Vern Schuppan

Schholhay 83-98 (1).JPG
Vern Schuppan
Born	19 1943 (1943-Template:Pad2digit-Template:Pad2digit) Whyalla, South Australia
Died	{{{death_date}}} {{{death_place}}}
Formula One career
Nationality	Australian
Years	1972, 1974–1975, 1977

Vernon "Vern" Schuppan (born 19 March 1943 in Whyalla, South Australia) is a retired Australian motor racing driver. Schuppan drove in various categories, participating in Formula One, the Indianapolis 500 and most successfully in sports car racing. Schuppan's biggest career victory was with the factory backed Rothmans Porsche team when he partnered Americans Hurley Haywood and Al Holbert to win the 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Early career and Formula One

After a successful karting career, Schuppan went to Great Britain to participate in the British Formula Atlantic Championship, which he won, leading to a test with BRM. As BRM's test driver he tried to qualify for the 1972 Belgian Grand Prix, but he did not start the race because Helmut Marko drove his car. He did compete in some non-championship races with BRM. In 1974 Schuppan went to Team Ensign, debuting again in the Belgian Grand Prix where he finished in 15th position. In Monaco he retired on lap four because of an accident. Schuppan was disqualified in both Sweden and the Netherlands; in Sweden because he started illegally from 26th place on the grid and in Holland for receiving a tyre change outside of the pits. Schuppan failed to qualify in France or Britain. He retired in Germany on lap four because of gearbox problems. In 1975 he raced in one race in Sweden for Embassy Racing With Graham Hill team, retiring from the race with transmission problems. In 1977 Schuppan raced for Surtees, finishing 12th in Britain and a career best seventh in Germany. He finished 16th in Austria, but failed to qualify for his final Formula One race in Holland.

Sports cars

Schuppan has had a very successful sports car career, winning the 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans for Porsche's official factory team with Al Holbert and Hurley Haywood in a Rothmans Porsche 956 and finishing second in 1977 and 1982 and third in 1975. In 1983 Schuppan won the Japanese Sports-Prototype Championship. In 1984 he finished sixth at Le Mans with former Formula One World Champion Alan Jones and Frenchman Jean-Pierre Jarier in a Kremer Racing Porsche 956 (his factory backed Rothmanns team boycotted the event). He had a number of other podium finishes in the World Sports Car Championship, including second in the 1973 and 1982 Spa 1000 km, third in the 1983 and 1984 Fuji 1000 km and third in the 1985 Selangor 800 km race. Schuppan also placed third in the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship in 1984, 1985 and 1986.

Other categories

Schuppan competed in three Indianapolis 500 races. These were 1976 (where he won the Rookie of the Year award), 1979 and 1981, with a best result of third in 1981 driving a McLaren-Ford. In all, he started 32 CART and USAC Championship races. He won the 1974 and 1976 Macau Grand Prix races, dominating the 1974 race by four laps. He also won the 1971 British Formula Atlantic Championship and the Singapore Grand Prix in 1973 and was second in 1972 and also second in the Malaysian Grand Prix in 1972. He raced Formula 5000 in Europe between 1974-1975 and in North America 1974-1976 with some success.

In his home country of Australia, Schuppan won the 1976 Rothmans International Series run for Formula 5000 cars, driving a Lola T332-Chevrolet. He placed second in the 1976 Australian Grand Prix at Sandown Park in Melbourne driving an Elfin MR8 Chevrolet, only half a second behind winner John Goss (Matich A53-Repco Holden). He was also runner up in the 1978 Rothmans International Series, driving an Elfin MR8-Chevrolet for the factory run Ansett Team Elfin.

When Schuppan was regularly returning home to Australia to race he was also a popular choice as a co-driver for top touring car teams such as Allan Moffat Racing, Dick Johnson Racing and the Peter Brock run Holden Dealer Team in the Sandown 400 and Bathurst 1000 races in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His best finish at Bathurst was a fifth place with Dick Johnson in 1978 driving a Ford XC Falcon. Allan Moffat and Schuppan started on pole and were leading the 1976 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 when their XB Falcon GT Hardtop retired with engine failure in lap 87.

Other activities

With Japanese backing, Schuppan produced firstly minimally modified 962 race cars with street registration. The first, registered in the UK as H726 LDP, retained the original bodywork and honeycomb chassis from its racing career. Later a road going evolution of the Porsche 962 called the Schuppan 962CR was developed, using very different bodywork. At the then price of 195 million yen (1.5 million USD) only six were built.

Payment failed to arrive for two of the vehicles after they were shipped to Japan. This, coupled with the high cost of the car's construction and the worldwide recession, forced Schuppan to declare bankruptcy. Schuppan then also co-owned an Indy Lights team with Stefan Johansson.

In May 2006, Schuppan was elected into the Club International des Anciens Pilotes de Grand Prix F1, an eminent organisation based in Monaco.

Racing record

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
1972	Marlboro BRM	BRM P153B	BRM V12	ARG	RSA	ESP	MON	BEL DNS	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	ITA	CAN	USA						NC	0
1974	Team Ensign	Ensign N174	Cosworth V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	ESP	BEL 15	MON Ret	SWE DSQ	NED DSQ	FRA DNQ	GBR DNQ	GER Ret	AUT	ITA	CAN	USA			NC	0
1975	Embassy Racing With Graham Hill	Hill GH1	Cosworth V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	ESP	MON	BEL	SWE Ret	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	ITA	USA				NC	0
1977	Team Surtees	Surtees TS19	Cosworth V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	ESP	MON	BEL	SWE	FRA	GBR 12	GER 7	AUT 16	NED DNQ	ITA	USA	CAN	JPN	NC	0

Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish
1976	Eagle	Offy	17th	18th
1977	Wildcat	Offy	DNQ
1979	Wildcat	DGS	22nd	21st
1981	McLaren	Cosworth	18th	3rd
1982	Penske	Cosworth	DNQ

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans Results

Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of the winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).

Year	Pos	Class	No	Team	Co-Drivers	Chassis	Tyre	Laps
1989	13	C1	55	Team Schuppan	Eje Elgh Gary Brabham	Porsche 962C	D	321
1988	34 DNF	C1	18	Porsche AG	Bob Wollek Sarel van der Merwe	Porsche 962C	D	192
1987	39 DNF	C1	18	Rothmans Porsche AG	Bob Wollek Jochen Mass	Porsche 962C	D	16
1986†	27 DNF	C1	2	Rothmans Porsche	Jochen Mass Bob Wollek	Porsche 962C	D	180
1986†	47 DNF	C1	3	Rothmans Porsche	Drake Olson	Porsche 962C	D	41
1985	32 DNF	C1	3	Rothmans Porsche	Al Holbert John Watson	Porsche 962C	D	299
1984	6	C1	11	Porsche Kremer Racing	Alan Jones Jean-Pierre Jarier	Porsche 956B	D	337
1983	1	C	3	Rothmans Porsche	Hurley Haywood Al Holbert	Porsche 956	D	370
1982	2	C	2	Rothmans Porsche System	Jochen Mass	Porsche 956	D	356
1981	12	S +2.0	12	Porsche System	Jochen Mass Hurley Haywood	Porsche 936	D	312
1979†	24 NC	S +2.0	10	Grand Touring Cars Ltd. Ford Concessionaires France	Jean-Pierre Jaussaud David Hobbs	Mirage M10	?	121
1979†	26 DNF	S +2.0	11	Grand Touring Cars Inc. Ford Concessionaires France	Derek Bell David Hobbs	Mirage M10	?	262
1978	10	S +2.0	10	Grand Touring Cars Inc.	Jacques Laffite Sam Posey	Mirage M9	?	293
1977	2	S +2.0	10	Grand Touring Cars Inc. Mirage Renault	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Mirage GR8	?	331
1976	5	S 3.0	11	Grand Touring Cars Inc.	Derek Bell	Mirage GR8	?	326
1975	3	S 3.0	10	Gulf Research Racing Co.	Jean-Pierre Jaussaud	Mirage GR8	?	330
1974	41 DNF	S 3.0	12	Gulf Research Racing Co.	Reine Wisell	Mirage GR7	?	?
1973	44 DNF	S 3.0	9	Gulf Research Racing	Mike Hailwood John Watson	Mirage M6	?	112

† Years he was cross entered.

References

• Driver Database stats
• Racing Reference Profile
• Champcar Stats
• My F5000 Profile

Preceded by: None

British Formula Atlantic champion 1971

Succeeded by: Bill Gubelmann

Preceded by: John MacDonald

Macau GP Winner 1974

Succeeded by: John MacDonald

Preceded by: Bill Puterbaugh

Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year 1976

Succeeded by: Jerry Sneva

Preceded by: John MacDonald

Macau Grand Prix Winner 1976

Succeeded by: Riccardo Patrese

Preceded by: Jacky Ickx Derek Bell

Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1983 with: Al Holbert Hurley Haywood

Succeeded by: Klaus Ludwig Henri Pescarolo

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Vern Schuppan. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.