Stefan Bellof (20 November 1957 – 1 September 1985) was a German racing driver.
Bellof was the winner of the Drivers’ Championship in the 1984 FIA World Endurance Championship, driving for the factory Rothmans Porsche team. His lap record on the Nordschleife configuration at the Nürburgring, set while qualifying for the 1000 km race in 1983, stood for 35 years, when it was beaten by Timo Bernhard in 2018.
He also competed with the Tyrrell Formula One team during 1984 and 1985. Bellof was killed in an accident during the 1985 1000 km of Spa, a round of the World Endurance Championship. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
The World Championship was only started in 1950 and until Michael Schumacher in 1994, no German driver had won the Championship. Wolfgang von Trips came close in 1961 though was sadly killed in the Italian GP (along with 14 spectators) but many thought a young up and coming driver in the early 1980s would be their first World Champion.
Stefan Bellof’s father Georg had competed in rallies and mountain races, and owned a paint/body repair shop, and Stefan made his karting début in 1973, finishing fourth an Automobilclub von Deutschland’s Federal Junior Cup. Elisabeth Bellof said that “the car was always his calling. At the age of four, the boys already had their own Goggomobil and they used to drive around our work yard to the delight of everyone“.
His first karting title came in 1976, when he won the International Karting Championship of Luxembourg and in that year he finished thirteenth in the Karting World Championship. His brother Geörg won the German Karting Championship in 1978 and Stefan would become champion in 1980.
At the end of 1979 he had also raced in Formula Ford with Walter Lechner, and finished second on his debut at Hockenheim. A full season followed and in the twelve races he took eight victories, and nine podiums, on his way to becoming champion. His second season was not as successful, although there were five wins, but he also competed in two races in the more powerful 2000cc class plus took a win in one of the three VW Castrol Europa Pokal races he entered.
He also competed in German Formula Three, with Bertram Schäfer’s team at Wunstorf. Although he missed two races at the start of the season he went on to take a top four finish in eight races and led the championship going into the final round at the Nürburgring, However, his two title rivals finished ahead of him and he was beaten by eleven points. He also raced at Brands Hatch’s FFord Festival but after finishing sixth in his quarter-final heat he was excluded for excessive contact.
After acquiring some backing from BMW, he moved into F2 with the Maurer team in 1982, where his first race would be the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone. After qualifying ninth, he won by 21 seconds ahead of Satoru Nakajima and became the first driver to win outright and then came a second victory at Hockenheim, having started from pole position and taking fastest lap during the race. He would eventually finish fourth in the championship. Besides his F2 races, he did one World Endurance Championship race at the 1000 km of Spa, driving a Kremer CK5 with Rolf Stommelen, retiring on lap 51. He had also raced with Kremer in the Hessen Cup at Hockenheim, but retired from it with transmission failure.
Stefan’s 1983 F2 season, in comparison to 1982, would prove much less successful. There was only a second place at Jarama, and fourth at Silverstone, but was disqualified from third place at Pau (after he and team mate Ferte’s cars were declared underweight) and he finished the season ninth.
In 1983 he joined Rothmans Porsche in the World Endurance Championship and he and Derek Bell raced a Porsche 956 to victory in a 1000 km Silverstone race. At the following race, the 1000 km Nürburgring, Stefan rewrote several records at the Nordschleife. At that time, his pole time of 6 minutes, 11.13 seconds was unofficially the fastest lap ever driven on it in its current configuration, taking pole position by five seconds at an average speed of 202.073 kilometres per hour (125.562 miles per hour). Also, his fastest lap, of 6 minutes, 25.91 seconds, was the official Nordschleife lap record for all cars. He was nearly half a minute faster than Keke Rosberg’s 6:39.52, who later said “I thought mine was a good lap, until I saw the times.” Stefan even said he could have gone faster but ‘made two mistakes and a 911 briefly got in his way.’ During the race, he continued to set an unbelievable pace, but crashed at the Pfianzgarten corner and their race was over. He would go on to take victories at Kyalami and Fuji plus added a win in a non-championship Norisring Trophäe race.
He and Derek Bell won the opening race of 1984 at Monza (they were initially disqualified due to the car being declared underweight, though it was reinstated after appeal) followed by victories at Nürburgring, Spa, Fuji (with J.Watson) and Sandown. He also drove for Brun Motorsport, winning at Imola with Hans Joachim Stuck, and he finished the season as World Sportscar champion. He was also champion in the German DRM series. Rudi Walch, who was a technical engineer at Brun stated “Stefan was the best of all drivers. He was a thoroughbred racer who could also get the last out of a rubbish car“
Although Stefan’s first season in Formula One came with Tyrrell, at the end of 1983 he, Ayrton Senna and Martin Brundle, tested for McLaren at Silverstone. Racing for Tyrrell (with M.Brundle) in 1984, they were the only team to run the full season with naturally aspirated engines. He failed to finish in Brazil and South Africa, then went on to score points at Zolder and Imola and at Monaco, he took a podium finish in the rain-shortened race where, despite starting twentieth he was catching race leaders Prost and Senna when the race was ended after 31 laps. However, following Detroit, where team mate Brundle finished second, the team were stripped of all their points, and their cars disqualified from the season, after a dispute over lead ballast in their fuel tanks. Despite appealing, the FIA rejected it and Tyrrell were out of the rest of the season.
Remaining with Tyrrell for 1985, he missed the opening race in Brazil but when he returned at the Portuguese GP, the weather conditions were similar to that of Monaco the previous year, and despite starting twenty first he finished sixth. Although he failed to qualify at Monaco, he finished fourth in Detroit, but had to retire during the Dutch GP, which would be his final Grand Prix.
During that year he had also driven in several sportscar races, taking a victory at the Norisring with Thierry Boutsen but sadly, then came the 1000 km of Spa in September.
Partnering Thierry Boutsen in a Brun Motorsport Porsche 956, he started third on the grid but on lap 78, while racing Jacky Ickx, their cars made contact and both drivers spun into the barriers. Stefan’s Brun went through and hit a secondary wall, and caught fire and Jacky Ickx attempted to help safety workers in trying to rescue him. Members of the Brun team also arrived to help and the emergency medical team struggled for over 10 minutes before extricating him but he sadly died before he reached the track hospital.
Poignantly, rival teams had been watching Stefan’s achievements and it was believed he had agreed terms with Ferrari for 1986 (with Michele Alboreto)
He was often mentioned as Michael Schumacher’s childhood racing idol and Sebastian Vettel stated that “every German racing driver knows who Stefan Bellof was“. Hans-Joachim Stuck told how “Stefan taught me all about the Porsche 956, he really did. When I did my first race in 1984 when I was with Harald Grohs after the first practice I was eleven seconds off the pace….eleven f****** seconds! So Harald took me up to Stefan and said: “Explain to Hans how to drive this thing.’ So Stefan taught me completely how to drive this car which you had to really use the ground-effect, brake in to the corners and how you treat the kerbs.” He added ”Stefan was fast, fast, fast. We did a race together at Imola which we won in 1985. It was in the Brun Porsche and you know I am proud to say even now that I was in a car with Stefan, because he was special. He had this feel for a racing car that not many had. He was a great kid too and it was so sad when he went, so sad.”
In 2013, the Nurburgring renamed the Pfianzgarten (where he crashed in 1983 after setting the records) to the Stefan Bellof S, in tribute to him.
There is also a Stefan Bellof website www.stefan-bellof.de
Stefan Bellof – Talent overplayed – from 
