Wolfgang Kaufmann
Wolfgang Kaufmann (born January 24, 1964 in Dernbach ) is a German racing driver .
Career
Beginnings in motorsport
Wolfgang Kaufmann is a trained car mechanic, drove his first kart race in a parking lot in 1979 towards the end of secondary school and, at the age of 17, got his driver's license “for driving on behalf of the employer”. In 1980 he was third in the Junior Kart Championship, in 1981 he was a member of the national team and in 1982 he finished second in the German Kart Championship . The following year he switched to the VW Polo Cup . He was supported by the VW wholesaler Löhr & Becker in Koblenz. Otherwise, given his modest financial means, he was dependent on himself, prepared the car himself as before, the karts for the race, transported it to the racetrack on a trailer and slept in the truck. His victory in his second race on the Nordschleife began his big one Love for the "most dangerous racetrack in the world". After accidents in Zolder and Zandvoort, he finished his touring car career after just one season, despite finishing sixth in the championship.
After trials with a Derichs Formula 3 car and a short break from racing, Kaufmann drove his first season in the German Formula 3 Championship in a used Ralt RT 3 in 1985 . There he was able to assert himself as a private driver thanks to a larger sponsor and four other smaller partners and achieved fifth championship place in 1986 and 1989 respectively. He did a lot of the car himself now. In a look back at the 1986 season, Kaufmann mentions Siegfried Spiess in particular , whose Ralt RT 30-VW Spiess he drove and whose family "always gave him a hand". With his assignments in the following years, including as a works driver in Malte Bongers' team, he recommended himself for Horst Schübel's Opel works team, with whom he fought for the title in 1990. However, technical defects on the West Reynard 903 prevented his first championship victory and so he finished third in the final bill. The following year he fought a tough title fight again. However, he had a serious accident in a rollover with his Dallara at the airfield race in Diepholz, which required an injury break of several months. In 1992 he drove for the Opel team as well. After changing the engine tuner, however, there were no successes, whereupon Kaufmann ended his Formula 3 involvement.
Time at Freisinger Motorsport
After starting in the Carrera Cup, Kaufmann joined the Freisinger Motorsport team in 1993 through the mediation of Herbert Linge, and has now competed in sports car races . He celebrated his first successes in this form of motorsport with second place in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring and sixth in the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps . From 1994 until the end of the series in 1996 he drove a Freisinger-Porsche in the BPR Global GT Series . In the newly founded FIA GT Championship , he took part in a number of races with various teams in 1997 until he started again for Freisinger in 1998. There he achieved fourth place twice as the best result. He also contested the GTR Euroseries , in which he won two of five races of the season.
In 1999, Kaufmann was becoming increasingly successful in the FIA GT Championship when he made it onto the podium for the first time in Monza and achieved sixth place in the drivers' championship. Another highlight of the season was second place in the GTS category at the Sebring 12-hour race . In 2000 he achieved his first race win in the FIA GT Championship with Hubert Haupt at the Lausitzring . This was the only victory of a Porsche 993 GT2 that season and at the same time the last major international motorsport success of this vehicle. At the end of the season, Kaufmann finally finished seventh in the drivers' championship.
Sold for 2001 season Freisinger the outdated Porsche 993 GT2 and now joined with the new Porsche 996 GT3 R in the category N-GT on. The season began with the Daytona 24-hour race , in which Kaufmann finished third overall. He then competed for the team for half a season in the FIA GT Championship and achieved second place in his class at the race in Zolder as the best result. When Porsche increasingly placed its works drivers at Freisinger Motorsport, there was no more space for Kaufmann, so he finally had to leave the team.
Sports car races with smaller teams
Without a fixed cockpit, Kaufmann initially started in the European Le Mans Series and in various national racing series. In 2003 he received a cockpit at Wieth Racing and returned to the FIA GT championship. In the underfunded team, however, he did not achieve any notable successes with the Ferrari 550 Maranello and so he finished the season with only three championship points. In 2004 he spent another year at Wieth Racing , but the situation did not change that year either. He also had a few other races in the FIA GT Championship in the Saleen S7 from Graham Nash Motorsport and in the Porsche 996 Biturbo from PSI Motorsport .
In addition, Kaufmann developed a Porsche 996 Biturbo with A: Level Engineering in 2004 . He started with this in the Le Mans Endurance Series , where he initially had to struggle with the fragile engine of the vehicle and did not even get past the introductory lap. In 2005, the engine gradually became more stable, so that at the third round at Silverstone with Marcel Tiemann it reached third place in the GT1 category and thus achieved a remarkable result for A: Level Engineering for the first time . However, due to financial difficulties, the project was abandoned before the end of the season.
In 2005 and 2006, Kaufmann drove a Porsche 996 GT3 RS for Lammertink Racing and for Renauer Motorsport in the FIA GT Championship and took two podium finishes in the GT2 category . In 2007, for the premiere season, Kaufmann joined the newly founded ADAC GT Masters and drove a Lamborghini Gallardo for Argo Racing . He won the season opener at the Nürburgring and achieved four more podium finishes during the season. At Konrad Motorsport he had some sporadic appearances in the BFGoodrich endurance championship . After winning the 2006 24-hour race in Bahrain with the team, he finished second in the 24-hour race in Dubai in 2007.
Kaufmann already gained his first experience in prototypes at national races in the Czech Republic. In 2007 he was allowed to get behind the wheel of his Le Mans prototype with Giovanni Lavaggi and contest two races with him in the Le Mans Series. However, the car lacked reliability and so it did not see the checkered flag on both occasions. In 2008 he continued to take part in the Le Mans Series alongside Lavaggi. But this season, too, the team only reached the finish line in the 1000 kilometers at the Nürburgring in three races , but fell out of the ranking there due to technical defects. The end of the season was the Vallelunga 6-hour race, which is not part of the championship. There, Kaufmann qualified the LMP1 car against less powerful vehicles from the LMP2, Group CN and GT classes on pole position . In the race, however, Lavaggi and Kaufmann fell behind with technical problems. Still finished the race in 10th place overall. In 2009, Scuderia Lavaggi only started two races in the Le Mans Series. Kaufmann and Lavaggi reached the finish in Spa, but were again not rated.
At AT Racing , Kaufmann drove a Corvette C5-R in the FIA GT Championship in 2008 . He won the Citation Cup with his teammate Alexander Talkanitsa . In the same year he also started for PMB Motorsport in the 24-hour race of Spa-Francorchamps. The team of Kaufmann, Talkanitsa, Kenneth Heyer and Philippe Ullmann competed with the Porsche 996 Biturbo, which was formerly used by PSI Experience . After PMB Motorsport was in the lead in its class in the meantime, a clutch damage caused it to be thrown far back in the night until a vehicle fire finally forced it to give up. In the following year, Kaufmann was again registered as a PMB Motorsport driver for the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race. However, due to organizational problems, the race did not even take place.
Furthermore, Kaufmann took in the 2009 season for DAMS at the Formula Le Mans Cup in part. With the integration of the racing series into the Le Mans Series, Kaufmann will again compete in the endurance series in 2010. In 2010 he was class winner at the Dubai 24-hour race on a Brokernet Silver Sting SP1 and won the Formula Le Mans class at the 1000 km of Spa with the Hope Polevision Racing team. The vehicle in Spa was an ORECA FLM 09.
Lap record on the Nordschleife
In 2001, Kaufmann set the lap record for road vehicles on the Nordschleife in a Gemballa Porsche with a time of 7: 32.52 minutes. This record was only narrowly undercut on September 21, 2004.
statistics
Le Mans results
| year | team | vehicle | Teammate | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 |
 Freising Motorsport
|
Porsche 993 Turbo |
 Michel Ligonnet
|
 Yukihiro Hane
|
Rank 19 | |
| 1999 |
Freising Motorsport
|
Porsche 911 GT2 |
Michel Ligonnet
|
Ernst Palmberger
|
failure | engine |
| 2000 |
Freising Motorsport
|
Porsche 993 GT2 |
Katsunori Iketani
|
Yukihiro Hane
|
failure | suspension |
Sebring results
| year | team | vehicle | Teammate | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 |
Freising Motorsport
|
Porsche 911 GT2 |
Michel Ligonnet
|
 Lance Stewart
|
Rank 10 | |
| 2001 |
Freising Motorsport
|
Porsche 911 GT3-RS |
 Stéphane Ortelli
|
Rank 17 |
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kaufmann, Wolfgang |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German racing driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 24, 1964 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dernbach |