Jean-Michel Martin

The Rondeau M379 with Gordon Spice , Philippe and Jean-Michel Martin 1980 overall third place at the 24-hour race at Le Mans were

Jean-Michel Martin (born June 19, 1953 in Brussels ) is a Belgian entrepreneur and former racing driver .

family

Jean-Michel Martin is the brother of Philippe Martin , who was also an active driver in motorsport. His son Maxime followed in his father's footsteps and became a professional racing driver.

Entrepreneur

After the end of his professional racing career at the end of the 2001 season, Jean-Michel Martin opened an authorized BMW workshop in Woluwe . His contacts from his racing days enabled him to import Alpina cars, which he sold exclusively in Belgium. In addition to Mini brand vehicles , Jaguar and Land Rover models have also been offered at all BMW Martin locations in Belgium since 2016 .

Racing career

In the 1970s and 1980s, Jean-Michel Martin was one of the best-known and most successful Belgian touring car drivers . Five times, in 1977, 1980, 1986, 1989 and 1999, he won the overall standings in the Belgian touring car championship in BMW and Audi models . He competed 26 times in the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps and won the overall classification of the race four times. In 1979 he and his brother Philippe drove a Ford Capri for the Gordon Spice racing team . The duo won the race two laps ahead of Jean-Claude Andruet and Eddy Joosen's BMW 500i . A year later , the brothers repeated their success. In 1987 he won as a partner of Eric van de Poele and Didier Theys in the BMW M3 . His last win was in 1992 , when he won the race with Steve Soper and Christian Danner .

Martin was also successful in sports cars . On his debut in the 1980 Le Mans 24-hour race , he achieved a podium finish. With brother Philippe and Gordon Spice as teammates, he was third overall on a Rondeau M379 , nine laps behind the victorious teammates Jean Rondeau and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud . He achieved another third place finish in the 1982 6-hour race at Silverstone . His best finish in a sports car race was second in the 1981 Kyalami 9 Hours . In Le Mans in the 1980s he was a works driver for Mazdaspeed and drove the 727C and 737C rotary engine racing cars . Third place in 1980 remained his best place in this 24-hour race .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1980	Belga Jean Rondeau	Rondeau M379	Philippe Martin	Gordon Spice	Rank 3
1981	Alain de Cadenet	De Cadenet-Lola LM	Philippe Martin	Alain de Cadenet	failure	Engine failure
1982	Belga Team Joest Racing	Porsche 936C	Philippe Martin	Bob Wollek	failure	Engine failure
1983	Belga Team Joest Racing	Porsche 936C	Philippe Martin	Marc Duez	failure	fuel pump
1984	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Mazda 727C	Philippe Martin	Dave Kennedy	Rank 15
1985	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Mazda 737C	Philippe Martin	Dave Kennedy	Rank 19
1986	Spice engineering	Spice SE86C	Ray Bellm	Gordon Spice	Rank 19

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909413-06-3 .

Web links

Commons : Jean-Michel Martin  - Collection of Images

• Official website of BMW Martin
• Jean-Michel Martin at the Driver Database
• Jean-Michel Martin at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Belgian Touring Car Championship 1977
2. ^ Belgian Touring Car Championship 1980
3. ^ Belgian Touring Car Championship 1986
4. ^ Belgian Touring Car Championship 1989
5. ^ Belgian Touring Car Championship 1990
6. ^ 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps 1979
7. ↑ Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race 1987