Joachim Knollmann

1978: (from left) Knollmann, Achim Warmbold and Reinhard Hainbach

Knollmann and Hopfe (Audi 80 GTE) at the 1978 Hunsrück Rally

Joachim Karl Knollmann (born January 3, 1947 in Herford ) is a former German rally driver .

Career

Joachim Knollmann is a former German racing and rally driver, also known by his two nicknames "Candy" and "Knolli", who has been involved in motorsport since he was 17 years old. Among other things, he was successful as an Opel, VW, Saab and Audi factory driver with over 200 class, group and overall victories in rallies and circuit races. Because of his life inclined to all joys, well-known motorsport reporters such as Dieter L. Scharnagl and Rainer Braun described him as a "bon vivant in the rally car" and as "one of the few who combined absolute joie de vivre with high professionalism". Knollmann ended his career as a works driver in 1981, but still takes part in historic races and rallies today.

Joachim Karl Knollmann began his motorsport career in 1965 at the age of 17 with the Rhein-Ruhr-Racing Team as a co-pilot. Until 1969 he started in rallies with changing drivers in a wide variety of vehicles - from the Glas 1304 to NSU TTS and BMW 1,800 TI / SA - and from 1967 onwards he increasingly took over the wheel for special tests. He was discovered in 1969 by Günter Irmscher (Opel Tuner) at the forerunner to the 24-hour race, who then engaged him in a number of rallies with the aim of competing for him in the first Opel one-make cup race on the Nürburgring. Here "Candy" - he drove under this pseudonym in 1969/70 because his employer at the time forbade "dangerous sports" - had to give up with a cardan shaft damage in second place.

In 1970 he first competed for Irmscher, then launched by Opel, for Steinmetz in various rallies on the Rallye Kadett 1,100. On the circuit he won the class on the Commodore GS / E at the Diepholz airfield race and the 6 hour race on the Nürburgring. In the Opel race, he finished second behind Jean Ragnotti from France. The greatest racing success, however, was the class win and fourth place overall at the Int. 36 hours race on the Nürburgring in a right-hand drive English 3 liter Ford Capri with British drivers Holman Blackburn and Johnny Moss. That was the first international success for the Ford Capri.

In 1971 the Opel team "van Eupen" in Essen signed the contract. When he first started as a semi-professional on an Opel Kadett 1900 Gr.1 at the Bavarian Winter Rally - Walter Röhrl's first factory outing for Ford, by the way - he was 6th overall, just behind the Regensburger. After two runs for the German Rally Championship, “Knolli” was in 2nd place behind “Zacki” Zweibäumer and switched to the new Ascona A with the so-called “Crossflow” engine. Technical defects led to failures and frustration. Then he paused - wg. Marriage, child and job - and until 1975 drove only three “lust rallies”. In 1973 he achieved overall victory in the Harz-Winter-Fahrt, the first rally in Germany with a ban on spikes.

In 1975, VW sports director Reinhard Rode signed up after Knolli u. a. won the Ostwestfalen rally in a Porsche Carrera and took top positions in EM and DM races on this vehicle, and he and Freddy Kottulinsky won the Werks-Jägermeister-Golf Gr. 1 to drive with 85 hp. Several successful races followed the appearance at the last World Championship round, the RAC Rally Great Britain. Last night on an excellent 28th place overall, Knolli hit a hidden concrete bridge in the woods of the Kilder Forest, tore off one of the Golf's struts and had to give up. In 1977 he was on a VW Polo Gr. II - built by VW Motorsport, engine, gearbox from ABT-Motorsport under the application of Winfried Matter - "Without matter flat!" - to the hunter of Kromm / Inhester on a Ford Escort 1300. Best result 6th place overall and class winner in the Ostwestfalen rally, EM and DM run. At the “Jochen Rindt Show” (today Essen Motor Show) at the end of November 77, Prof. Jürgen Stockmar (then Head of Chassis Development at Audi) introduced him to Audi's plans for Quattro development and made him an offer as first Audi factory driver to contest the 1978 German rally championship.

With the AUDI 80 GT / E 1.6 L Gr. II it was a successful start for AUDI. Knolli received a clear assignment from Stockmar: "Load the car to the max so that our mechanics learn what can break down in a rally car!" In a total of 11 championship races, he took 7 class wins, a 2nd and a 3rd place in the class, 8 times places in the top 10 in the overall classification. He marked a high point at the Hunsrück rally, when he was on the 2nd place after the first day behind Röhrl, but still ahead of Bettega (both Lancia Stratos). After several punctures he finished the rally in 6th place overall.

Even before the end of the season, Audi offered him a contract to further develop the Quattro project, but with the condition that he would move to Ingolstadt or Munich. Knollmann had other plans and in the meantime had bought 50% of an East Westphalian marketing agency. He saw his goal in life more in the profession he had learned and therefore accepted an attractive offer from Sweden. So he became the first and only non-Scandinavian to ever receive a Saab work contract. In Team Saab Germany, he then contested all the races for the 1979 German Rally Championship and competed in Group 1 with the Saab 900 Turbo. He achieved 7 class victories on the rally machine, which was the heaviest at the time, at 1250 kg. Due to technical defects, he had to take four crossed results in 11 DRM runs, was four times in the top 10, one time 11th and one time 12th overall.

The 1980 rally season began for Knolli at the Sachs Winter Rally and now with the Saab 99 Turbo with renewed bad luck. After a good performance, in 6th place overall, a cylinder said goodbye. The team boss technology, the legendary Erich Schmidt from Ludwigshafen, put the cylinder out of operation, so that Knolli finished with three cylinders in 11th place overall. After that he decided to say goodbye to professional rallying. He founded his JK advertising agency on April 1, 1980 and asked Saab to be released from the contract. Saab's answer was, end the season and we'll give you jobs. Lying on promising places, e.g. B. at the Metz rally in 4th place overall, engine damage and other technical defects slowed the Saab. At the Saarland rally he was 4th overall before the last long night special stage, a circuit. Then a slower participant blocked him in a forest so that he hit the. With destroyed headlights he had to take maximum time and was seventh in the overall classification behind Ola Strömberg on the Saab 99 Gr.II.

At the Rallye Vorderpfalz he got it right. On the king's stage, Waldleiningen, with the engine turned off at 200 km / h, the tire burst in a right-hand bend in the front left and he made a terrible take-off with seven rollovers. It is legendary that - both pilots were unharmed - he then presented himself to his team leader and put the doorknob he had put in his place with the words “It's still ok! Everything else is junk! ”“ God hit me on the roof with the club to make me stop! ”Were his words and officially ended with a big party with a final start at the Metz rally in 1981 (retired) a professional career for his friends.

After completing his active driving career, he is still present at many private and public classic car events. He won u. a. on a Ford Mustang model 65 of the Kienen racing team, in 1997 and 1998 the historic marathon (4 hours) and in 2001 on a BMW 1800 TI / SA the HRA EM run at the Oldtimer Grand Prix on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring. His participation in the charitable oldtimer rally Zündfunke Classics in 2013, where he crossed the finish line more than 17 minutes before the peloton because he defended his own interpretation of the road book, is also unforgettable.

Private

Parallel to his motorsport activities, Knollmann founded his own advertising agency in 1982. Knollmann is married, has a daughter and lives in Gütersloh.

statistics

Successes (selection)

• 1970 International AvD Rally Wiesbaden, co-driver Harald Andersen in an Opel Kadett B
• 1971 Vltava Rallye, Czechoslovakia, as the first west / east team in an Opel Ascona A with co-driver Jiri Nejtek
• 1973 Daily Mirror RAC Rallye (England) with co-driver Manfred Drossel in an Opel Ascona
• 1978 German rally championship with co-driver Klaus Hopfe in an Audi 80 B1 / later B1 facelift
• 1978 Sachs winter rally (1st place in the category up to 1600 cm³, 5th place overall, 1st run for the German championship, 7th run European Championship in an Audi 80 GTE)
• 1979 International Sachs Winter Rally with Wolf-Rüdiger Ladwig in a SAAB 99 Turbo
• 1987 Sachs Winter Rally with co-driver Dieter Ljubocevic in a Lancia Delta HF 4WD
• 2001 Historic Rallye Cup with Franz Fölling
• 2007 6th ADAC Vorderpfalz Classic in the Technik Museum Speyer with other former rally greats such as Walter Smolej, Ludwig Kuhn, Klaus Fritzinger , Erhard Ricken and auto, motor und sport boss Bernd Ostmann
• 2013 Zündfunke Classics (with co-pilot Reinhard Beckord)

Web links

Commons : Joachim Knollmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Joachim Knollmann , eWRC results database