Al Holbert

Holbert's Porsche 962 from the IMSA-GTP series

Alvah Robert "Al" Holbert (born November 11, 1946 in Abington , Pennsylvania , † September 30, 1988 in Columbus , Ohio ) was an American entrepreneur and racing driver .

Career

Al Holbert came into contact with automobiles and motorsport at a young age. His father Bob drove sports car races and ran a Porsche dealership in Warrington , a local town near Philadelphia . During his engineering studies he worked for Roger Penske , for whom he also drove his first car races. In 1974 Holbert became a professional racing driver and won his first major title with overall victories in the IMSA sports car championship. His emergency vehicle was a Chevrolet Monza .

Through his business connections to Volkswagen and Porsche , Holbert became a works driver at Porsche in the early 1980s and rose to become one of the best sports car drivers of the time.

He was the overall winner of the Le Mans 24-hour race three times . In 1983 he won together with Vern Schuppan and Hurley Haywood in the works Porsche 956 . In 1986 and 1987 he sat in the victorious Porsche 962 and shared the success with Hans-Joachim Stuck and Derek Bell . Holbert was also able to enter the list of winners at the two major US endurance races. In 1986 and 1987 he won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1976 and 1981 and the 12-hour race at Sebring . He won the IMSA-GTP championship two more times for Porsche and built his own racing team with Holbert Racing. He won an IMSA title on a March 83G .

Between 1976 and 1979 he competed in 19 NASCAR races and finished fourth in the Indianapolis 500 mile race in 1984 .

In September 1988, Holbert, who was President of Porsche Motorsport North America and Managing Director of Holbert Porsche for many years, had a fatal accident in the crash of a Piper he had flown near Columbus , Ohio .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1977	Inaltera	Inaltera LM77	Jean-Pierre Beltoise		Rank 13
1980	Porsche system	Porsche 924 Carrera GT	Derek Bell		Rank 13
1982	Rothmans Porsche System	Porsche 956	Hurley Haywood	Jürgen Barth	Rank 3
1983	Rothmans Porsche	Porsche 956	Hurley Haywood	Vern Schuppan	Overall victory
1985	Rothmans Porsche	Porsche 962C	John Watson	Vern Schuppan	failure	Engine failure
1986	Rothmans Porsche	Porsche 962C	Derek Bell	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Overall victory
1987	Rothmans Porsche	Porsche 962C	Derek Bell	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Overall victory

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1972	Holbert's Porsche-Audi Inc.	Porsche 911T	Dieter Oest	Mike Tillson	Rank 16
1975	Holbert's Porsche-Audi	Porsche Carrera RSR	Elliot Forbes-Robinson		Rank 12
1976	Dickinson Holbert Porsche-Audi	Porsche Carrera RSR	Michael Keyser		Overall victory
1979	JLP Racing	Porsche 935 JLP-1	John Paul Sr.		failure	Power transmission
1980	Thunderbird Swap Shop	Porsche 935K3	John Paul Sr.	Preston Henn	Rank 4
1981	Bayside Disposal Racing	Porsche 935/80	Hurley Haywood	Bruce Leven	Overall victory
1982	Bayside Disposal Racing	Porsche 935/80	Hurley Haywood	Bruce Leven	Rank 5
1983	Bayside Disposal Racing	Porsche 935/80	Hurley Haywood		Rank 3
1984	Bayside - Lion Brew	Porsche 935/80	Hurley Haywood	Claude Ballot-Léna	failure	Engine failure
1985	Holbert Racing	Porsche 962	Derek Bell	Al our junior	Rank 2
1986	Holbert Racing	Porsche 962	Derek Bell	Al our junior	Rank 3
1987	Holbert Racing	Porsche 962	Chip Robinson		Rank 2
1988	Holbert Racing	Porsche 962	Chip Robinson		failure	Engine failure

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

Commons : Al Holbert  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Al Holbert in International Motorsport Hall of Fame (English)