Vernon “Vern” Schuppan (born 19 March 1943 in Booleroo Centre, 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.
Although he considers himself to be a single-seater driver, 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 driving the Porsche 956. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Vern Schuppan was born in 1943, in Booleroo Centre, South Australia, and grew up around cars as his family ran a garage business. As a young child his father used to let him sit on his knee while driving, gaining enough speed on unsealed roads for him to have opposite lock on and then correct it. He would often attend races at a nearby Rowley Park Speedway and attended 1955’s Australian GP at Port Wakefield, which fired his passion to go racing. However, his father was against it, telling him that if he went overseas to try it, then not to come back home! He bought him a kart in the hope it would dissuade him but this backfired and after winning Australian State and National karting titles, he and his wife Jennifer travelled to Great Britain to further his racing. They set themselves a two year limit to make good or return home and he made his debut in Formula Ford. From there he moved into Formula Atlantic, with a Palliser WDB4 Ford, and the Championship saw a battle between him and Cyd Williams. He took a string of first and second places, almost having the title by September, but though Williams then won three on the trot Vern eventually took the title. During the year he had come to the attention of BRM, with Louis Stanley promising him if he won the championship they would give him an F1 test drive.
He eventually joined BRM as reserve driver for 1972 and contested two non-championship races, qualifying fifth and finishing fifth at Oulton Park and fourth at Brands Hatch. There was almost a chance of a drive at the Belgian GP, at Nivelles, though Helmut Marko took the car for the race. There were a number of F2 and Formula Atlantic races with a March 722 and he had a second place finish at the Singapore Grand Prix, followed a week later with second in the Malaysian GP. In the following year he would go one better and win the Singapore GP. During the year, BRM sent him to Germany to race their CanAm car at the Nurburgring though he failed to start due to a broken engine in practice. Following this race the team asked him to test at Silverstone for a possible F1 race seat for 1973 and after the test, Lou Stanley arranged a meting at the Dorchester Hotel in London to discuss a contract. On arrival, Vern told how “He basically had the contract all ready for me when I arrived there, and I was trying to be very cool and say, ‘Well, I’ll take it away and read it.’ But he said, ‘Do you realise how many young fellows would give their right arm for this chance?’ So I gave in and signed it there and then. And so that was it. At that stage I had a contract to drive with Clay Regazzoni for the 1973 season.” However, he later discovered in a newspaper article that they had signed Niki Lauda and the only drives he had with BRM in 1973 were two non championship races, the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch (alongside BRM cars driven by Lauda and Beltoise) and the Interntional Trophy at Silverstone. Away from single-seaters, he had several drives in 1973 with John Wyer’s Gulf Mirage sports car team, finishing fifth in the Dijon 1000km (with M.Hailwood) and second in the Spa 1000Kms (sharing with Mike Hailwood and Howden Ganley). The year saw his debut at Le Mans, teamed with Mike Hailwood and John Watson in the Mirage M6, though they retired after 112 laps. Racing a Theodore March 72B-Ford he qualified second and won the Singapore GP, but despite qualifying on pole at the JAF Grand Prix at Fuji he retired from the race with overheating. Then came Macau, which saw him take victory (by four laps) and this was the first of two victories there.
The following year began with Sid Taylor’s Theodore Racing Trojan T101 in European F5000, scoring one victory and there were one-off races in the SCCA/USAC F5000 championship, British Formula Atlantic Series and the German Racing Championship. An F1 opportunity came his way again, standing in for Ricky von Opel in Mo Nunn’s Ensign N174-Ford for seven races. However it would be a disappointing time and his only result, and finish, was fifteenth in his first race, at Nivelles, in Belgium. Returning to Le Mans, he partnered Reine Wisell in Gulf’s Mirage GR7 but they retired after 49 laps. His main focus for 1975 was F5000, driving Theodore Racing’s Lola T332 in the European championship, where he finished 10th, while in the SCCA/USAC championship he drove All American Racer’s Eagle 755 and finished eighth in the series. He competed in one World Championship race, the Swedish GP, in Graham Hill’s GH1-Ford but retired after 47 laps due to transmission failure. There was a podium finish at Le Mans with Jean-Pierre Jaussaud in a Mirage GR8-Ford while racing solo he won at Road America with a Mirage GR7.
He did a full season in 1976’s SCCA/USAC F5000 championship, finishing sixth, and won the Rothmans International F5000 Series, taking victory at Oran Park
and podiums at Adelaide and Sandown Park along the way. He and Derek Bell were fifth at Le Mans with a Mirage GR8 and fourth with a Porsche 935 at a 6Hr Zeltweg race while Vern took fifth at a 200 Mile Mosport race with the Mirage. The year saw his debut at the Indy 500 and he was running eighteenth in a Jorgensen Eagle-Offenhauser but though the race was stopped due to rain he received the Rookie of the Year award. 1977 saw a busy schedule with him racing on three continents. In Australia he entered the Rothmans International Series and Bathurst 1000, in America competed in the USAC National Championship plus in Europe he raced for Team Surtees in Formula One and for Mirage Renault at Le Mans. In Indycar he drove a Wildcat-Offenhauser (finishing eighth at Ontario and Phoenix) plus took a later sixth place finish at Ontario with Morales Motorsports. Returning to Le Mans he was second in the Mirage GR8 with Jean-Pierre Jarier plus contested four Grands Prix with Surtees. His first race came in Great Britain, where he finished twelfth, followed by seventh in Germany, sixteenth in Austria but he did not qualify at Zandvoort. He raced an Elfin MR8A-C as part of Ansett Team Elfin in the Australian Rothmans Series though experienced a number of retirements and his best results were fifth and seventh. That car was sent to America and a CanAm body fitted but due to his Surtees F1 commitments and a loss of his Can-Am sponsor he delayed the debut of the Elfin until an end of season Riverside race. The team only had three practice days days to sort the car but after qualifying ninth he finished twenty second.
There was a similarly busy schedule the following year, contesting races around the globe, including the Australian Grand Prix, Bathurst 1000 and Rothmans International Series in Australia. In the Can-Am Championship he was ninth at the opening round at Road Atlanta but realised how tough a season it would be as the first five cars home were Lolas. He was fifth at Charlotte but the team missed Mid Ohio, Mont Tremblant and Watkins Glen before returning at Road America, where he was sixth after qualifying ninth. At the Canadian rounds, he qualified and finished sixth at Mosport while at Trois-Rivieres he qualified fourth and finished seventh. The season’s two final races came in California, and there was a DNF at Laguna Seca but after qualifying fifth at Riverside he failed to finish due to his engine blowing. Racing in Europe at Le Mans, he was teamed with Sam Posey and Jacques Laffite in a Mirage and they went on to finish tenth while in USAC he drove in three races for the Fletcher Racing and Patrick Santello teams.
In 1979, he focused on the inaugural season of CART, driving Wysard Motor’s Wildcat at Indianapolis plus drove in Can-Am with Theodore Racing’s Elfin MR8A. He missed the first CanAm races at Road Atlanta, Charlotte, Mosport and Mid Ohio and made his race debut at Watkins Glen (with the car featuring a new, all-enveloping, fibreglass body) in early July but though it proved to be a tough race of attrition he took a strong third place finish behind Keke Rosberg and Geoff Lees. Road America saw a fifth place though despite qualifying tenth at Brainerd his engine blew after 19 laps. He missed Trois-Rivieres but at the two California season ending races he qualified ninth and finished seventh at Laguna Seca then finished five laps down with mechanical problems at Riverside (his last Can-Am race in the Elfin). Outside America, he raced at the Macau Grand Prix, contested four races of the Australian Rothmans International Series while Le Mans saw a double entry, competing in two of the Grand Touring Cars Limited team’s Cosworth-powered Mirage M10s.
There was no Le Mans entry in 1980 and he only competed in Indy Car, with his best finishes fifth at Pocono and Mid Ohio with Wysard’s Wildcat though did not qualify at Indianapolis with Jerry O’Connel’s McLaren M24. For his CanAm racing, he had two F1 McLaren M26s, intending to have Howden Ganley’s Tiga Cars convert them into Can-Am machines, but then bought a Tiga CA80. The car appeared in the last two rounds, at Laguna Seca and Riverside, though was classified sixteenth at Laguna after a water leak and only completing only 37 laps and fourteenth after the engine failed on lap 41 at Riverside. During this period, he regularly returned home to Australia to race and was 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.
There was a new venture for him in sports cars in 1981 when he joined Porsche in the World Endurance Championship, and he, Jochen Mass and Hurley Haywood were twelfth at Le Mans with a Porsche 936. In IndyCar, despite competing on a limited budget he impressed by finishing third (his best ever result there) with a Red Roof Inns McLaren M24B behind Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti at the Indy 500. In doing so he became the highest placed Australian to finish the Indy 500, a position he held until some years later when Will Power finished second to Juan Pablo Montoya. There were also appearances in Can-Am, at the Macau Grand Prix and Bathurst 1000 plus he and David Hobbs raced a March 81P at a 500 mile Road America race. Back in Australia he was part of Holden’s factory team at Bathurst and raced a Commodore with John Harvey, but they retired after just 37 laps and this would be his last entry in the race.
He continued in Indy Car the following year (his best result seventh at Cleveland with Kraco Enterprises) while in endurance racing took second place finishes in the World Endurance Championship, in a Porsche 956 with Derek Bell in the 9 Hour Kyalami and 6 Hour Fuji rounds plus at Le Mans with Jochen Mass.
However, in 1983 he went one better when he, Al Holbert and Hurley Haywood took victory in the Rothmans Porsche 956 at Le Mans, ahead of team-mates Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell. He would later have his feet and handprints added to the Le Mans Walk of Fame and Vern became the first Australian driver to win Le Mans since Bernard Rubin in 1928. In addition to this, he also took the Japanese sports car title with Naohiro Fujita and Trust Racing’s Porsche 956, taking two wins at Suzuka plus three, and a podium, at Fuji. There was a full schedule with Porsche in 1984 and he would team during the year with drivers including Brun, Jones, Jarier, Mason, Watson and Stuck. His best results came when paired with Ukyo Katayama, taking victories at the 500Km Suzuka and Fuji rounds, second at the 1000K Fuji and Suzuka races plus third at a further 1000Km Fuji race. At Le Mans, Porsche were dominant, with various Porsche teams taking the first seven places and Vern crossed the line in sixth place with Kremer Racing, partnered by Alan Jones and Jean-Pierre Jarier.
From 1985 to 1988 there were further works Porsche drives at Le Mans, though he suffered retirements from them, alongside co-drivers Al Holbert, John Watson, Drake Olson, Jochen Mass, Bob Wollek and Sarel van der Merwe. During that time he competed with Porsche prototypes in the World Championship, the Japanese Championship plus the IMSA GTP Championship. There was a one off appearance in 1985’s British Saloon Car Championship, driving a Mitsubishi Colt Starion Turbo at Silverstone’s Tourist Trophy, a Hendricks Chevrolet Corvette with D.Hobbs at Watkins Glen, plus a third with J.Weaver in a 800Km Selangor race in Malaysia. In 1986 he raced Group 44’s Jaguar XJR-7 in IMSA rounds at Daytona and Sebring (with H.Haywood and B.Redman) while his best results were two wins at Fuji (with Suzuki and Fouche) with Trust Racing’s 962.
Contesting various races with the Dyson Racing and Trust Racing teams’ 962 in 1987, alongside Cobb, Dyson and Suzuki, he won at Watkins Glen plus had a podium at Daytona and three at Fuji. Continuing with the 962 over the following seasons, his best results were second with Trust Racing at 1988’s 500Km Suzuka (with Fouche), a victory and two podiums in 1989 at Fuji with Elgh and Matsumoto for Omron Racing.
In 1989, he formed his own endurance race team and in what would be his last Le Mans 24 Hours race, he Gary Brabham and Eje Elgh finished thirteenth in their 962. He competed a full season in the All-Japan Sports-Prototype Championship, achieving his last career victory in the series’ second race and went on to add three podiums and finished fifth in the points. There were also a handful of further drives for Omron in 1990 though he stepped back from racing at this point.
As well as being a team owner he became a manufacturer in the early 1990s when he formed a company to produce street legal Porsche 962 race cars. The carbon monocoques were built by Reynard Motorsport and the body by Schuppan, and the final assembly took place at Vern’s production facility in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. Funding was provided by Japanese investors though only six Schuppan 962CRs were made. Two vehicles which were shipped to Japan weren’t paid for, plus coupled with the car’s high construction costs and a worldwide economic recession, forced him to close the company. Only five cars remain today, as one was destroyed in a fire. He also co-owned an Indy Lights team with Stefan Johansson (managing the career of Scott Dixon) though Vern eventually left the company, while in 2006 he was elected into the Club International des Anciens Pilotes de Grand Prix F1. He also played an important part in bringing Formula One to Adelaide in his home state of South Australia. Bernie Ecclestone had originally favoured Sydney to host the Grand Prix but, as Vern knew Ecclestone personally, John Bannon (the Premier of South Australia) asked if he would persuade him to to visit Adelaide. After visiting and being impressed by it, he agreed to hold it there and it ran from 1985 to 1995, when it moved to Melbourne.
Vern continued appearing at historic events and also owns a collection of classic cars, including a 1929 Alfa Romeo 6C-1750SS, an ex-Steve McQueen Ferrari 275GTB/4 plus often races his own Talbot Lago. He is also a regular supporter of the Targa Adelaide tarmac rally and in 2016 was back at Indianapolis as an ambassador for PIRTEK Team Murray, where Matt Brabham, grandson of Sir Jack, made his debut.
Vern’s results would include being Macau Grand Prix winner in 1974 and 1976, Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year in 1976, winner at Le Mans in 1983 (with co-drivers Al Holbert and Hurley Hayward), second in 1977 and 1982 and third in 1975 and 1981. He was third in the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship in 1984, 1985 and 1986 and in total started 32 CART and USAC Championship races. He was a co-driver at the Bathurst 1000 for three of the biggest names in the race’s history, Dick Johnson, Peter Brock and Allan Moffat. Although his best result was fifth, he and A.Moffat were leading the race in 1976 when their XB Falcon had engine problems. In 1981, he joined John Harvey in HDT’s Commodore and they were running among the leaders until crashing out due to a wheel failure.
Honours Vern received included induction into the SA Sport Hall of Fame and being awarded the Order of Australia Medal.
