John Nielsen

John Nielsen in the 2005 Spa 1000 km winner , a Zytek 06S

John Nielsen (born February 7, 1956 in Varde ) is a Danish automobile racing driver .

Career

John Nielsen became popular in his native Denmark in the 1990s through his success at the 24 Hours of Le Mans . Even before Tom Kristensen , he was the first Dane to win the long-distance classic. Before he switched to sports cars, he was one of the best young drivers of his generation in the monoposto . He won the German Formula 3 championship in 1982 and won the 1984 Formula 3 race in Macau , a racing event that many pilots were able to use as a stepping stone into Formula 1 ( Ayrton Senna won there a year earlier ). Nevertheless, Nielsen never made it into a Formula 1 cockpit. In 1985 and 1986 , Nielsen drove for the Ralt works team in the Formula 3000 championship . He achieved only one victory there: he won the Curaçao Grand Prix 1985 in Willemstad , which was not part of the championship.

Nielsen has been a top-class sports car for three decades. Until 2008 he competed in Le Mans eighteen times. In 1990 he crowned his career with a win, at the wheel of the Jaguar XJR-12 he won together with Martin Brundle and Price Cobb .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1986	Kouros Racing Team	Clean C8	Mike Thackwell		failure	engine
1987	Silk Cut Jaguar	Jaguar XJR8 LM	Martin Brundle		failure	Cylinder head
1988	Silk Cut Jaguar	Jaguar XJR9 LM	Martin Brundle		failure	Cylinder head
1989	Silk Cut Jaguar	Jaguar XJR9 LM	Andy Wallace	Price Cobb	failure	Cylinder head
1990	Silk Cut Jaguar	Jaguar XJR12 LM	Martin Brundle	Price Cobb	Overall victory
1991	Silk Cut Jaguar	Jaguar XJR12 LM	Andy Wallace	Derek Warwick	Rank 4
1992	Porsche Kremer Racing	Porsche 962 CK6	Manuel Reuter	Giovanni Lavaggi	Rank 7
1993	TWR Jaguar Racing	Jaguar XJ220	David Brabham	David Coulthard	Disqualified	Exhaust
1994	Seikel Motorsport	Porsche 968 Turbo RS	Thomas Bscher	Lindsay Owen-Jones	failure	accident
1995	West Competition	McLaren F1 GTR	Thomas Bscher	Jochen Mass	failure	accident
1996	David Price Racing	McLaren F1 GTR	Thomas Bscher	Peter Kox	Rank 4
1998	Nissan Motorsports International	Nissan R390 GT1	Michael Krumm	Franck Lagorce	Rank 5
2000	Team Den Bla Avis	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S.	Klaus Graf	Mauro Baldi	not classified
2001	Team Den Bla Avis	Dome S101	Casper Elgaard	Hiroki Kato	failure	engine
2003	RN Motorsports Ltd	DBA 4-03S	Casper Elgaard	Hayanari Shimoda	Rank 22
2004	Lister Racing	Lister Storm LMP	Casper Elgaard	Jens Møller	Rank 24
2006	Zytek Engineering	Zytek 06S	Casper Elgaard	Philip Andersen	not classified
2008	Team Essex	Porsche RS Spyder Evo	Casper Elgaard	Sascha Maassen	Rank 12

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1988	Castrol Jaguar Racing	Jaguar XJR-9D	Martin Brundle	Raul Boesel	failure	Engine failure
1989	Castrol Jaguar Racing	Jaguar XJR-9D	Price Cobb		Rank 2
1990	Castrol Jaguar Racing	Jaguar XJR-12D	Price Cobb		failure	Engine failure
1991	Bud Light Jaguar Racing	Jaguar XJR-12D	Davy Jones	Raul Boesel	Rank 5
1999	Panoz Racing	Panoz Esperante GTR-1	Johnny O'Connell	Jan Magnussen	failure	accident
2003	RN Motorsports	DBA 4-03S	Hayanari Shimoda		failure	Gearbox damage

Web links

Commons : John Nielsen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• John Nielsen at Racing Sports Cars