Walter Röhrl

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Walter Röhrl

Röhrl at Retro Classics Stuttgart, Germany 2012-03-23
Personal information
Nationality	German
Born	(1947-03-07) 7 March 1947 (age 74) Regensburg, Germany
World Rally Championship record
Active years	1973–1987
Co-driver	Christian Geistdörfer
Teams	Porsche, Fiat, Opel, Lancia, Audi
Rallies	75
Championships	2 (1980, 1982)
Rally wins	14
Podiums	31
Stage wins	420
Total points	494
First rally	1973 Monte Carlo Rally
First win	1975 Acropolis Rally
Last win	1985 San Remo Rally
Last rally	2020

Walter Röhrl (German pronunciation: [ˈvaltɐ ˈʁøːʁl] (listen); born 7 March 1947) is a German rally and auto racing driver, with victories for Fiat, Opel, Lancia and Audi as well as Porsche, Ford and BMW.

Career[]

Röhrl grew up as the youngest of three children of a stonemason in Regensburg. His parents separated when he was ten years old. From then on he lived with his mother. After leaving school he completed a commercial education at Bishop's Ordinariate Regensburg.^[1] At the age of 16, Röhrl began working for the commercial director of a company that legally represented the Bishop of Regensburg along with 6 further Bishops in Bavaria, and skied in his spare time. In time he became a qualified ski instructor and a keen driver, and became the chauffeur to the commercial director, covering up to 120,000 kilometres annually. Some unqualified reports have stated he was once the Bishop's own driver, but this has been acknowledged as untrue. Having also now been active in sports like skiing, Röhrl was invited to drive his first rally in 1968.

Röhrl was a World Rally Championship favourite throughout the 1970s and 1980s, winning the Monte Carlo Rally four times with four different marques. His co-driver for many years was Christian Geistdörfer. His Fiat 131 Abarth carried him to the 1980 title, clinched with his victory in that year's San Remo rally, but it was arguably his equivalent success in 1982 that impressed most of all, with Röhrl fending off audacious four-wheel drive opposition, led by Audi's resurgent Michèle Mouton, to take the title, by virtue of consistency, in his increasingly outmoded rear-drive Opel Ascona 400. It was also during this time that he won the African Rally Championship, in 1982.^[2] However, shortly after winning the championship he was fired from the team by team manager Tony Fall because he disliked competing in the RAC rally (the rally he had little success in).^[3][4] Röhrl had already had severe arguments with Tony Fall about publicity activities for the team sponsor, tobacco company Rothmans. Röhrl, as a strict nonsmoker, simply refused to do any filming for Rothmans publicity spots, claiming that he had been hired as a driver, not an actor, and that he could not see any sense in promoting tobacco as a nonsmoker anyway.^[5]

Audi S1 Pikes Peak

In 1983, he joined Lancia to pilot the new, rear-wheel drive Lancia 037, before finally changing his machinery, in 1984, to the four-wheel drive Audi Quattro, an automobile actually produced in his home state of Bavaria.

In 1987 Röhrl set up a new record in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for being the first driver to cover the 14.42 miles (19.99 km) long mountain track to the Pikes Peak in less than 11 minutes. In his 600 hp (440 kW) Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2 he did the famed American hillclimb in 10 minutes and 47.850 seconds^[6] to reach Pikes Peak on the road which at that time was mainly covered with gravel.

Despite being selective in his choice of top-level events (he declined to do the famed 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland due to his dislike of jumps and cars getting airborne^[7]), he did the RAC Rally in Britain only once more after 1979 and he only did the Swedish Rally twice, despite finishing 3rd in 1982) albeit during a time when this was a less unusual occurrence for top-line drivers in the championship, Rohrl still scored 14 WRC victories in his career.

Röhrl was also successful in road racing events, and was called "Genius on Wheels" by Niki Lauda. In the 1992 24 Hours Nürburgring race which saw fog and heavy rain in the night, he hardly slowed down, anticipating the corners by timing. The race was nevertheless interrupted for hours.

In Italy, he was elected "Rallye driver of the century". In France he was elected "Rallye driver of the millennium" in November 2000. A jury out of 100 worldwide motorsports experts meeting in Italy elected him "Best Rallye driver ever".

In recent years, he has been retained as the senior test driver for Porsche road cars, famously setting quick laptimes for them testing round the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife, for example with the Porsche Carrera GT.

Röhrl was expected to make his competitive return to the Nürburgring 24 hour race in 2010 at the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. However, he was forced to withdraw from the event due to a back injury.^[8] It was to be his first 24-hour race in 17 years, since his last start in 1993. In 2011, Röhrl was inducted into the Rally Hall of Fame along with Hannu Mikkola^[9] and in July 2016 was inducted into Germany's Sports Hall of Fame.^[10]

Complete WRC results[]

WRC victories[]

Röhrl's final WRC victory came at the wheel of an Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2 at the 1985 Rallye Sanremo. The car was paraded at the Ignition Festival of Motoring in 2017.

#	Event	Season	Co-driver	Car
1	Acropolis Rally	1975	Jochen Berger	Opel Ascona
2	Acropolis Rally	1978	Christian Geistdörfer	Fiat 131 Abarth
3	Critérium du Québec	1978	Christian Geistdörfer	Fiat 131 Abarth
4	Rally Monte Carlo	1980	Christian Geistdörfer	Fiat 131 Abarth
5	Rally Portugal	1980	Christian Geistdörfer	Fiat 131 Abarth
6	Rally Argentina	1980	Christian Geistdörfer	Fiat 131 Abarth
7	Rally Sanremo	1980	Christian Geistdörfer	Fiat 131 Abarth
8	Rally Monte Carlo	1982	Christian Geistdörfer	Opel Ascona 400
9	Rallye Côte d'Ivoire	1982	Christian Geistdörfer	Opel Ascona 400
10	Rally Monte Carlo	1983	Christian Geistdörfer	Lancia 037 Rally
11	Acropolis Rally	1983	Christian Geistdörfer	Lancia 037 Rally
12	Rally New Zealand	1983	Christian Geistdörfer	Lancia 037 Rally
13	Rally Monte Carlo	1984	Christian Geistdörfer	Audi Quattro A2
14	Rally Sanremo	1985	Christian Geistdörfer	Audi Quattro Sport S1

24 Hours of Le Mans results[]

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1981	Porsche System	Jürgen Barth	Porsche 944 LM	GTP +3.0	323	7	1st
1993	Le Mans Porsche Team	Hurley Haywood Hans-Joachim Stuck	Porsche 911 Turbo S LM-GT	GT	79	DNF	DNF

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Walter Röhrl.

• Webpage from Walter Röhrl
• Walter Röhrl at rallybase.nl