Reinhold Joest

Reinhold Joest
	Joest at the 2013 6 Hours of Silverstone
Nationality	German
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	1969, 1971 - 1973, 1975 - 1976, 1980 - 1981
Teams	Deutsche Auto Zeitung, Martini Racing, Jo Siffert A.T.E. Racing, Joest Racing
Best finish	2nd (1980)
Class wins	0

Reinhold Joest (also spelt Reinhold Jöst; born 24 April 1937) is a former German race car driver and current team owner. During the last 25 years, Joest Racing has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans fifteen times.

Driving career

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 1000 km 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 Without any modern cars available, Joest borrowed an outdated 3.0 L Porsche 908/02 Langheck Coupé from the Jo Siffert Museum. He and his two co-drivers finished third 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.

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1969	Deutsche Auto Zeitung	Helmut Kelleners	Ford GT40 Mk.I	S 5.0	341	6th	3rd
1971	Martini Racing Team	Willi Kauhsen	Porsche 917/20	S 5.0	180	DNF	DNF
1972	Jo Siffert A.T.E. Racing	Mario Casoni [it] Michel Weber [de]	Porsche 908LH	S 3.0	325	3rd	3rd
1973	Martini Racing Team	Claude Haldi	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	S 3.0	54	DNF	DNF
1975	Ovoro Joest Racing	Mario Casoni [it] Jürgen Barth	Porsche 908LH	S 3.0	325	4th	4th
1976	Martini Racing Joest	Jürgen Barth	Porsche 936 Spyder	S 3.0		DNF	DNF
1978	Martini Racing Porsche System	Peter Gregg Hurley Haywood	Porsche 936/77	S +2.0	362	3rd	3rd
1980	Equipe Liqui Moly – Martini Racing	Jacky Ickx	Porsche 908/80	S +2.0	336	2nd	2nd
1981	Joest Racing	Dale Whittington Klaus Niedzwiedz	Porsche 908	S+2.0	60	39th	10th