20/3/1949
Record updated 20-Mar-07
Sports car driver who founded Wieth Racing with his son, Niko. They were involved in the development of the Ferrari 550 Maranello for racing in the FIA GT Championship.
Franz Wieth started racing back in the 80s in the Ferrari 348 Challenge. Later his elder son, Niko, followed him and they founded their own team, Wieth Racing.
They have taken wins wins in sprint and long distance races. During 1999 Franz and Niko Wieth took ten wins with their Porsche GT2. The first appearance of Wieth Racing in the FIA GT was at the final round in Zhuhai (China). They competing in a Porsche GT2 in the N-GT class. After taking pole position in qualifying, they finished second, although a collision with a Chrysler Viper gace Franz some trouble in the first part of the race. At the end of the season it was clear that the Porsche had come to the end of the road and a new car was needed. Wieth Racing took the bold step to develop and build up their own GT car, a Ferrari 550 Maranello.
During building of the new car Wieth Racing took part in a full season of FIA GT championship, and although the Porsche 911 GT2 was not competitive, Franz and Niko Wieth collected their first points in the championship. In 2003, the first complete season with the F550 GTS, the team scored a number of championship points with the help of drivers like Wolfgang Kaufmann and Vittorio Zoboli.
The team steadily grew and some of Europes top engineers were engaged to improve and develop the 550 racecars. In 2004 they took on Steve Ridgers as race engineer and race car designer and the 12-cylinder race engines were developed by Mauro Forghieri, 12 time F1-World Championship Winner with Ferrari, in his time as technical director for the Scuderia with his Modena based company Oral Engineering.
hr