Jean de Pourtales

Jean de Pourtales (born 19 August 1965) is a French racing driver from Neuilly-sur-Seine. Before his motorsport career, de Pourtales was a member of the British junior alpine ski team, and attended the junior world ski championships. However, an accident unfortunately cut short his skiing career. De Pourtales began his career in British Formula Vauxhall Junior in 1995 and moved to British Formula Renault in 1998 and finished tenth. He competed in Euro Formula 3000 part-time in 1999 and from 2001 to 2004 with his best season finish being 17th in 2003. Since then, he has participated part-time in the Le Mans Series LMP2 class and the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Kruse Schiller Motorsport.

Handicap De Pourtales is a rarity in motorsport, as he competes with an artificial limb. A road accident in his twenties resulted in the loss of his left hand and forearm and has since raced with a special steering wheel that attaches to a prosthetic arm enabling him to compete just like his rivals.

24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Kruse Motorsport Tony Burgess Norbert Siedler Pescarolo 01-Judd LMP2 98 DNF DNF Kruse Schiller Motorsport Hideki Noda Allan Simonsen Lola B05/40-Mazda LMP2 147 DNF DNF Kruse Schiller Motorsport Hideki Noda Matthew Marsh Lola B07/46-Mazda LMP2 261 DNF DNF Kruse Schiller Motorsport Hideki Noda Jonathan Kennard Lola B07/40-Judd LMP2 291 26th 10th