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Jochen Neerpasch, the pioneer

16. Jun 2023 
by Ziv Knoll
8111 views

Jochen Neerpasch is a former race car driver who won, amongst others, the 24 hours of Daytona in 1968, in a Porsche 907 with Vic Elford and Jo Siffert.

In the ’70s he became a successful team-manager in the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft and the European Touring Car Championship. He first managed the works Ford team, and then from 1972 on, he was associated with BMW. He was the founder of the successful BMW M team.

In 1977, Jochen Neerpasch launched a youth programme known as the ‘BMW Junior Team’ and the three up and coming youngsters he signed, Eddie Cheever, Marc Surer and Manfred Winkelhock, caused a stir in the world of motorsport.

Neerpasch remembers: “When I formed the first BMW Junior Team in 1977, we at BMW Motorsport, were pioneers in the development of young drivers. It was a very exciting time, nobody had ever imagined such a junior team before.”

The BMW Motorsport team he was leading also scored many great victories with established stars such as Stuck, Peterson (picture above), Lauda and Ickx, just to name a few.

In the 1980’s, Neerpasch was in charge of the Sauber-Mercedes sports cars racing team, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1989. He also discovered and taught talents like Michael Schumacher, Karl Wendlinger and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

A monument of motorsport, Mr Neerpasch.

Source: Rainer W Schlegelmilch

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