Josef Gartner (24 January 1954 – 1 June 1986) was a Formula One and sports car endurance driver from Austria. After a successful lower formula career, including a win in the Formula Two Pau Grand Prix, he participated in eight Formula One Grands Prix for Osella during the 1984 season, scoring no points. He was killed in an accident at the 1986 24 Hours of Le Mans. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in Vienna in 1972, during Jo Gartner’s racing, there was much self-sacrifice and a determination to succeed against seemingly overwhelming odds. Jo had talent but lacked finance and even worked as his own mechanic for much of his Formula 2 career and impressed with his determination and attitude.
Jo bought an old Formula Vee chassis and drove some laps at Zeltweg and Salzburg and after modifying it he sold it on. After obtaining a second car, he entered a hill climb in Bad Muhlacken and finished second in the first heat though went off in the second. After competing in some hillclimbing events in Austria and Germany, in 1977 he started in the Volkswagen supported European Formula Super Vee championship. With some help from Kurt Bergmann of Kaimann race team, he continued in it for 1978 and was competitive, finishing a creditable third overall in the series.
1979 saw him in Formula 3, driving a Martini with support from Renault Deutschland, but he only took points at Kassel-Kalden. However, he also competed in the Formula Super Vee race at Hockenheim during the GP weekend and won the race and from there moved into Formula 2 in 1980 with a March. When Jo and his four man team arrived at Hockenheim, they had an amazing seventh place qualifying position but unfortunately the race ended in tragedy when Markus Hottinger was killed. Dr.Helmut Marko signed Jo to race in his BMW M1 Procar series, sadly replacing Markus in his team. In his debut at Donington, he was constantly battling with the leaders and eventually finished fourth (ahead of GP drivers Nelson Piquet and Carlos Reutemann) and later took a sixth place finish at Imola. In his F2 racing that year, he finished seventh (just out of the points) at Silverstone after another strong qualifying performance. However, due to lack of finances he was only able to compete in six races, finishing four times, though won in some national events.
In 1981, he drove a year-old Toleman, having worked over the winter to redesign the back of it to make it suitable for a Heidegger-BMW F2 engine. The rear suspension was also a complete new design but despite working flat out on the car he missed the first races. His debut came at the third race, at the Nürburgring, and there was a strong third place qualifying position but during the race he lost fourth gear and dropped back, eventually finishing seventh, behind Kenny Acheson’s Toleman.
Due to his limited finances, besides helping prepare his car and being a mechanic, he and girlfriend Doris lived and travelled in a camper van from race to race. Eventually financial help came from Herbert Maier and the Emco Machines company and the two remained friends through the rest of Jo’s career. In his first race with Emco sponsorship, he had a fine sixth place finish at Enna-Pergusa but in the second race at a wet Spa, he was running comfortably in third until pushed off by other driver in the closing stages. Following this came an offer from Arturo Merzario to drive one of his March cars for two races and he finished eighth at Mantorp Park.
Continuing with Arturo for the following year, he ran a March 822, but was up against fierce competition and his best result was sixth at Silverstone plus an impressive third place qualifying performance at the Nürburgring. It was a vintage year, with drivers such as Stefan Bellof, Stefan Johansson, Kenny Acheson, Thierry Boutsen, Jean-Louis Schlesser, Johnny Cecotto, Jonathan Palmer and Corrado Fabi competing.
For 1983, he ran his own car, an ex-works Spirit 201 plus had financial backing from Emco, Austrian tobacco company Milde Sorte and there was also a paying second driver, Pierre Chauvet. Again he had to adapt the cars to accept the Heidegge BMW engines but the team constantly improved and became steady frontrunners through the season. Besides a fourth place at Hockenheim, Jo finally got onto the top step of the podium when he won the prestigious street race at Pau. Jo led in a rain-affected Pau race and though the track was drying he stayed out on wet tyres while his main rivals had made an extra pitstop for slick tyres. After a tough battle, Alain Ferté overtook Jo on the last lap to win but his Maurer was later disqualified for being underweight. Jo was declared the winner and Alain gave the winner’s trophy to him at the next race.
During the year there was almost a deal with ATS to drive one of its cars in the Austrian Grand Prix but a few days before the race the team decided against the second entry.
With assistance from Emco Machines and Milde Sorte sponsorship, Jo managed to secure a Formula 1 seat with Osella, but because the team were too late in nominating him with the FIA, he would not be eligible for points. His debut was planned for the second part of 1984 but the team entered a car in Imola though because of an accident at the first race they only had one turbo car left and he had to make his debut in an older 1983-type Osella. In preparation for the GP he competed in the first two F2 races of 1984 plus tested an Osella at Imola. His second GP came at Brands Hatch but after half a lap in the new car it was damaged in a crash involving several cars. Following this engine failures caused retirements at Hockenheim and Zeltweg while at Zandvoort he finished fourteenth but due to a leak he had been sitting in fuel for a good part of the race and sustained burns.
Alongside his F1 racing he drove Bastos Juma Racing Team’s BMW 635CSi in 1984’s Spa Francorchamps 24 hour race and, with Pierre Alain Thibault and Lucien Guitteny, finished in a strong fourth place. Jo then had one of his career highlights at Monza, when both Osellas were running sixth and fifth a few laps from the flag. P.Ghinzani’s car ran out of fuel and on the final lap Jo’s engine also cut out but he managed to get it going again and was able to retain fifth as he crossed the line. Ironically, with Niki Lauda winning and Gerhard Berger finishing sixth, there were three Austrian drivers in the top six.
There were retirements in the season’s final two races, the Nürburgring and Estoril, but he wasn’t retained by the team for the following season. Despite having talks with Toleman and Arrows, neither of them materialised and he switched to sports car and IMSA racing, driving a Porsche 956 for John Fitzpatrick and a 962 for Bob Akin in the IMSA series. At Le Mans in 1985, alongside David Hobbs and Guy Edwards, there was a strong fourth place finish with John Fitzpatrick’s team and later in the year he competed in the Macau F3 race, where he finished 10th.
He competed in three championships in the following season, with Kremer in the Group C World Championship and the German Interserie plus in IMSA with Bob Akin’s Coca Cola sponsored Porsche. He and H.Joachim Stuck finished third in a Miami IMSA race and won the Sebring 12-hour race. However, at Sebring Jo took the car for the last stint but a few minutes from the end, his car lost a wheel for the second time. He managed to limp back to the pits, then returned to the track to complete one more lap, but well into the final lap, the new wheel fell off and he scraped and sparked his way along the pit wall to take the starter’s flag. He won an Interserie round at Thruxton with Kremer’s Porsche 962 and was third in a Group C race at Silverstone with Tiff Needell.
Although Jo had ambitions to return to F1, he had also come to an agreement with the factory Rothmans Porsche team for 1987 but sadly neither would happen. Returning to Le Mans, he was racing Kremer’s Porsche 962, alongside Sarel van de Merwe and Kunimitsu Takahashi, but he was killed instantly when the car veered off the Mulsanne Straight in the middle of the night. Admired by many for his determination and never give up attitude, Jo was sadly missed.
Jo Gartner – He only saw Formula 1 from behind – from 
