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.

Reinhold Joest
NationalityGermany German
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years1969, 1971 - 1973, 1975 - 1976, 1980 - 1981
TeamsDeutsche Auto Zeitung, Martini Racing, Jo Siffert A.T.E. Racing, Joest Racing
Best finish2nd (1980)
Class wins0

Driving career

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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 Without any modern cars available, Joest borrowed an outdated 3.0 L Porsche 908/02 Langheck Coupé from the Jo Siffert Museum.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

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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 MolyMartini 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

See also

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