Axel Plankenhorn

The Porsche 935K3 / 80 by John Fitzpatrick , Axel Plankenhorn and Dick Barbour second overall in the 1000 km race at the Nurburgring in 1980 reached

Axel Plankenhorn (born December 16, 1951 in Spaichingen ) is a former German car racing driver and today's racing team manager.

Career

Axel Plankenhorn started his racing career in Formula Vee . There he and his brother Jörg Plankenhorn successfully drove for several seasons in Formula V 1300 and Formula Super V. In Formula Super V, he became Vice European Champion in 1977. He then switched to Formula 2 for a year before entering touring car motorsport.
There he started in 1979 together with Klaus Ludwig for the Porsche Kremer Racing Team with a Porsche 935 / 77A in the 1st division of the German Racing Championship (DRM) and also in the World Sports Car Championship . He won his first class win in Group 5 with Klaus Ludwig at the 6-hour race at Brands Hatch, where they drove the car to second overall.
In the DRM, Plankenhorn achieved 2nd place as the best race placement at the international ADAC Hessen Cup in Hockenheim. Due to his regular good placements among the best six in all races of the season, he was able to secure 5th place in the overall ranking in 1979.
In the same year, Plankenhorn drove a Porsche 935 K3 at the Le Mans 24-hour races in which he and his team drivers "John Winter" and Philippe Gurdjian finished 5th in Group 5. In 1980 Plankenhorn drove in the DRM against his former team mate Klaus Ludwig, who switched to the Zakspeed team, and fought several duels with him that caused unrest between Kremer and Zakspeed. Kremer and Plankenhorn parted ways in the middle of the DRM season, and their best place was a 2nd place at the race in Hockenheim.
At the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1980 he started with Rolf Stommelen and the Japanese Tetsu Ikuzawa in a 935 K3 - but could not finish the race because of a defective cylinder head gasket. A year later he started again in Le Mans with a Porsche 935 L1 of the Tuff-Kote-Dinol-Racing-Team, which he had to give up due to an engine failure.
In 1982 Plankenhorn only drove a few races in the DRM and sports car world championships until the following year he was hired for a full world championship season with the Obermaier Racing Team in a Porsche 956 . With the Group C racing car, he regularly achieved places in the top five. In his last 24-hour Le Mans race with Jürgen Lässig and Desiré Wilson , he drove the 956 to 7th place. In 1984 he ended his racing career after the 1000 km race in Monza .

In 2000 he returned to motorsport with his racing team Carsport Racing in the Porsche Supercup . In the meantime he has taken over the management of the Araxa Racing Porsche Supercup team.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1979	Porsche Kremer Racing	Porsche 935 K3	Louis Krages	Philippe Gurdjian	Rank 13
1980	Gozzy Kremer Racing	Porsche 935 K3	Rolf Stommelen	Tetsu Ikuzawa	failure	Cylinder head gasket
1981	Tuff-Kote Dinol Racing	Porsche 935 L1	Jan Lundgårdh	Mike Wilds	failure	Engine failure
1983	Obermaier Racing	Porsche 956	Jürgen Lässig	Desiré Wilson	Rank 7

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th
1979	Kremer Racing	Porsche 935	DAY	SEB	MUG	VALLEY	DIJ	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	BY	DAY	WAT	SPA	BRH	ROA	VAL	ELS
										2	13					2
1980	Whittington Brothers Kremer Racing Team Willeme	Porsche 935 Ford Capri	DAY	BRH	SEB	MUG	MON	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	DAY	WAT	SPA	MOS	ROA	VAL	DIJ
			51						DNF	2	DNF			DNF
1981	Tuff-Kote Dinol Racing	Porsche 935	DAY	SEB	MUG	MON	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	BY	DAY	WAT	SPA	MOS	ROA	BRH
									39	DNF
1983	Obermaier Racing	Porsche 956	MON	SIL	ONLY	LEM	SPA	FUJ	KYA
			4th	4th	4th	7th	5
1984	Obermaier Racing	Porsche 956	MON	SIL	LEM	ONLY	BRH	MOS	SPA	IMO	FUJ	KYA	SAN
			DNF

Web links

Commons : Axel Plankenhorn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Driver Database - website: Axel Plankenhorn. From: www.driverdb.com , accessed September 7, 2012 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Dunlop - website: Axel Plankenhorn - The two-meter giant. (No longer available online.) At: www.dunlop.eu , formerly in the original ; Retrieved September 7, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
3. ↑ Classicscars - Internet site: Race results of the Sports Car World Championship 1979. At: www.classicscars.com , accessed on September 7, 2012 . 
4. ^ Classicscars - Internet site: Race results of the DRM 1979. At: www.classicscars.com , accessed on September 7, 2012 . 
5. ^ Classicscars - website: Le Mans race results 1979. At: www.classicscars.com , accessed on September 7, 2012 . 
6. ↑ Motor-Klassik - website: Kremer-Porsche 935 K3 in the driving report - Jägermeister with a giant wing. From: www.motor-klassik.de , July 10, 2012, accessed on September 7, 2012 . 
7. ^ Classicscars - website: Le Mans race results 1980. At: www.classicscars.com , accessed on September 7, 2012 . 
8. ↑ Classicscars - Internet site: Racing results of the sports car world championship 1983. At: www.classicscars.com , accessed on September 7, 2012 . 
9. ↑ Formel-Vau.eu - website: Formel- Vau - a movement that went around the world. (PDF; 282 kB) (No longer available online.) On: cms.formel-vau.eu , formerly in the original ; Retrieved September 7, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )