, an automobile actually produced in his home state of Bavaria
.

In 1987 Röhrl set up a new record in the

Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2 he did the famed American hillclimb in 10 minutes and 47.850 seconds[5]
to reach Pikes Peak on the road which at that time was mainly covered with gravel.

Despite being selective in his choice of top-level events (he declined to do the famed

Swedish Rally
twice, despite finishing third in 1982), albeit during a time when this was a less unusual occurrence for top-line drivers in the championship, Röhrl still scored 14 WRC victories in his career.

Röhrl was also successful in road racing events, and was called "Genius on Wheels" by

24 Hours Nürburgring
race which saw fog and heavy rain in the night, he hardly slowed down, anticipating the corners by timing. The race was nevertheless interrupted for hours.

In Italy, he was elected "Rallye driver of the century". In France he was elected "Rallye driver of the millennium" in November 2000. A jury out of 100 worldwide motorsports experts meeting in Italy elected him "Best Rallye driver ever".

In recent years, he has been retained as the senior test driver for Porsche road cars, famously setting quick laptimes for them testing round the famous

Nürburgring Nordschleife, for example with the Porsche Carrera GT
.

Röhrl was expected to make his competitive return to the Nürburgring 24 hour race in 2010 at the wheel of a

Porsche 911 GT3 RS. However, he was forced to withdraw from the event due to a back injury.[7] It was to be his first 24-hour race in 17 years, since his last start in 1993. In 2011, Röhrl was inducted into the Rally Hall of Fame along with Hannu Mikkola[8] and in July 2016 was inducted into Germany's Sports Hall of Fame.[9]

Complete WRC results

Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 WDC Points
1973
 Irmscher Tuning Opel Commodore GS/E MON
45 		SWE POR KEN MOR GRE POL FIN N/A N/A
Opel Ascona AUT
Ret 		ITA USA GBR
Ret 		FRA
1974
 Opel Euro Händler Team Opel Ascona MON
C 		SWE
C 		POR
Ret 		KEN GRE
C 		FIN ITA CAN USA GBR
5 		FRA N/A N/A
1975
 Opel Euro Händler Team Opel Ascona MON
Ret 		SWE KEN GRE
1 		MOR
Ret 		POR
Ret 		FIN N/A N/A
Opel Kadett GT/E ITA
Ret 		FRA GBR
Ret
1976
 Opel Euro Händler Team Opel Kadett GT/E MON
4
SWE
 POR
Ret 		KEN
Ret 		GRE MOR FIN ITA
Ret 		FRA
Ret 		GBR
Ret 		N/A N/A
1977
 Opel Euro Händler Team Opel Kadett GT/E MON
Ret 		SWE POR KEN NZL GRE
Ret 		FIN GBR
Ret 		NC 0
Fiat S.p.A.
Fiat 131 Abarth
 CAN
Ret 		ITA
Ret 		FRA
1978
 Alitalia Fiat
Fiat 131 Abarth
 MON
4 		SWE KEN POR
Ret 		GRE
1 		FIN CAN
1 		ITA
Ret 		CIV FRA GBR
6 		6th 13
1979
 Alitalia Fiat
Fiat 131 Abarth
 MON
Ret 		SWE POR KEN
8 		GRE NZL FIN CAN ITA
2 		FRA GBR
8 		CIV 9th 21
1980
 Fiat Italia
Fiat 131 Abarth
 MON
1 		SWE POR
1 		KEN GRE
5 		ARG
1 		FIN NZL
2 		FRA
2 		GBR CIV 1st 118
Jolly Club ITA
1
1981
 Eminence
Porsche 911 SC
 MON SWE POR KEN FRA GRE ARG BRA FIN ITA
Ret 		CIV GBR NC 0
1982
 Rothmans Opel Rally Team
Opel Ascona 400
 MON
1 		SWE
3 		POR
Ret 		KEN
2 		FRA
4 		GRE
2 		NZL
3 		BRA
2 		FIN ITA
3 		CIV
1 		GBR 1st 109
1983
 Martini Racing
Lancia 037 Rally
 MON
1 		SWE POR
3 		KEN FRA
2 		GRE
1 		NZL
1 		ARG FIN ITA
2 		CIV GBR 2nd 102
1984
 Audi Sport Audi Quattro A2 MON
1 		SWE POR
6 		KEN NZL
Ret 		ARG FIN 11th 26
Audi Sport Quattro FRA
Ret 		GRE
Ret 		ITA
Ret 		CIV GBR
1985
 Audi Sport Audi Sport Quattro MON
2 		SWE
Ret 		POR
3 		KEN FRA
Ret 		GRE
Ret 		NZL
3 		ARG FIN 3rd 59
Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2 ITA
1 		CIV GBR
Ret
1986
 Audi Sport Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2 MON
4 		SWE POR
Ret 		KEN FRA GRE NZL ARG FIN CIV ITA GBR USA 22nd 10
1987
 Audi Sport Audi 200 Quattro MON
3 		SWE POR KEN
2 		FRA GRE
Ret 		USA NZL ARG FIN CIV ITA GBR 11th 27

WRC victories

Röhrl's final WRC victory came at the wheel of an Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2 at the 1985 Rallye Sanremo. The car was paraded at the Ignition Festival of Motoring in 2017.
 #  Event Season Co-driver Car
1 Greece Acropolis Rally
1975
 Germany Jochen Berger Opel Ascona
2 Greece Acropolis Rally
1978
 Germany Christian Geistdörfer Fiat 131 Abarth
3 Canada Critérium du Québec 1978 Germany Christian Geistdörfer Fiat 131 Abarth
4
Rally Monte Carlo
1980
 Germany Christian Geistdörfer Fiat 131 Abarth
5
Rally Portugal
 1980 Germany Christian Geistdörfer Fiat 131 Abarth
6 Argentina Rally Argentina 1980 Germany Christian Geistdörfer Fiat 131 Abarth
7
Rally Sanremo
 1980 Germany Christian Geistdörfer Fiat 131 Abarth
8
Rally Monte Carlo
1982
 Germany Christian Geistdörfer
Opel Ascona 400
9 Ivory Coast Rallye Côte d'Ivoire 1982 Germany Christian Geistdörfer Opel Ascona 400
10
Rally Monte Carlo
1983
 Germany Christian Geistdörfer
Lancia 037 Rally
11 Greece Acropolis Rally 1983 Germany Christian Geistdörfer Lancia 037 Rally
12 New Zealand Rally New Zealand 1983 Germany Christian Geistdörfer Lancia 037 Rally
13
Rally Monte Carlo
1984
 Germany Christian Geistdörfer Audi Quattro A2
14
Rally Sanremo
1985
 Germany Christian Geistdörfer Audi Quattro Sport S1

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1981 Germany Porsche System Germany Jürgen Barth Porsche 944 LM GTP +3.0 323 7 1st
1993 Germany Le Mans Porsche Team United States Hurley Haywood
Germany Hans-Joachim Stuck
Porsche 911 Turbo S LM-GT
 GT 79 DNF DNF

References

  1. ^ African Rally Championship Website – PastChampions Archived 2012-06-11 at the Wayback Machine
  2. YouTube
  3. ^ "Drivers - Walter Rohrl". Juwra.com. 1947-03-07. Retrieved 2022-09-04.
  4. ISBN 3-927458-04-X
  5. ^ "Race Winners by Year | PPIHC". Archived from the original on 2013-03-21.
  6. ^ "The 1983 Rally Rivalry". The Grand Tour. 2018-02-27. Archived from the original on 2021-12-12. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  7. ^ AUSmotive.com – Injury forces Walter Röhrl out of Nürburgring 24 hour
  8. ^ "New Inductees to Rally Hall of Fame". Neste Oil Rally Finland. 9 February 2011. Archived from the original on 30 April 2011. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  9. ^ "Meldung 24 05 2016". www.hall-of-fame-sport.de. Archived from the original on 2016-07-17. Retrieved 2016-07-17.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Walter Röhrl.
Sporting positions
Preceded by European Rally champion
1974 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
1980
 Succeeded by
Preceded by
1982
 Succeeded by
Preceded by African Rally champion
1982 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Race of Champions
Classic Master
1997 		Succeeded by
Records
Preceded by
1979 season
)
1980 season
) 		Succeeded by
1981 season
)
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