Bob Wollek - Sportscar Racing

Sportscar Racing

Wollek had already won there in 1985 with A. J. Foyt, driving a Porsche 962. Despite being over 50 years of age and still racing competitively, Wollek had developed a fitness regime of riding bicycles to stay in good physical condition, especially for the longer races such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, to which he rode from home across France.

In the mid-1970s, he raced a Porsche 935K2 improved and entered by the Kremer Racing team from Cologne.

During his three decades of sports car racing, almost exclusively in Porsches, he won the 24 Hours of Daytona four times (1983, 1985, 1989, 1991) and the DRM in 1982 and 1983, with the Porsche 936 and Porsche 956 entered by the Joest Racing team.

For many years, Monsieur Porsche challenged the factory team with privately entered cars, as he was seldom hired to become part of the official Porsche crew, like at the 1978 24 Hours of Le Mans (also 1979, 1997, 1998). In 1981, he even raced a Group C-spec Kremer-built Porsche 917, about a decade after these cars were retired initially.

Wollek never managed to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall, despite coming close in a few of his thirty attempts. In 1997, his leading Porsche 911 GT1 suffered damage in a minor incident, so the factory entry had to retire. In 1998, Porsche scored a 1-2 win, but Bob was once again on the less-lucky car.

After the 1998 season, Porsche retired its GT1 cars from the Mercedes-dominated FIA GT Championship, providing only Porsche 911 based cars for the lower GT classes. In 2000, Wollek scored many class wins at the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) in a Porsche 996 GT3.

Typically of many other racing drivers, Bob ran a car dealership for Jaguar.