Walter Lechner

Walter Lechner senior (4 August 1949 – 8 December 2020) was an Austrian entrepreneur, motorsport team principal, and automobile racing driver and pilot born in St. Pölten. He was the founder of Lechner Racing and the father of racing drivers Robert Lechner and Walter Lechner Jr., who both achieved international success in motorsport.

Biography Lechner originally began his professional career training as a waiter apprentice and working as a disc jockey before pursuing motorsport full-time. In 1975, he officially established his racing team footprint with the launch of Lechner Racing.

His racing school and team became the Start for premier road racing talents. Lechner personally trained, managed, or supported future Formula One standouts, including Germany's Stefan Bellof, Austria's Karl Wendlinger, and future Mercedes-AMG F1 Team Principal Toto Wolff.

His racing team entered the international Porsche Supercup in 2003, a support series held during Grand Prix race weekends. Under his management, the team went on to become the most successful squad in Porsche Supercup history, capturing 11 team titles—including seven consecutive titles—and securing eight drivers' titles with stars like René Rast. The peak of this dominance was marked by achieving both the Drivers' and Teams' championship titles simultaneously during the 2005, 2010, 2011, and 2012 seasons.

On 3 April 2019, Lechner was honored with the Leonidas Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented to him by his close friend and former racing driver Hans-Joachim Stuck.

Racing career Lechner enjoyed a professional competitive racing career spanning nearly two decades. Characterized as a "late starter," he immediately showed pace by winning the Formula Ford European Championship in 1978. In 1979, he contested the German Formula 3 Championship in a Ralt, finishing third overall in the final standings. By 1982, he secured both the European and German championship titles in the Formula Super Vee series. Throughout his formula and sports car racing ventures, his vehicles prominently sported the branding of American bourbon maker Jim Beam, forming one of the longest-standing commercial partnerships in Austrian motorsport.

From 1983 onward, Lechner shifted focus to sports car racing, where he achieved six championship victories in the Interserie Sportwagen Cup. His first title in 1983 was taken utilizing a former Grand Prix March 821 Formula One car that he custom-fitted with closed-wheel bodywork. He followed this up by campaigning a converted Williams FW07C-Ford.

Lechner celebrated his most notable driving triumphs alongside Porsche. In 1985, he won an upset victory at the Österreichring during his first-ever outing in a rented Porsche 956. This performance prompted him to purchase its successor, a Porsche 962C, in 1986. Over an exceptional six-year racing span with the chassis, he captured 11 individual race victories and two additional Interserie championships.

Lechner also competed in the North American Can-Am Championship in 1984, steering high-horsepower prototypes to a 5th-place finish overall in the championship standings. He made two appearances at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1988 and 1989 driving Group C machinery for Walter Brun's team. After transitioning to touring cars, he won the Austrian Touring Car Championship in 1995 against veteran racer Dieter Quester. He retired from active racing in 1996 to focus entirely on guiding the racing careers of his sons.

Racing record

24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. ClassPos. 1988 Brun Motorsport Manuel Reuter Franz Hunkeler Porsche 962C C1 111 DNF DNF 1989 Brun Motorsport Roland Ratzenberger Maurizio Sala Porsche 962C C1 58 DNF DNF

Complete World Sportscar Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Interserie career highlights The following table summarizes Walter Lechner's primary final standings and championship years across both divisions of the Interserie.