Bob Garretson

The Porsche 935 was Garretson's favorite racing car

Bob Garretson (born September 8, 1933 in Sunnyvale , California ) is a retired American car racing driver and racing team owner. He was the first world champion in the driver championship of the sports car world championship introduced in 1981 .

Career

Since the introduction of the sports car world championship in 1953 , only one championship of the brands and racing teams has been held. This changed in 1981 when a drivers' championship was announced for the first time. The American Bob Garretson, who was largely unnamed outside of North America at the time, won the first title.

Garretson, who was only active as a professional racing driver for a few years and also ran his own racing team, was able to show a number of successes in addition to the world title. In 1978 he won the overall standings in the Sebring 12-hour race and in 1981 the Daytona 24-hour race . After the 1983 Daytona 24-hour race , he retired from racing and sold his racing team.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1978	Dick Barbour Racing	Porsche 935/77	Steve Earle	Bob Akin	failure	accident
1979	Dick Barbour Racing	Porsche 935/78	Edwin Abate	Skeeter McKitterick	Rank 8
1980	Dick Barbour Racing	Porsche 935K3	Bobby Rahal	Allan Moffat	failure	Valve damage
1981	Cooke-Woods Racing	Porsche 935K3	Ralph Kent-Cooke	Anne-Charlotte Verney	Rank 6
1982	Garretson Developments	Porsche 935 K3	Ray Ratcliff	Anne-Charlotte Verney	Rank 11

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1978	Dick Barbour performance	Porsche 935	Brian Redman	Charles Mendez	Overall victory
1979	Dick Barbour Racing	Porsche 935	Gary Belcher	Bob Bondurant	Rank 3
1980	Dick Barbour Racing	Porsche 935K3	Kees Nierop	Bobby Rahal	Rank 7
1981	Cooke Woods Racing Garretson Enterprises	Porsche 935K3	Brian Redman	Bobby Rahal	Rank 17

literature

• Ken Breslauer: Sebring. The official History of America's Great Sports Car Race. David Bull, Cambridge MA 1995, ISBN 0-9649722-0-4 .
• Peter Higham: The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing. A complete Reference from Formula 1 to Touring Car. Guinness Publishing Ltd., London 1995, ISBN 0-85112-642-1 .

Web links

• Bob Garretson at Racing Sports Cars