10/12/1947
Record updated 10-Dec-18
Porsche legend, Team Manager, engineer and Le Mans winner Jürgen Barth raced at le Mans 13 times finishing on the podium on 9 occasions.
Jürgen Barth was born in Thum, Saxony which was in East Germany close to the Czechoslovakian border. His father, Edgar Barth, raced both cars and motorbikes before the war. Edgar resumed his racing career in the GDR with an EMW in 1951. The elder Barth's talents were spotted by Porsche’s racing manager Huschke von Hanstein who offered him a works drive and the position of managing the Porsche clients racing department. so in 1957 he and his family defected to the West leaving most of their possessions behind.
They settled in Kornwestheim, just outside Zuffenhausen. It was therefor no surprise that in 1963 Jürgen joined Porsche as an apprentice. It was also not long before his organisational skills were recognised and he took over the management of the rally team. He made his competition debut in 1968 driving a 356 in rallies.
He made the first of thirteen appearances at Le Mans in 1971, finishing 8th in a 911S with René Mazzia. In his 13 starts he only failed to finish three times! His greatest achievement was winning the race outright in 1977. He was driving the Martini Porsche 936 with Hurley Haywood but shortly after the start they lost almost an hour in the pits changing a fuel pump. By the time there re-joined they were well down the field and seemingly out of contention. Jackie Ickx was drafted in to help once his car had retired and they steadily brought the car back from 41st to close in on the leading Alpine-Renaults. The Alpine-Renaults were quick but fragile and when they retired, Ickx, Barth and Haywood assumed the lead only for the engine to seize with two laps to go. However it was not over as Jürgen managed to get the car back to the pits and with the lead they had built up crossed the line running on five cylinders to take the win.
He finished second the following year and in all he took one outright victory, three class wins, three class seconds and two class thirds. Thus in total he was on the podium 9 times! He also took an outright win in 1980 at the Nürburgring in the 1000km race driving with Rolf Stommelen.
Jürgen loved rallying and took part in a number of events over the years including the 1969, 1978, 1982 and 1983 Monte Carlo Rallies.
He left Porsche in 2007 aged 60. He is co-author of the book about Porsche's racing history, Das große Buch der Porschetypen, a seminal work, and helped in the creation of the BPR Global GT Series. He was also involved in the ADAC GT Masters championship and sat on various FIA committees.
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