(born 1937) is a former
German Race Car driver and current team owner. During the last 20 years,
Joest Racing has won the
24 Hours Of Le Mans seven times.
Joest's driving career began in 1962 in a local
Hillclimb race in the
Odenwald mountains. He had won two German championships in that category by 1967. Since 1966, he raced successfully on the
Nürburgring , scoring a class win at the
1000km Nürburgring . He won the race overall twice, in 1970 and 1980, and a total five class wins.
Joest's first entry in the
24 Hours Of Le Mans was in 1968, with a
Ford GT40 co-driven by
Helmut Kelleners and sponsored by a German car magazine. His first remarkable result came in 1972, after the dominating
Porsche 917 and similar cars were not allowed anymore. Without any modern cars available, Joest borrowed an outdated 3.0L
Porsche 908 /02 Langheck Coupé from the
Jo Siffert Museum. He and his two co-drivers finished 3rd with the 1969 model car. Despite being part of factory Porsche teams on several occasions, he never managed to be in their winning car. He came close in 1980, finishing second together with
Jacky Ickx in his privately-entered
Porsche 936 that was called a "
Porsche 908 /80" as Porsche did not officially sell the 936.
Despite never winning as a driver at Le Mans, Joest ended his driving career in style. After winning the
24 Hours Of Daytona in a
Porsche 935 and on the
Nürburgring with his
Porsche 908/3 Turbo in 1980 (both with
Rolf Stommelen ), he went on to win several German
DRM races in 1981 with a mighty
Porsche 935 "Moby Dick". He retired after winning the
Kyalami 9 Hours with
Jochen Mass at the end of the year.
