Bernd Leinemann
Bernd Leinemann (born December 11, 1963 in Northeim ) is a former German racing driver . His athletic achievements were winning the German ONS - Rallycross - Championship in 1992 and the Vice-Rallycross- European Championship Division 1 ( Group N ) 1994th
Career
The entrepreneur and trained butcher Bernd Leinemann was encouraged to start his own motorsport career by his older brother Friedrich Leinemann , who himself participated in rallycross car races for many years and later on the circuit . After the younger of the Leinemann brothers had played football for his hometown of Lindau ( municipality of Katlenburg-Lindau ) for almost 20 years but had to give up this sport due to a hip problem, he followed brother "Friedel" in 1987 into the rallycross scene.
Bernd Leinemann's first competition car was a BMW M3 that was prepared according to the Group A rules . In 1992 he won the overall ranking of the German ONS Rallycross Championship with a Ford Sierra Cosworth 4 × 4 of Group N and then lost interest in the national scene of this motor sport discipline. With his DM-Sierra he took part in eight out of ten races at the European Rallycross Championships in 1993, but soon realized that although he could keep up with his driving skills at European level, his car was not sufficiently competitive to secure a place in the Secure top 3 of the series. At the end of the season he finished 7th in the Group N championship and now assumed that he also had a chance of winning a European title. That's why he had his two friends Peter Böhm and Oliver Sasse, who were rallycross drivers themselves during the same period and ran a racing / tire service (Böhm & Sasse Motorsport-Service) , a Ford Escort RS for the 1994 European Rallycross Championship Prepare Cosworth according to Group N regulations .
Of the eleven races in the 1994 European Rallycross Championship, Leinemann won three, and he also took second place twice. As a result, he was in first place in the table for almost the entire season, including before the season finale on his home track, the Estering in Buxtehude . Here a colleague from the brand, the Briton Richard Hutton , managed to dispute Leinemann over the last few meters for the title, which was believed to be almost certain. Hutton won the race and with it the European Championship, Leinemann finished the finals in front of a home crowd in 5th place and then only finished 2nd in the series.
In 1995, Leinemann again took part in all European Rallycross races, this time there were twelve, relying on a newly built Escort Cosworth from Böhm & Sasse . But this car was the measure of all things in Division 1 up to and including 1994, so now began the time of the participants who contested the races in the Group N category with a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution . At the end of the season, Leinemann had only been able to qualify four out of twelve times for one of the A-finals, which are extremely important for the point allocation, and so he finished the European Championship in 7th place.
In 1996, the Eichsfeld team succeeded in getting the German importer of Mitsubishi Motors interested in getting involved in the European Rallycross Championship. Leinemann received factory support from Ralliart Germany , who coordinated the Group N operations across Europe. The motorsport department in Trebur was of the opinion that the winning car of the Group N category of the 1995 World Rally Championship , the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 2 of the Portuguese Rui Madeira , was competitive enough to compete against the Lancer Evo 3 of the top drivers in the European Rallycross Championship to be able to. However, this turned out to be a fallacy after just a few EM rounds and so Leinemann's E2 was upgraded to E3 during the EM half-time break. Too late, however, to be among the top 3 of the championship. After all eleven European Championship races in 1996 and the championship ended, Leinemann was in 5th place overall, the first three places were occupied by Mitsubishi Lancer drivers who had started with Evolution 3 models from the start .
In 1997 Bernd Leinemann only took part in two out of ten European Championship races with the Mitsubishi Lancer and then ended his rallycross career. Today, the entrepreneur operates 21 Burger King restaurants in Lower Saxony , Hesse , Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt as a franchise partner from his company headquarters in Katlenburg-Lindau .
Individual evidence
- "Pull the leash, man!", Motorsport aktuell , print edition of December 21, 1994, page 22
- “Some like it hotter”, Tophotel magazine , October 1997 print edition, pages 162–163
- Burger King in Weimar has opened
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Leinemann, Bernd |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German automobile racing driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 11, 1963 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Northeim |