Eje Elgh

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Eje Elgh (born June 15, 1953 in Karlskoga ) is a former Swedish automobile racing driver .

Motorsport

Monopostor racing

In the 1970s, Elgh tried the classic route from Formula Vau to Formula 1 through the single- seater formulas . In the late 1970s he was considered a great talent in Sweden and was already seen by Swedish motorsport journalists as the successor to Gunnar Nilsson and Ronnie Peterson , who died in close succession . It was managed in the 1970s and 1980s by former racing driver Torsten Palm .

He came to the British Formula 3 Championship in 1977 via Formula Super Vau, the Swedish and the European . Not least because most of the Formula 1 teams had their factories in Great Britain, and because of the large number of talented drivers, the British championship was seen as a stepping stone into Formula 1. The Swede competed in chevron racing in 1977 and was close behind Derek Daly ex aequo with Stephen South second in the championship.

After a first race in 1977, he moved from Formula 3 to the next higher racing class, Formula 2 , in 1978, and started for Fred Opert's team. Opert later became team manager in the ATS Racing Team . The first season - the emergency vehicle was a Chevron B42 - was quite successful for a Rockie. In Pau , he was with a gap of almost 20 seconds Bruno Giacomelli , one plant - March 782 drove second and finished the race in Rouen-les-Essarts and Hockenheim sixth. In the final ranking of the championship, he placed eleventh overall.

In 1979 he switched to Tiga Race Cars , which used a March 792 and won his first Formula 2 race at the Autodromo di Pergusa . His best year in the Formula 2 European Championship was the 1981 season . He had already switched to Maurer Motorsport the year before and had had a disastrous first season without a finish. In 1981 he won in Vallelunga , finished the races in Thruxton (behind team-mate Roberto Guerrero ) and the Eifel race on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring (behind Thierry Boutsen ) in second and the racing event in Spa in third. He also took this position in the final ranking of the championship.

Despite these successes, the Swede did not make it into the Formula 1 World Championship, so he looked for new challenges in Asia. As early as the early 1980s, many European racing drivers switched to the lucrative Japanese monoposto series. Elgh drove there successfully in the Japanese Formula 2 and Formula 3000 championships .

Sports car racing

The Swedes' touring car and sports car career began in the mid-1980s . He became a works driver at Dome and drove touring car races for the Volvo team of his compatriot Robert Kvist in 1984 . Together with Ulf Granberg , he finished second in the 500 km race in Mugello , the twelfth round of the 1984 European Touring Car Championship .

Until the end of his career in 1995, he was closely associated with Dome and the Toyota sports car team , for which he was almost always involved. Elgh was seen as a strong development driver and loyal team player, who stayed with Toyota at times when successes largely failed to materialize. He won his first endurance race in 1985; with partner Geoff Lees he triumphed in the 500 km race of Suzuka , a race of the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship on a Dome 84C . His last of the four successes in the Japanese sports car championship was the overall victory in the 500 km race in Sugo in 1991 ; again with Lees as a partner, this time in the Toyota 91C-V .

Has competed ten times in the Le Mans 24-hour race . He made his debut in 1982 ; he achieved his best result in 1993 when he finished sixth overall.

Since the end of his racing career, he has been working as a TV commentator in Sweden.

statistics

Le Mans results

year team vehicle Teammate Teammate placement Failure reason
1982 United KingdomUnited Kingdom March Racing Team March 82G BelgiumBelgium Patrick Nève United StatesUnited States Jeff Wood failure Electrics
1985 JapanJapan Dome team Dome 85C United KingdomUnited Kingdom Geoff Lees JapanJapan Toshio Suzuki failure Clutch damage
1986 JapanJapan Dome Co. Ltd. Dome 86C-L ItalyItaly Beppe Gabbiani JapanJapan Toshio Suzuki failure Turbo damage
1987 JapanJapan Toyota Team Tom's Toyota 87C-L United KingdomUnited Kingdom Geoff Lees AustraliaAustralia Alan Jones failure no petrol
1988 AustraliaAustralia Takefuji Schuppan Racing Team Porsche 962C FranceFrance Jean-Pierre Jarier United KingdomUnited Kingdom Brian Redman Rank 10
1989 AustraliaAustralia Team Schuppan Porsche 962C AustraliaAustralia Gary Brabham AustraliaAustralia Vern Schuppan Rank 13
1990 AustraliaAustralia Team Schuppan Porsche TS962 SwedenSweden Thomas Danielsson AustraliaAustralia Thomas Mezera Rank 15
1991 SwitzerlandSwitzerland Team Salamin Primagaz Porsche 962C AustriaAustria Roland Ratzenberger United KingdomUnited Kingdom Will Hoy failure Cylinder overheated
1992 JapanJapan Toyota Team Tom's Toyota 92C-V AustriaAustria Roland Ratzenberger United KingdomUnited Kingdom Eddie Irvine Rank 9
1993 JapanJapan Nisso Trust Racing Team Toyota 93C-V SwedenSweden Steven Andskar South Africa 1961South Africa George Fouché Rank 6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ British Formula 3 Championship 1977
  2. ^ Formula 2 races in Pau 1978
  3. ^ Formula 2 race in Rouen 1978
  4. ^ Formula 2 race in Hockenheim 1978
  5. ^ Formula 2 European Championship 1978
  6. ^ Formula 2 races in Pergusa 1979
  7. ^ Formula 2 race in Vallelunga 1981
  8. ^ Formula 2 races in Thruxton 1981
  9. ↑ Eifel race 1981
  10. ↑ Formula 2 race in SPA 1981
  11. ↑ Formula 2 European Championship 1981
  12. ↑ 500 km Mugello race in 1984
  13. ^ Suzuka 500 km race in 1985
  14. ^ Sugo 500 km race in 1991
personal data
SURNAME Elgh, Eje
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish racing car driver
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlskoga