Ralf Kelleners

The Saleen S7R by Ralf Kelleners, Terry Borcheller and Johnny Mowlem; on the way to sixth overall at the Petit Le Mans in Road Atlanta in 2005

The Toyota GT-One with starting number 29; Ralf Kelleners drove this vehicle in the 1998 Le Mans 24-hour race

Ralf Kelleners (born May 18, 1968 in Dinslaken ) is a German automobile racing driver .

Origin and awareness

Ralf Kelleners was born in 1968 as the son of the German racing driver Helmut Kelleners . His father won the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race the year he was born and two years later . In the 1960s and 1970s he was successful in touring and sports car racing .

After the compulsory school years, Ralf Kelleners also became a racing driver. He became internationally known through two failures. In 1997 and 1998 he lost a possible overall victory at the Le Mans 24-hour race in the last few hours of the race. In 1997, he failed spectacularly, as he looks at a flying leap from the burning plant - Porsche 911 GT1 brought to safety.

Early years

After starting out in karting and in Formula Ford - where he won the German championship in 1987 - Kelleners switched to the German Formula 3 championship in 1988 . He stayed in this racing series for three years, with the best overall result in 1990 when he was overall seventh. Later successful pilots won the championship in these years: in 1988 Joachim Winkelhock , 1989 Karl Wendlinger and 1990 Michael Schumacher . In 1991, Kelleners turned away from monopostos and has competed in sports car races ever since. This was followed by an unsuccessful year in the DTM and three years in the ADAC-GT-Cup, with an overall victory in the championship in 1994, driven out on the GT-Porsches from Roock Racing .

Porsche works driver and Le Mans 1997

The career leap followed in 1996 with overall victory in the German Porsche Carrera Cup and victory in the GT2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans . Together with the French Guy Martinolle and the Swiss Bruno Eichmann , he was also twelfth overall there. This was followed by a works contract with Porsche. For the works team from Zuffenhausen , he was supposed to contest the race at Le Mans. Porsche brought the GT1 to the Sarthe for the first time and, with Kelleners, Emmanuel Collard and Yannick Dalmas, formed the three-man team for the car with starting number 26. The GT prototype with number 25 was driven by Bob Wollek , Hans-Joachim Stuck and Thierry Boutsen . On Sunday morning, a few hours before the end of the race, the number 26 Porsche was comfortably in the lead in the overall standings. Ralf Kelleners was behind the wheel when the Porsche suddenly caught fire while driving to Indianapolis. Hot oil had leaked and ignited body panels. Soon the whole rear car was in flames and Kelleners had to stop. The driver managed to get to safety with a spectacular jump, but the car was so badly damaged that it was out of the question to continue driving.

Le Mans 1998

A year later , Kelleners came back to Le Mans, this time as a works driver for Toyota . As a partner of Thierry Boutsen and Geoff Lees , he drove the number 29 Toyota GT-One. The trio was leading the race with an hour before the end of the race when the gearbox of the Toyota went out and the car broke down. In the long, not poor on race dramas history of this long-distance race Ralf Kelleners is the only driver who lost a possible overall victory so close to the end in two consecutive races.

Further career

In 1999, Kelleners went to the United States to regularly compete in the US sports car series. He competed in races in the American Le Mans Series and the Grand-Am Sports Car Series , where he came to Europe again and again, mainly to drive in Le Mans.

Entrepreneur and Commentator

In 1991, Kelleners founded a company - Kelleners Sport - that specializes in tuning BMW vehicles. When he is not at the start as a driver at Le Mans, he works as a co-commentator at Eurosport while the race is being broadcast .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1996	Roock Racing	Porsche 911 GT2	Guy Martinolle	Bruno Eichmann	Rank 12 and class win
1997	Porsche AG	Porsche 911 GT1	Emmanuel Collard	Yannick Dalmas	failure	Wagon fire
1998	Toyota Motorsport	Toyota GT-One	Geoff Lees	Thierry Boutsen	failure	Gearbox damage
1999	Toyota Motorsport	Toyota GT-One	Allan McNish	Thierry Boutsen	failure	accident
2000	Racing Organization Course	Reynard 2KQ-LM	Jean-Denis Delétraz	David Terrien	failure	Engine failure
2001	Champion Racing	Audi R8	Johnny Herbert	Didier Theys	failure	Engine failure
2003	Risi Competizione	Ferrari 360 Modena GT	Terry Borcheller	Anthony Lazzaro	Rank 26
2004	Freising Motorsport	Porsche 996 GT3 RSR	Stéphane Ortelli	Romain Dumas	Rank 13
2008	Snora's Spyker Squadron	Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2-R	Peter Dumbreck	Alexey Vasilyev	failure	Engine failure

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2000	Champion Racing	Lola B2K / 10	James Weaver	Dorsey Schroeder	failure	suspension
2001	Champion Racing	Audi R8	Andy Wallace	Dorsey Schroeder	Rank 3
2002	MSB Motorsport	Ferrari 360 Modena GT	Marino Franchitti		failure	Engine failure
2003	Risi Competizione	Ferrari 360 Modena GT	Anthony Lazzaro	Terry Borcheller	failure	Tire damage
2004	Risi Competizione	Ferrari 360 Modena GT	Anthony Lazzaro	Matteo Bobbi	Rank 16
2005	ACEMCO Motorsports LLC.	Saleen S7-R	Johnny Mowlem	Terry Borcheller	failure	no oil pressure
2006	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GT Berlinetta	Anthony Lazzaro	Jaime Melo	Rank 10
2007	Rahal Letterman Racing	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Tommy Milner	Graham Rahal	Rank 18

Web links

• Official website
• Ralf Kelleners at speedsport-magazine.de
• Ralf Kelleners in the Driver Database
• Kellener's sport