Rolf Stommelen
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Rolf Stommelen was a Formula One driver from Germany born on July 11, 1943. He participated in 61 grands prix, debuting on March 7, 1970. He achieved 1 podium, and scored a total of 14 championship points.
One of the best Sports Car Endurance race car drivers of the 60's and 70's, Stommelen won the pole position for the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Porsche 917 a year after finishing third in a Porsche 908. In 1970, he made his Grand Prix debut with Brabham and raced both sportscars and F1 in the 70's. His F1 career never produced any wins.
Unfortunately, he would play a role in the end of the Spanish Grand Prix's tenure at Montjuich Park in Barcelona when he crashed there in 1975 after the rear wing of his Embassy-Hill- Lola broke, resulting in the deaths of five spectators.
After his recovery, Rolf returned to sports cars racing, winning races for Alfa Romeo and also winning the 24 Hours of Daytona three times and nearly winning the 24 hours of Le Mans with Dick Barbour and actor/current ChampCar owner Paul Newman as co-drivers in 1979 in a Porsche 935, only to be set back by a 23 minute long pit stop caused by a stuck wheel nut.
In his early years, he was successful in hillclimbing and at the Targa Florio.
He also competed in one NASCAR Nextel Cup Series event in 1971 at Talladega Superspeedway in a former Holman-Moody Ford which Mario Andretti used to win the 1967 Daytona 500, which was rebuilt as a Mercury Cyclone, with Jake Elder as crew chief. That car eventually was sold to independent driver Darrell Waltrip to use a year later in his Nextel Cup Series debut in 1972, starting a career which led to Waltrip's International Motorsports Hall of Fame induction in April 2005.
In the late 1970s, he raced Porsche GTs, winning the German championschip Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft in 1977.
Rolf was killed in a vicious crash during an IMSA event at Riverside International Raceway on April 24 1983 after the rear wing of his Porsche 935 broke.
Complete Formula One results
(Note: grands prix in bold denote points scoring races.)| Yr | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Brab | SAF | SPA | MON | BEL | DUT | FRA | GBR | DEU | AUT | ITA | CAN | USA | MEX | Brab | |||
| 1971 | Surt | SAF | SPA | MON | DUT | FRA | GBR | DEU | AUT | ITA | CAN | USA | Surt | |||||
| 1972 | Marc | ARG | SAF | SPA | MON | BEL | FRA | GBR | DEU | AUT | ITA | CAN | USA | Marc | ||||
| 1973 | Brab | ARG | BRA | SAF | SPA | BEL | MON | SWE | FRA | GBR | DUT | DEU | AUT | ITA | CAN | USA | Brab | |
| 1974 | Lola | ARG | BRA | SAF | SPA | BEL | MON | SWE | DUT | FRA | GBR | DEU | AUT | ITA | CAN | USA | Lola | |
| 1975 | Lola | ARG | BRA | SAF | SPA | MON | BEL | SWE | DUT | FRA | GBR | DEU | AUT | ITA | USA | Hill | ||
| 1976 | Brab | BRA | SAF | SAW | SPA | BEL | MON | SWE | FRA | GBR | DEU | AUT | DUT | ITA | CAN | USA | JPN | Brab |
| 1978 | Arro | ARG | BRA | SAF | USAW | MON | BEL | SPA | SWE | FRA | GBR | DEU | AUT | DUT | ITA | USA | CAN | Arro |
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