Stefan Bellof: Record Untouched.

Introduction

The Nurburgring. The Green Hell. Twenty kilometers of twists and turns that took the lives of many daring drivers who dare to push their skills to the limits. There was a time when in motorsport, speed and power were number one priority to manufacturers, and safety wasn’t really considered during that time. At that time, motorsport was an unsafe sport to partake in. So going around the longest and most dangerous circuit in the world in a car that would most most likely kill you in a crash required a driver with a lot of bravery.

Enter Stefan Bellof; one of Porsche’s greatest drivers, and the driver was not only brave enough to lap the Green Hell, but set a lap record of 6 minutes, 11 seconds, and 13 miliseconds, a lap record which would be engraved in the leader-board for years to come, still untouched today 34 years after the record was set. Even race cars built in this decade are not able to come close to that record, with their lap records averaging at 8 minutes or more.

Early Life

Stefan Bellof was born on 20 November 1957 in Gießen, West Germany. He had an older brother, named Georg Bellof, who went go-kart racing. Because of his brother, young Bellof was inspired and he decided to partake in go-kart championships. He made his first debut in the year 1973 during the Federal Junior Cup, hosted by Automobilclub von Deutschland. He managed to secure fourth place during his debut race. He would secure some more top-five placings during his racing years, until the year 1976, where he would win the International Karting Championship of Luxembourg in 1976.

Young Bellof would continue racing after a few years. During the same season, Bellof secured thirteenth place during the World Karting Championship held in Hagen, Germany. His brother that he looked up to, Georg Bellof, secured the championship title in the German Karting Championship in 1978, while Stefan Bellof would secure eighth place. One year later, he improved to the podium with second place, and one year later, he would become champion of the German Karting Championship in the year 1980, while racing for Formula Ford.

Formula Ford and Formula Three

During his successful go-karting career, he moved into Formula Ford near the end of the 1979 go-kart season, being a student at Walter Lechner’s Racing School. He made his debut in the Hockenheimring in Hockenheim, Germany in November of the same year. He secured second place during his debut race, and one year later, in the year 1980, he secured his first title as champion while racing for Formula Ford. In the 1981 season, unfortunately, he was not as successful, but was still good nonetheless, securing five victories and being promoted to the 2000cc class. Unfortunately, he retired from the Lion Trophy held in Zolder, and the 300 kilometer meeting at the Nurburgring Nordschliefe. Bellof also contested three VW Castrol Europa Pokal races, of which he won one.

On the same year, he would join the German Formula Three Championship. debuting at Bertram Schäfer’s team at Wunstorf. He lead the entire championship by seven points despite being absent for the first two opening races, securing podium titles during his first eight races. Unfortunately in the final round of the German Formula Three Championship, helf at the Nurburgring, Bellof finished thirteenth place, with his rivals Frank Jelinski and Franz Konrad taking first and second place. 11 points seperated Bellof and German Formula Three Champion Jelinski.

At the conclusion of the season, Bellof contested the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch, but was excluded from the meeting after finishing sixth in his quarter-final heat, for excessive contact. Bellof made a promise to the meeting’s clerk of the course, saying that the official had “better watch my career, because I’ll be back here next year and I’ll win my first Formula 2 race…

Formula Two

At the end of the 1981 season, Stefan bellof decided to partake in the Formula Two championship, joining racing drivers Mike Thackwell and Alain Ferte during a test session with Maurer Motorsport at Circuit Paul Ricard in France. Eje Elgh, a Maurer Motorsport racing driver who just finished third in the 1981 European Formula Two Championship was present at the time of the test runs. He was impressed by what Bellof could do, and recommended his team boss, Willy Maurer to join the team, and to sign him up for the 1982 Formula Two season. After a limited amount of BMW backing, Bellof secured a position in the team following a eight-year contract, managed by Maurer.

Bellof made his first Formula Two debut during the BRDC International Trophy at the Silverstone Race Circuit in the United Kingdom, where he secured ninth place. Bellof remembered his promise that he made after moving from the Formula Three championship, where he would win his first Formula Two race. He drove through the circuit in rainy conditions to win by 21 seconds ahead of his rival, Satoru Nakajima, and secured first place in the year 1972, along with becoming the second driver to win a race on his European Formula Two début after Dave Morgan won on aggregate at Silverstone. After that successful race, he continued his winning streak and managed to secure the fastest lap along with winning the race. Two points from the next six races ruled him out of the championship hunt, as he fell to an eventual fourth place classification, scoring 33 points.

One year later in 1983, he was not as successful compared to last year. He only secured two podium runs, one at Jarama. He was also disqualified from third place at the Pau Grand Prix, after discovering that him and his teammate’s car were found underweight at the end of the race.

Endurance Racing

In the year 1982, while still competing in the Formula Two championship, Stefan Bellof made a one-off appearance in the World Endurance Championship during the 1000 kilometers of Spa, partnering with Rolf Stommlen, while driving a Kremer CK5 endurance car. Unfortunately, Bellof and his partner Stommlen had to retire and were marked as DNF on the 51st lap, due to an issue with the starter motor. During the week before, the pair competed in the Hessen Cup at the Hockenheimring during the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft, but retired with transmission failure.

In 1983, Bellof joined the famed Rothmans-Porsche team for the World Endurance Championship, while driving his most famed car, the Porsche 956 alongside famed racing driver, Derek Bell. The duo secured their first victory during the 1000 kilometers of Silverstone, beating rival duo Bob Wollek and Stefan Johannson by a minute, leading the race at half the circuit distance. He also secured the twelfth fastest lap of the British Grand Prix at the time. But the next race on the calendar would engrave him in the leaderboard for years to come…

The Famed Lap Record

The next race on the calendar wias the 1000 kilometers of Nurburgring endurance race, where Stefan Bellof would set his famed and untouched Nurburgring lap record with a blistering fast 6 minutes, 11.13 seconds during qualifying, unofficially making him the fastest driver around the Nurburgring. Bellof also set the fastest lap during the race, with a lap time of 6 minutes, 25.91 seconds, which remains the official Nurburgring Nordschliefe lap record in a race, which are both still untouched even till today.

In contrast, the fastest road-illegal production car to ever lap the 20 kilometer setup at the Nurburgring is the Radical SR8 LM, with a lap record of 6:48:28, set in 2009. The fastest road-legal production car to ever lap the Nurburgring is the Porsche 911 GT2RS, with a lap record of 6:47:25, set just last year in 2017. The fastest non-series production car to lap the Nurburgring is the McLaren P1 LM, also set last year with a lap record of 6:43:22.

Note that those aforementioned lap records were done on the 20.6 kilometer setup of the Nordschleife, when Stefan Bellof in his Porsche 956 lapped the Ring in the 20.8 kilometer setup of the Nordschleife, 200 meters longer than the setup that was done by those drivers. A truly great driver he was, and a great car the Porsche 956 is.

Sportscar Racing

After the 1000 kilometers of the Nurburgring, where he set the famed lap record, he would secure two more wins at Kyalami and Fuji, and finished the entire season in fourth place. He also had a win in the non-championship Norisring Trophae race. Bellof was dominating the competition in the 1984 championship along with Derek Bell and John Watson, who recently joined at that time. They won the opening round in Monza, but unfortunately their car, the Porsche 956, along with another car, the Martini Racing Lancia LC2, were both found to be under the 850 kilogram weight limit, they were promptly disqualified.

Bellof claimed the World Sportscar Title thanks to victories in races on the Nurburgring, Spa, Mosport and Sandown. He had a eight point difference with second place holder, Jochen Mass. Bellof also helped Porsche secure the Manufacturer Champion title for Porsche. In the German DRM series, Bellof attended six sportscar races in 1985, securing one win at Norisring Circuit alongside Thierry Boutsen.

Formula One

After his successful endurance racing career, Bellof started testing a Formula One car towards the end of 1983, and reunited with the top two drivers of the British Formula 3 Championship back then, Brazilian legend Aryton Senna, and British Formula One driver Martin Brundle for McLaren. Bellof then moved to Tyrrell Motorsport to partner Brundle in their Ford powered Formula 1 car, where their naturally aspirated engine had 150 more horsepower compared to their turbocharged rivals.

His first races did not go so smoothly. He was marked as DNF in his first two races in Brazil and South Africa, before scoring his first championship points during races at Zolder and Imola. In Dijon, he had to retire due to issues, but despite that, Bellof secured a podium finish in the Monaco Grand Prix. Despite starting last place, he pushed himself to the limits and caught up with Aryton Senna and Alain Prost who were leading at the time. The race had to be cut short due to weather, and at the end of the race, Bellof was 21 seconds ahead of Prost, and 13.7 seconds ahead of Senna.

But unfortunately, Bellof, Brundle and the entire Tyrrell Motorsports team were stripped down of all their championship points after their cars were disqualified in 1984, due to a dispute over lead ballast in their fuel tanks found after the Detroit Grand Prix. The FIA charged them with four separate accounts of cheating, but they tried to make an appeal to continue racing. The FIA rejected that appeal, and they were kicked from participating for the rest of the season.

Despite all that, Bellof stayed loyal to Tyrell and stuck with them, and one year later in 1985, they returned to racing. He missed the opening race at Brazil, but showed up the following race in Portugal. He started all the way back in 21st place, but secured sixth place in the end, as the race had to be ended early due to weather conditions, just like back then in Monaco. Unfortunately, Bellof failed to qualify in Monaco, and was absent for the Austrian Grand Prix. His final race was during the Dutch Grand Prix, where his Renault turbocharged engine blew up on lap 40.

Due to all those unfortunate events that plagued his Formula 1 career, Bellof never had the opportunity to show how capable he was behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car…

Bellof's Death

After his failed Formula One career, Bellof returned to sportscar racing and attedned the 1000 km of Spa World Sportscar Championship in Belgium on 1 September 1985.

On the 78th lap of the race, Bellof was racing against Jacky Ickx in his Porsche 962C from the La Source hairpin all the way to the infamous Eau Rouge corner. Bellof moved to the left of Ickx in an attempt to overtake him at Radillon corner up the hill. The right front of his Porsche 965 hit Ickx’s left rear side of his Porsche 962C. Both drivers spun into the barriers. Ickx’s car hit the wall on its right rear side, while Bellof went straight into the barriers, breaking through them and came to rest after hitting a secondary wall, catching fire a few moments after.

Ickx climbed out of his Porsche 962C unharmed. But unfortunately, Bellof wasn’t so lucky…

After getting out of his wrecked 962C, Ickx tried to help safety workers get Bellof out of the flaming Porsche. Unfortunately, he succumbed to fatal internal injuries and passed away on the way to the track hospital.

Out of respect for Bellof, the race was cut 150 kilometers shorter. The entire incident was caught on tape on an in-car camera that Ickx’s Porsche 962C was carrying. Even after the accident, the camera still filmed, pointing right at where Bellof’s flaming Porsche was. This wasn’t the first time a driver died in a Porsche that month. At the previous World Sportscar Race in Canada, Manfred Winkelhock, a West German Formula 1 was instantly killed after his Porsche 962C slammed into a wall.

As a result, the Porsche 956 were withdrawn from the series by the end of the 1986 season due to safety issues, taking its last victory on the 1000km of Fuji race.

His Legacy

Bellof had always been an inspiration for Michael Schumacher, mentioning it during an interview in January 2007. His teammate, Derek Bell commented on Bellof’s crash; saying that it was caused by his lack of discipline in driving style, and put the blame on those who knew Bellof, including his team personnel, who should have allowed him to mature.

In 2010, Bellof’s family donated his racing mementos to the local Sammler und Hobbywelt museum for display, which included his go-kart from his early racing days, his racing helmets and race suit, along with his trophies earned while racing for Porsche and Tyrell. In 2009, Formula One drivers chose Bellof as the 35th greatest Formula 1 driver of all time, and in 2013, a turn was named in his honor after renaming a section of the Nordschleife as the Stefan-Bellof-S, previously known as the Pflanzgarten III. In the Spa Round of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship, German driver Timo Bernhard wore a helmet with Bellof’s helmet livery to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his fatal accident at Spa.

But his biggest legacy still remains and is still untouched till today, his 6:11:13 Nurburgring lap record…