Le Mans and Alençon with Gijs van Lennep from a fan (me): 72 years old and still racing. Jonkheer Gijsbert van Lennep (born 16 March 1942, Aerdenhout, North Holland) is a Dutch esquire and racing driver. Van Lennep drove for the Porsche sportscar team from 1967 and won the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1971 with Helmut Marko driving the number 22 Martini sponsored Porsche 917K (a veritable deathtrap of a race and car). They set a distance record, covering 5335 km which remained unbeaten until the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans. He came 4th in Le Mans in 1973 driving the 2.8 RSR factory prototype pictured, nicknamed Mary Stuart, after the resemblance of the rear spoiler to the high collars worn by Mary, Queen of Scots. Also in 1971 the Stichting Autoraces Nederland (Foundation for Car races in the Netherlands), hired a Surtees TS7 for him to make his F1 debut in his home GP where he finished a creditable eighth in a very wet GP. The following year Van Lennep won the Rothmans European F5000 Championship in a Surtees TS11 and drove twice for the Williams GP team, winning his first championship point with 6th place in the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix. With Ensign he scored a second point in the 1975 German Grand Prix, making him the second most successful Dutch Formula 1 driver, until the emergence of Jos Verstappen. In 1973 he won outright the last running of the Targa Florio with Herbert Müller in another Martini Porsche Carrera RSR prototype. He continued with sportscar racing, winning the Le Mans 24 Hours for a second time in 1976, sharing a Porsche 936 Turbo with Jacky Ickx before retiring from racing. last image: bathroom door, makes me bit homesick, on july 4th, 10 years to day i moved from nyc.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 21:58:29 +0000
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