Gijs
Van Lennep

Gijs van Lennep, born in Aerdenhout in 1942, drove for the Porsche sports car team from 1967 and won the Porsche Cup in 1970. In 1971 he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Porsche 917K, sharing the car with Helmut Marko. The pair covered 5,335 kilometres, a distance record that stood until 2010.

That same year he made his Formula One debut in a Surtees at the Dutch Grand Prix, his home race, finishing eighth in wet conditions. In 1972 he won the European Formula 5000 Championship. He drove for Iso-Marlboro in 1973 and 1974, and sixth place in the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix gave him his first championship point and 19th place in the standings. In 1975 he made three starts for Ensign and scored a second point at the German Grand Prix. In total he started eight Formula One races.

In sports cars, he won the final Targa Florio in 1973, sharing a Porsche Carrera RSR with Herbert Müller. In 1976 he won Le Mans again with Jacky Ickx in a Porsche 936 Turbo, and then retired from racing.

Source: Wikipedia, “Gijs van Lennep”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.