Hans-Peter Koepchen

Helmut Kelleners 1973 in a Koepchen-BMW 2002

Hans-Peter Koepchen (* 18th October 1939 in Essen ; † 1. November 1999 in Blankenheim ) was a German touring car and BMW - tuners .

Career

Hans-Peter Koepchen was the son of the engineer Hans Koepchen and brother of Ann-Monika Pleitgen . In his career as a racing driver he was a successful touring car and GT driver with various models from BMW and an Abarth 1000 . In the 1960s and 1970s, he managed a renowned BMW racing team under his name, in which drivers such as Hans-Joachim Stuck (1969, Nürburgring) and Hans Heyer (1970, Zolder) celebrated their first victories in a racing car with a 2002 TI . In addition, Walter Struckmann , Helmut Kelleners , Clemens Schickentanz , Rainer Braun , Jörg Obermoser and Willi Kauhsen drove very successfully for Koepchen's racing team in the European and German championships between 1968 and 1973 . Supported his work, among others, from the mechanics Werner Frowein, who in the 1990s head of the technology in the DTM team of AMG Mercedes should be, and Enrico Lotterer, the father of the late racing driver Andre Lotterer . The racing team's press work was done by Hans-Peter Koepchen's personal friend Hans-Wilhelm Gäb, who later became Vice President of General Motors Europe and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Adam Opel AG .

Economic difficulties at the end of the 1970s meant that Koepchen had to give up the racing team and a short time later also the tuning business. In the 1980s he took over the management of the then still very small motorsport department at Toyota in Cologne. Under his responsibility, the Starlet and Corolla Rally Cups developed into successful one-make cups.

Hans-Peter Koepchen succumbed to cancer for many years.

statistics

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	Erich Bitter	Fiat-Abarth 850	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
																				11
1964	Erich Bitter	Ferrari 250 GT Fiat-Abarth 850	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
									26th								40
1965	Abarth	Fiat-Abarth 1000	DAY	SEB	BOL	MON	MON	RTT	TAR	SPA	ONLY	MUG	ROS	LEM	REI	BOZ	FRE	CCE	OVI	ONLY	BRI	BRI
																				25th
1967	Kurt Pfnier	NSU TT	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
								30th
1968	IGFA Cologne	Abarth 1300 OT	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	ONLY	SPA	WAT	ZEL	LEM
								47

literature

Motorsport aktuell , November 16, 1999

Web links

Commons : Hans-Peter Koepchen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Hans-Peter Koepchen at Racing Sports Cars