Hans-Dieter Dechent
Hans-Dieter Dechent (born June 13, 1940 ; † September 20, 2014 in Saarbrücken ) was a German entrepreneur, racing team owner and racing car driver .
Dechent car dealership
When Hans-Dieter Dechent was born in 1940 in the middle of World War II , the Dechent dealership in Saarbrücken had already existed for 19 years. The company was founded by Hans Dechent, who was married to a sister of Fritz von Opel . The company grew very quickly. With the financial support of his brother-in-law, one of the most modern car dealerships in southern Germany was built in 1923 on Mainzer Strasse with an area of 6000 square meters. Between 1919 and 1923, the company had sold 100 Dixi in four years . By 1935, Dechent expanded to a total of 4,500 new vehicles from the Delahaye , Donnet-Contin and Chenard & Walcker brands . From 1935, 1000 units per year were sold through the general agency of Opel .
During the Second World War, the company was relocated from Saarbrücken to St. Wendel and Homburg . After the fighting ended, they returned to the old location. The dealership continued to expand until the 1970s. The brands Renault and Alfa Romeo and the general agency of General Motors joined Opel . Later came Volkswagen , Audi and Hyundai added. The branch network was expanded beyond the Saarland .
Hans-Dieter Dechent was involved in the management in the 1960s; In 1969 he left the company. With the share of the inheritance paid out, he financed the racing activities of Martini Racing. Through his racing career, he got to know Jack Brabham in the mid-1960s and took over his German racing car sales. Brabham's Formula 3 and Formula 2 racing cars were sold to private drivers through the dealership . One product of the collaboration was the Brabham Kadett B , an Opel Kadett with improvements to the chassis, engine and transmission.
Racing career
Hans-Dieter Dechent's driver career began in 1962. Until the end of his active career in 1970, he financed all of his racing participation with his own funds. In the workshops of his car dealership in Saarbrücken, he ran a racing team from the start, in which the emergency vehicles were prepared. He drove his first races in 1962 with an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale at GT races in West Germany . He had his first international start at the 1000 km race in Paris in 1962 , where he and Ernst Furtmayr finished fifteenth in the overall standings. In the following years he entered racing cars mainly in the German Circuit Championship and hill climbs . For the Scuderia Lufthansa from Robert chicken he started in the World Sportscar Championship . In 1964 , 1965 and 1966 he competed for Huhn in the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring .
In 1967 he joined Scuderia Lufthansa as a partner and supported the team with generous financial resources. In this year, the collaboration between Dechent and the Porsche racing department also arose . The Scuderia Lufthansa fleet in 1967 included a Porsche 911 and the sports car models 906 and 910 . In the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring in 1967 , the duo Huhn / Dechent in the Porsche 906, two laps behind the winners Udo Schütz and Joe Buzzetta , who drove a 910, achieved sixth place in the overall standings.
Dechent remained active as a driver until the end of the 1970 racing season. His last race start was at the 100 km race in Mainz-Finthen in 1970 , where he finished second overall in a Porsche 908/03 behind Jürgen Neuhaus , who drove a Porsche 917 . Between 1967 and 1970 he was registered regularly in the sports car world championship. Together with Gerhard Koch ( Porsche 907 ) he was third overall in the 1000 km race in Monza in 1969 and in the Porsche 908/02 in the 9-hour race in Kyalami . His last sports car race was the 1000 km race at Spa-Francorchamps in 1970 , where he and Helmut Marko finished eleventh in the overall standings.
Martini Racing
Hans-Dieter Dechent brought the Italian spirits manufacturer Martini & Rossi into motorsport as a sponsor. He succeeded in winning the company , which is best known for its vermouth drinks, as a sponsor for his new Porsche racing team. The International Martini Racing Team first competed in the sports car world championship with Porsche 908 models. The team made its debut with Gerhard Koch, Gérard Larrousse and Richard Attwood in seventh place in the 1970 Sebring 12-hour race .
For the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans Dechent wanted at Porsche in Zuffenhausen acquire another 908th However, Ferdinand Piëch convinced him to invest his money in a new Porsche 917 long tail. Dechent agreed and the car was delivered white. Based on a design by Porsche chief designer Anatole Lapine , the car was painted in the later legendary green, blue and purple psychedelic color pattern . In the race, Gérard Larrousse and Willi Kauhsen placed the car in second place in the overall standings. Rudi Lins and Helmut Marko's Dechent-908 long tail came in third. After the end of the season, Louise Piëch dissolved the Austrian branch of the Porsche works team and sold vehicles and materials to Dechent.
In the 1971 sports car world championship , the Dechent team, with three victories this season at Sebring , Le Mans and the Nürburgring, was jointly responsible for Porsche's renewed world championship victory . However, the effort was enormous. In addition to the sponsorship income, Dechent put 6 million German marks into the racing team. After the 1000 km race in Zeltweg in 1971 , the budget was used up and Dechent dissolved the racing team.
Hans-Dieter Dechent was considered an excellent organizer who did not interfere with the racing on the track. During the years at Le Mans, he always had the greatest number of free tickets. Hans-Dieter Dechent: “At Le Mans, I always brought the girls from the racing office with me scarves from Hermes from Paris at the beginning of the racing week. Then I always had as many tickets as I needed. "
The years after Martini Racing
After the end of the racing team, Dechent held various functions in motorsport. For almost two decades he was Reinhold Joest's right-hand man in his racing team, Joest Racing . He coordinated the races in the sports car world championship and in the sports car races in North America. In addition, he was first president and later promoter of the Interserie . In 1994 he was part of Jochen Dauer's successful team at Le Mans. In recent years he has supported the racing career of Christian Hohenadel, also from Saarbrücken .
Dechent was hit hard by the loss of the distance record at Le Mans in 2010. In 1971 Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep had driven 5335.313 km in 397 laps in the Dechent-917. Like many experts, Dechent believed in a record that would last forever. In the 2010 race , Mike Rockenfeller , Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas also drove 397 laps in the Audi R15 TDI Plus . However, by extending the route, this corresponded to a distance of 5410.713 km.
Dechent, who was married twice (once divorced, once widowed) and had a son, died in Saarbrücken in late summer 2014 after a long illness.
statistics
Individual results in the sports car world championship
literature
- Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .
- Michael Behrndt, Jörg-Thomas Födisch, Matthias Behrndt: ADAC 1000 km race. HEEL Verlag, Königswinter 2008, ISBN 978-3-89880-903-0 .
- 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
- Hans-Dieter Dechent at Speedweek
- About Hans-Dieter Dechent
- Official website of the Dechent car dealership
- Hans-Dieter Dechent at Racing Sports Cars
- Hans-Dieter Dechent. www.motorsportmemorial.org, accessed on July 23, 2019 (English).
Individual evidence
- ↑ The early years of the Dechent dealership
- ↑ About the Brabham Kadett B
- ↑ The history of Scuderia Lufthansa
- ↑ 100 km race from Mainz-Finthen 1970
- ↑ 9-hour Kyalami race in 1969
- ↑ The Dechent 917 in Le Mans
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Dechent, Hans-Dieter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German entrepreneur, racing team owner and racing car driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 13, 1940 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 20th September 2014 |
| Place of death | Saarbrücken |