George
Follmer

George Follmer was born in Phoenix, Arizona, on 27 January 1934, and his family moved to California while he was still an infant. He started out in gymkhana events in car parks in the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California, driving a Volkswagen Beetle. In 1965 he won the SCCA's United States Road Racing Championship. He raced in the USAC Championship Car series from 1967 to 1971 and again in 1974, making 25 starts, among them the Indianapolis 500 in 1969, 1970 and 1971. His one win in the series came at Phoenix in 1969. His best Indy 500 result was 15th in 1971, having started from 29th on the grid.

In 1973 Follmer entered Formula One with Don Nichols' Shadow team. He made his debut in South Africa aged 39 years and one month, which made him the oldest debutant since the 1950s. In his first two Grands Prix he finished sixth in South Africa and third in Spain, which remained his only podium. He made 12 race starts that season and finished thirteenth in the World Championship with five points. He also took part in several Formula One races that did not count towards the championship.

He also won titles outside Formula One. In 1972 he became Can-Am champion after standing in for Mark Donohue at Penske in the Porsche 917/10, and in the same year he won four races on his way to the Trans-Am title in an AMC Javelin. He is the only driver to have won both Can-Am and Trans-Am in the same year. A second Trans-Am title followed in 1976 in a Porsche 934 Turbo. In Can-Am he was runner-up in 1973 and 1974, and he won at St. Jovite in 1978. In 1974 he also contested 13 of the 30 NASCAR Winston Cup races, with three top-five finishes and a pole position. At the 1986 24 Hours of Le Mans he finished third in a Porsche 956. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1999.

Source: Wikipedia, “George Follmer”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.