Walter Röhrl

Walter Röhrl (; 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. Röhrl had 14 victories over his career, with his notable achievements including winning the World Rally Championship twice: in 1980 with a Fiat 131 Abarth and in 1982 while driving for Opel with the Ascona 400. He has also competed in other forms of motorsport, such as endurance racing, winning the GTP +3.0 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1981 with the Porsche System team. Röhrl also set the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record in 1987, driving an Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2. He is often regarded as one of the greatest rally drivers of all time.

Career Röhrl grew up as the youngest of the three children of a stonemason in Regensburg, Bavaria, near Munich. 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. At the age of 16, Röhrl began working for the commercial director of a company that legally represented the Bishop of Regensburg along with six 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.

Rally career 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. For 1981, Röhrl signed a five-year deal with Mercedes-Benz, who planned to compete with a 500 SL roadster in 1981 and 1982, to be followed by a purpose-built, mid-engined, turbocharged Group B car in 1983. In the end, Mercedes-Benz withdrew shortly before the first rally of the season and cancelled the Group B program. Röhrl was given a DM 900,000 lump sum and release from his five-year contract, but too late in the season to get a seat.

A few months later, Röhrl and Geistdörfer took a short-term engagement with Porsche and campaigned a Porsche 924 Carrera GTS in six rounds of the German rally championship. Röhrl also started the San Remo rally in a Porsche 911 SC, but was forced to retire with driveshaft trouble while in second place. Röhrl has referred to this as his most bitter retirement, as he had been hoping that a victory would help coax Porsche into committing to a full WRC effort.

It was arguably his second title, in the 1982 World Rally Championship season, that impressed most of all, with Röhrl fending off 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. 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). Röhrl had already had severe arguments with Fall about publicity activities for the team sponsor, tobacco company Rothmans. Röhrl, as a strict nonsmoker, 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 non-smoker.

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, a car produced in his home state of Bavaria.

In 1987, Röhrl set up a new record in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb by being the first driver to win the 12.42 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 American hillclimb in 10 minutes and 47.850 seconds 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 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland due to his dislike of jumps and cars getting airborne, he did the RAC Rally in Britain only once more after 1979 and he only did the Swedish Rally twice, despite finishing third in 1982), albeit during a time when this was not unusual for top-line drivers in the championship, Röhrl still scored 14 WRC victories in his career.

In Italy, Röhrl 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 2011, Röhrl was inducted into the Rally Hall of Fame along with Hannu Mikkola and, in July 2016, was inducted into Germany's Sports Hall of Fame.

Other events Röhrl was also successful in road racing events and was called "Genius on Wheels" by Niki Lauda. Together with Jürgen Barth, he took a class victory in the 1981 Le Mans 24 Hours at the wheel of a Porsche 924 Carrera GTP (actually a 944 prototype), finishing seventh overall. Together with Harald Grohs and , he started in two races in the World Sportscar Championship the same year on a Porsche 935, winning the Silverstone 6 Hours race. 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 recent years, Röhrl has been retained as the senior test driver for Porsche road cars, setting quick laptimes for them testing round the 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. It was to be his first 24-hour race in 17 years, since his last start in 1993.

Complete WRC results Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 WDC Points 1973 Irmscher Tuning Opel Commodore GS/E MON45 SWE POR KEN MOR GRE POL FIN N/A N/A Opel Ascona AUTRet ITA USA GBRRet FRA 1974 Opel Euro Händler Team Opel Ascona MONC SWEC PORRet KEN GREC FIN ITA CAN USA GBR5 FRA N/A N/A 1975 Opel Euro Händler Team Opel Ascona MONRet SWE KEN GRE1 MORRet PORRet FIN N/A N/A Opel Kadett GT/E ITARet FRA GBRRet 1976 Opel Euro Händler Team Opel Kadett GT/E MON4 SWE PORRet KENRet GRE MOR FIN ITARet FRARet GBRRet N/A N/A 1977 Opel Euro Händler Team Opel Kadett GT/E MONRet SWE POR KEN NZL GRERet FIN GBRRet NC 0 Fiat S.p.A. Fiat 131 Abarth CANRet ITARet FRA 1978 Alitalia Fiat Fiat 131 Abarth MON4 SWE KEN PORRet GRE1 FIN CAN1 ITARet CIV FRA GBR6 6th 13 1979 Alitalia Fiat Fiat 131 Abarth MONRet SWE POR KEN8 GRE NZL FIN CAN ITA2 FRA GBR8 CIV 9th 21 1980 Fiat Italia Fiat 131 Abarth MON1 SWE POR1 KEN GRE5 ARG1 FIN NZL2 FRA2 GBR CIV 1st 118 Jolly Club ITA1 1981 Eminence Porsche 911 SC MON SWE POR KEN FRA GRE ARG BRA FIN ITARet CIV GBR NC 0 1982 Rothmans Opel Rally Team Opel Ascona 400 MON1 SWE3 PORRet KEN2 FRA4 GRE2 NZL3 BRA2 FIN ITA3 CIV1 GBR 1st 109 1983 Martini Lancia Lancia 037 Rally MON1 SWE POR3 KEN FRA2 GRE1 NZL1 ARG FIN ITA2 CIV GBR 2nd 102 1984 Audi Sport Audi Quattro A2 MON1 SWE POR6 KEN NZLRet ARG FIN 11th 26 Audi Sport Quattro FRARet GRERet ITARet CIV GBR 1985 Audi Sport Audi Sport Quattro MON2 SWERet POR3 KEN FRARet GRERet NZL3 ARG FIN 3rd 59 Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2 ITA1 CIV GBRRet 1986 Audi Sport Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2 MON4 SWE PORRet KEN FRA GRE NZL ARG FIN CIV ITA GBR USA 22nd 10 1987 Audi Sport Audi 200 Quattro MON3 SWE POR KEN2 FRA GRERet USA NZL ARG FIN CIV ITA GBR 11th 27

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 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