Günter Klass

Günter Klass in the Porsche 356 B 1600 GS-GT (so-called triangular scraper) at the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring in 1964

Günter Klass (born January 25, 1936 in Stuttgart ; † July 22, 1967 near Florence ) was a German automobile racing driver who was active in circuits, hill climbs , road races and rallies in the 1960s . He became the European Rally Champion in 1966 .

life and career

The craftsman's career, also known as “Bobby”, began in the early 1960s. In 1963 , Klass took part in a world championship run for the first time in the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring , together with Joseph Greger in a Porsche 356 B Carrera Abarth GTL used by the factory . At the Wiesbaden Rally he privately raced a Porsche 356 B Carrera 2 and finished ninth with Rolf Wütherich . In 1964 he took part in long-distance races both as a private driver and as a works driver in a Porsche 356 B 2000 GS-GT "Dreikantschaber" with a 1.6 liter engine. At the Targa Florio he finished seventh together with Jochen Neerpasch . Race director Huschke von Hanstein was registered on the vehicle, but did not drive. At the Nürburgring , Klass / Greger finished fifteenth in the overall ranking and third in class. At the Tour de France for automobiles , Klass / Wütherich took fourth place after 2,200 kilometers in the works Porsche 904 . At the 1000 km de Paris in Montlhéry , his teammate Robert Buchet retired early in the privately used 904.

In the 1965 World Cup season , Klass competed for the Porsche plant several times. He retired at Le Mans, was fifth in Sebring and the Targa Florio and sixth at the Nürburgring . In a Porsche 904 from the Swiss Scuderia Filipinetti , Klass achieved sixth place in the Schauinsland race .

For the 1966 World Cup season, Porsche made great efforts under the direction of Ferdinand Piëch . New variants were developed and, above all, more vehicles were used than before. Klass started again several times for the Porsche factory. With Udo Schütz he finished eighth in Daytona in the old 904, in Sebring together with Gerhard Mitter he retired in the new Porsche 906 with engine failure. For the Targa Florio , he and Colin Davis , the 1964 winner , were entrusted with the Porsche 906, starting number 224, with a 2.2-liter eight-cylinder engine, which was launched in the prototype class over two liters. With the approx. 270 hp eight-cylinder, the two were on the big four-liter Ferrari 330P3 from Vaccarella / Bandini, and Klass undercut the 39.07.1 minutes submitted by the local hero in Friday practice by more than a second. The training time was not very important for the race at the Targa; It was started individually as in rallies, with a 30-second gap so that the cars only drove against each other indirectly. A fight for positions on the narrow track made little sense, as the one who started earlier was usually behind in the ranking. In principle, the smallest or slowest wagons started first, but the starting times of some wagons in Sicily were often postponed. On the runway, which was partly muddy and partly wet from the nocturnal storms, Mitter in the approx. 50 HP weaker six-cylinder took the lead. A hailstorm set in on the fourth lap, slowing down those drivers in particular who had taken the wheel after the third lap. However, Klass drove a fourth lap, his lap time was more than three minutes faster than the second fastest of his brand colleague Dieter Glemser , whereby after four laps and 2: 50: 03.1 hours, Klass was more than three minutes ahead (2: 52: 37.0 Hours) in front of the big Ferrari of the Sicilian Vaccarella. Davis then took over, who was weakened by an illness and lost 4 minutes before handing over to Klass again. Klass then chased the four-liter Ferrari with the number 230 now driven by Bandini, which had to refuel in the middle of the 72 km long route at the junction to Polizzi . Although the Ferrari had started two and a half minutes earlier, Klass was now also ahead on the track. Encouraged by the spectators, Bandini tried to overtake again, but got off the track in a hairpin. At the same time, the Dino from Parkes with engine failure and the 906 from Glemser after an accident, so that the two factory cars from Klass and Mitter led the race, ahead of the Swiss semi-factory 906. But in the position battle in the seventh lap, Klass and Mitter touched, whereupon Mitter was eliminated, while Klass was able to finish the lap and came third from the bottom in the ranking. This was hardly any consolation for the Swabians, of whose four works cars three with German-speaking drivers were eliminated by accident, while Arena / Pucci finished third. The four works Ferraris fared similarly, and in the end it paid off that Porsche entrusted the chassis 906-128, which had occupied fourth place for the Monza plant and later won works in Zeltweg, to the Scuderia Filipinetti, their driver Herbert Müller and Willy Mairesse won.

On the Nürburgring in 1966 five works cars started the race. Klass was there, but the eight-cylinder was driven by Jochen Rindt and Nino Vaccarella , who finished third on the grid. In the team-internal competition of the six-cylinder factory drivers, Klass / Schütz and Herrmann / Glemser achieved the best practice time (fifth and sixth starting position), but the race result was disappointing. After the failure of the three fastest Porsches, Phil Hill / Joakim Bonnier won with a chaparral in front of the two-liter Ferrari Dino. At Le Mans , Porsche had no chance of overall victory, but they wanted to secure the two two-liter classes, for which five works cars were called up again. After a Ferrari debacle, three seven- liter Fords won ahead of the three Porsche prototypes, followed by Klass and Rolf Stommelen as the two-liter sports car class winners.

The newly built Motodrom of the Hockenheimring was the venue for the Hockenheim Grand Prix , which was only part of the world championship in the small classes. Ferrari stayed away, and Porsche gave three works cars to the Stuttgart local heroes Mitter, Herrmann and Klass. Mitter won both races; Klass was only third in practice, but drove the fastest race lap. It was to remain the last Porsche works outing for Klass, because Mitter drove the eight-cylinder Bergspyder and Herrmann drove the new Porsche 910 at the mountain race Sierra-Montagna . However, Klass had won the European rally championship title in a Porsche 911 R.

The 1967 World Cup season began with a triple triumph for the great Ferrari prototypes in Daytona. These were absent at the subsequent 12-hour race in Sebring , but Klass was now a works driver for Scuderia Ferrari in a Ferrari Dino sports car and thus a direct opponent of the Porsche 910 . In Sebring, however, he retired together with Herbert Müller due to a defect in the chassis. At the Targa Florio , he left the Sicilian mountain road on the first lap, probably because he wanted to beat his former colleagues from Porsche, Mario Casoni was not involved. At the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring, damage to the engine, which was enlarged to 2.4 liters, prevented a start with Ludovico Scarfiotti , which would have been from fifth position. In Le Mans , Günter Klass and Peter Sutcliffe drove one of the large four-liter works Ferrari 330P4 (chassis # 0860, start number 19), but retired a few hours before the end of the race in fourth place with a damage to the fuel pump.

accident

The ninth round of the World Championship, the Gran Premio Mugello , took place on the 66 km Circuito del Mugello road circuit , near the autodrome, which was later built. “Bobby” had a fatal accident in training on Saturday afternoon with the Ferrari Dino 206SP T-Car (chassis 0842). On the descent from Passo del Giogo to Firenzuola , the dinosaur came off the lane after a quick left turn, possibly as a result of a technical defect, according to eyewitnesses, and hit a tree on the right side, where the driver sits at Ferrari Penetrated the center of the vehicle. Klass was recovered after a few minutes and taken to Florence by helicopter, where he was determined to be dead.

The Scuderia then not only withdrew the factory Ferrari Dino 206P (chassis 010, start number 19) planned for the race together with Jonathan Williams (GB), but also the other Dino from Ludovico Scarfiotti and Nino Vaccarella .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1965	Porsche System Engineering	Porsche 904/6	Dieter Glemser	failure	drive shaft
1966	Porsche System Engineering	Porsche 906/6 Carrera 6	Rolf Stommelen	Rank 7 and class win
1967	Ferrari Sefac SpA	Ferrari 330P4	Peter Sutcliffe	failure	fuel pump

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1965	Porsche Automobile Co.	Porsche 904 GTS	Lake Underwood	5th place and class win
1966	Porsche System Engineering	Porsche 906	Gerhard Mitter	failure	Valve damage
1967	Scuderia Filipinetti	Ferrari Dino 206S	Herbert Mueller	failure	suspension

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	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1963	Porsche Günter Klass	Porsche 356	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
									DNF					9
1964	Porsche Günter Klass Auguste Veuillet	Porsche 356 Porsche 904	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
					7th				15th										4th			DNF
1965	Porsche Scuderia Filipinetti	Porsche 904	DAY	SEB	BOL	MON	MON	RTT	TAR	SPA	ONLY	MUG	ROS	LEM	REI	BOZ	FRE	CCE	OVI	ONLY	BRI	BRI
				5					5		6th			DNF			6th
1966	Porsche	Porsche 904 Porsche 906	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
			8th	DNF		42		DNF	7th			2
1967	Scuderia Filipinetti Ferrari	Ferrari Dino 246S Ferrari 330P4	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
				DNF	DNF		DNF		DNF

Web links

Commons : Günter Klass  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Günther Klass at the Motosport Memorial
• Günther Klass at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=697
2. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from June 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ http://www.circuitostradaledelmugello.it/storia/storiacircuito.htm ( Memento from May 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ http://www.rallye-stars.com/palmares/c_pilot.htm ( Memento from July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ http://wsrp.cz/wsc1963.html
6. ↑ http://www.pbase.com/9146gt/image/66564123
7. ↑ http://www.imca-slotracing.com/QUIZZ2.htm
8. ↑ The car # 224 from Klass / Davis overtakes a brand colleague in the rain Archive link ( memento of the original from September 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from September 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
10. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from October 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
11. ↑ http://www.pbase.com/9146gt/image/66564132
12. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from September 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
13. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from September 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
14. ↑ http://wsrp.cz/wsc1967.html
15. ^ Automobile Year, Published by Edita., 1967