Press release
1MB
april 07, 2017 - Porsche Motorsport
Röhrl in Review
1. How it all started
I would never have become a professional rally driver without my friend and ski buddy Herbert Marecek. We were heading up into the mountains one day when he said to me, “The way you drive, you should really be entering rallies or road races.” I told him, “You’re crazy, who is supposed to pay for it?” He answered, “If I come up with a car and it doesn’t cost anything – would you drive it?” So I said, “Sure, if it’s free I’ll give it a try.” He found a few cars, including one from a friend and another that had been a test vehicle at a dealership. Herbert was an unending source of motivation. In 1970 he sold his father’s stocks for 15,000 Deutschmarks to buy an old Safari #porsche with 75,000 miles on it.We entered it in the Rally Bavaria, which was part of the European Championship. It was only my fifth rally, but we were way out in front until there was a breakdown. After each of the previous rallies Herbert had written to car journals saying, “My friend Walter is the best driver in the world – you have to get him a contract as a factory driver.” This time it worked. The editor-in-chief of Rallye #racing put us in touch with a carmaker, and I promptly won the next race in the European Rally Championship. That catapulted me straight into the twenty top-ranked drivers in the FIA. I quit my job with the Bishop of Regensburg and told my mother the good news: I’m going to be a rally driver!
2. Perfection on all tracksAh, skiing with Franz … We had a very intense relationship for a while because his manager Robert Schwan looked after me as well. Franz Beckenbauer persuaded me to join an illustrious group of fifteen men called the “Schneeforscher” (snow explorers) who went skiing together every year in Obertauern, Austria. Its members included Sepp Maier, Willi Holdorf, Max Lorenz, Uwe Seeler, and other prominent German athletes – some of whom were better at skiing, others not so much. There was a clause in my contract prohibiting skiing; any injuries and my salary would no longer have been paid. But I’ve never been interested in money. I’ve always loved to ski; in fact, before my rally time I was a state-approved ski instructor. I had the fourth-best results on the qualifying test and was appointed to the team of instructors for the German Skiing Association. People often used to say: “Röhrl is a speed junkie – fast slopes and fast cars.” But actually I’m leery of speed. What I’m interested in is perfection. I wanted to move as naturally on skis as on my own feet. And that’s also how I wanted to drive. I wanted the car to respond precisely the way I wanted, even to the slightest touch of my little finger. I could never be satisfied with anything less.
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