Jochen Neerpasch

Jochen Neerpasch, 1973

Jochen Neerpasch (born March 23, 1939 in Krefeld ), trained machine fitter, is a former German automobile racing driver and motorsport manager. Before and after the war, his family ran a Lloyd Goliath Hansa Borgward car dealership and, for many years, after the collapse of the Borgward group, a Ford dealership in Krefeld.

Career

Jochen Neerpasch and Bob Bondurant's Shelby Cobra Daytona at the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring in 1965

His motorsport career began in the 1960s with Team Borgward . One of the first major competitions he took part in was the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1964. In a Porsche 907 , he won the Daytona 24-hour race in 1968 .

In the 1970s, Neerpasch became one of the most successful managers in the German racing championship and the European touring car championship . Neerpasch initially managed Ford, before joining the successful BMW M team in 1972 as manager of Hans-Joachim Stuck .

From 1973 to 1979 Neerpasch headed BMW M GmbH (company for individual automobiles), which was newly founded in 1972, as chairman of the management board . There he formed the first “junior team” in 1977 with Eddie Cheever , Marc Surer and Manfred Winkelhock . The juniors initially contested touring car races and later all three drove in Formula 1 .

In 1980 Neerpasch was Directeur Général Competition at PSA Talbot and from 1981 to 1982 delegate of the Sports Car World Championship at FISA in Paris. From 1983 to 1987 he was employed as Vice President Motorsport at IMG in London and Munich. From 1988 to 1992 Neerpasch was racing manager at Daimler-Benz AG Stuttgart and, as part of this activity, also a member of the management team at PP Sauber AG in Hinwil. During this time Neerpasch was responsible for the car races in the Sauber - Mercedes team in the sports car world championship . In 1989 his team won the Le Mans 24 Hours. At that time, Jochen Neerpasch promoted the youngsters Michael Schumacher , Karl Wendlinger and Heinz-Harald Frentzen .

Jochen Neerpasch is considered to be the main trailblazer for Michael Schumacher's unparalleled career in Formula 1. For this reason, the seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher returned to Formula 1 and joined the Mercedes GP Petronas Formula 1 team as a regular driver alongside racing driver colleague Nico Rosberg . Michael Schumacher is often quoted in the media as saying that he wanted to give something back to Mercedes because Mercedes was very helpful in his Formula 1 career.

From 1993 to 1998 Neerpasch was a consultant for ADAC for motorsport and from 1995 headed the STW series as manager until it was replaced in favor of today's DTM . From 1999 to 2001 Jochen Neerpasch was managing director of Euroc SAM in Monaco.

From June 4th to 7th, 2009 Jochen Neerpasch took part in the 14th Württemberg Classic with the legendary BMW sports car M1 from 1978, in whose development he played a key role.

Today Jochen Neerpasch lives as a retiree in Kressbronn on Lake Constance .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1964	Briggs Cunningham	Shelby Daytona Cobra	Chris Amon	Disqualified
1965	Johnny Simone	Maserati Tipo 65	Joseph Siffert	failure	accident
1966	Essex Wire Corporation	Ford GT40	Jacky Ickx	failure	Engine failure
1967	Porsche System Engineering	Porsche 910 /6	Rolf Stommelen	Rank 6
1968	Porsche System Engineering	Porsche 908	Rolf Stommelen	3rd place and class win

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1968	Porsche Automobile Co.	Porsche 907 2.2	Vic Elford	Rank 2

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
1962	Volvo Germany	Volvo P1800	DAY	SEB	SEB	MAY	TAR	BER	ONLY	LEM	TAV	CCA	RTT	ONLY	BRI	BRI	PAR
									DNF
1963	Volvo Germany	Volvo PV444	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
									DNF
1964	Porsche Carroll Shelby International Briggs Cunningham Abarth	Porsche 356 Shelby Cobra Shelby Daytona Fiat-Abarth 1000 Abarth-Simca 1300 Bialbero	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
					7th				DNF		DNF	DNF	9			11	9		DNF			DNF
1965	Alan Mann Racing Johnny Simone Abarth	Shelby Daytona Maserati Tipo 65 Fiat-Abarth Monomille	DAY	SEB	BOL	MON	MON	RTT	TAR	SPA	ONLY	MUG	ROS	LEM	REI	BOZ	FRE	CCE	OVI	ONLY	BRI	BRI
											7th			DNF						7th
1966	Michel Weber Essex Wire Corp. Porsche Abarth	Porsche 904 Ford GT40 Porsche 906 Abarth 1300 OT	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
					DNF		DNF	DNF	DNF	1					13
1967	Porsche Colin Crabbe	Porsche 906 Porsche 910 Porsche 907 Ford GT40	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
					8th		3	3	6th		2	4th		DNF
1968	Porsche	Porsche 907 Porsche 908	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	ONLY	SPA	WAT	ZEL	LEM
			1	2	3	2	4th	4th	DNF		DNF	3

literature

• Jürgen Lewandowski, Uwe Mahla: Jochen Neerpasch - thinker and leader of motorsport. Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-7688-3359-2 .

Web links

Commons : Jochen Neerpasch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Jochen Neerpasch at Racing Sports Cars (English)
• Rainer Braun: Two strong guys - Jochen Neerpasch / Michael Kranefuss and their completely contrary administration . In: Zwischengas.com
• Joe Breeze: M GmbH founder Jochen Neerpasch on his favorite BMW . In: Classic Driver, March 10, 2016