Helmut Kelleners

Helmut Kelleners in 1969 in the Ford GT 40 on the Nürburgring

Helmut Kelleners in the Porsche 917; at the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring in 1970

1973 during training for the touring car Grand Prix in the "carousel"

Helmut Franz Kelleners (born December 29, 1939 in Moers ) is a former German racing driver and today's entrepreneur.

Career

In 1960, Kelleners started his motorsport career in rallying and after four years switched to touring car racing. He contested his first touring car race in 1964 with a Glas 1304 TS in Zandvoort , which he won.

Kelleners competed in various racing series from 1964 to 1984 and, in addition to winning many races, also achieved top placings in championships.
His first major racing success was second place in the 3rd division of the European Touring Car Championship in 1968, in which he competed with a Porsche 911 .

In addition, he drove individual races from 1967 to 1982 - especially the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring - and entire racing series in the sports car world championship in 1968, 1969, 1970 and 1975 .

He started three times in the Le Mans 24-hour race . In 1969 he reached there along with Reinhold Joest in the Ford GT 40 6th in the overall standings and 3rd place in the S5.0 class. This result was his best result that he achieved at Le Mans.

He experienced further 24-hour racing victories in 1968 and 1970 at the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps with a Porsche 911 and later a BMW 2800 CS and in 1972 at the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring , also with a BMW 2800 CS.

In 1970 he got into the newly founded Interserie with a March 707 Chevrolet and took 3rd place overall. In the following years he switched to McLaren M8F Chevrolet and McLaren M20 Chevrolet and drove races in the interseries until 1975.

1972 to 1976 and after a break from 1979 to 1981 Kelleners drove BMW and Porsche racing vehicles in the German racing championship . With his best result of the season in 1975, he drove a Porsche 911 Carrera RSR from the Jägermeister Kremer team to fifth place in the overall standings.

In 1976, he was runner-up behind Toine Hezemans in the European Championship for GT vehicles with a Porsche Turbo RSR . Kelleners celebrated his greatest motorsport successes with BMW racing cars in the European Touring Car Championship from 1980 to 1982, in which he won the championship title three times in a row. A year later he achieved third place in the overall ranking with a BMW 635 CSi .

In 1984 Kelleners ended his successful racing career. His son Ralf Kelleners has also been a racing driver since 1987.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1969	German auto newspaper	Ford GT 40	Reinhold Joest	Rank 6
1970	North American Racing Team	Ferrari 512S	Georg Loos	failure	Handling after an accident
1980	Gelo Racing Team	Porsche 935	Bob Wollek	failure	piston

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
1967	IGFA	Porsche 911	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
								11
1968	IGFA Jürgen Neuhaus	Porsche 911 Porsche 910	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	ONLY	SPA	WAT	ZEL	LEM
						8th		8th	11
1969	IGFA	Ford GT40 Abarth 2000S	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
					16	4th	8th	10	6th	6th	5
1970	Gesipa Racing NART	Porsche 917 Porsche 908 Ferrari 512S	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
						10		17th	11	DNF
1972	Alpina	BMW 2800	BUA	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	ZEL	WAT
										DNF
1973	Koepchen	BMW 2002	DAY	VAL	DIJ	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	ZEL	WAT
									17th
1974	STP Sweden	Porsche Carrera RSR	MON	SPA	ONLY	IMO	LEM	ZEL	WAT	LEC	BRH	KYA
					18th
1975	Kremer Racing	Porsche Carrera RSR	DAY	MUG	DIJ	MON	SPA	BY	ONLY	ZEL	WAT
						DNF			8th
1976	Max Moritz	Porsche 934	MUG	VAL	ONLY	MON	SIL	IMO	ONLY	ZEL	BY	WAT	MOS	DIJ	DIJ	SAL
					4th				3
1977	Faltz Max Moritz	BMW 320i Porsche 935	DAY	MUG	DIJ	MON	SIL	ONLY	VAL	BY	WAT	EST	LEC	MOS	IMO	SAL	BRH	HOK	VAL
							4th	6th
1980	Gelo Racing	Porsche 935	DAY	BRH	SEB	MUG	MON	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	DAY	WAT	SPA	MOS	ROA	VAL	DIJ
										DNF
1982	Enzo Calderari	BMW M1	MON	SIL	ONLY	LEM	SPA	MUG	FUJ	BRH
					3

Web links

Commons : Helmut Kelleners  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The official Helmut Kelleners website
• Helmut Kelleners at Racing Sport Cars

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Dunlop - website: Helmut Kelleners - The Nas from Moers. (No longer available online.) At: www.dunlop.eu , formerly in the original ; Retrieved August 27, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
2. ↑ ^{a b} NRZ - website: shirt and tie instead of racing suit. From: www.derwesten.de , accessed on August 29, 2012 . 
3. ↑ Classicscars - Internet site: Race results of the sports car world championship 1969. At: www.classicscars.com , accessed on August 29, 2012 . 
4. ↑ Classicscars - Internet site: Race results of the Interserie 1970. At: www.classicscars.com , accessed on August 29, 2012 . 
5. ↑ Classicscars - Internet site: Race results of the DRM 1975. At: www.classicscars.com , accessed on August 29, 2012 . 
6. ↑ Classicscars - Internet site: Race results of the European championship for GT vehicles in 1976. On: www.classicscars.com , accessed on August 29, 2012 . 
7. ↑ Touringcarracing.net - Internet site: Race results of the European Touring Car Championship 1963 to 1988. On: touringcarracing.net , accessed on August 29, 2012 .