Porsche 935 von Fitzpatrick, Barbour, Plankenhorn 1980-05-24 kl

The 1980 World Sportscar Championship season was the 28th season of FIA

World Sportscar Championship The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992. The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance, and road racing events in Europe and No ...

motor racing. It featured the 1980 World Championship for Makes which was contested as a series running under both

Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; en, International Automobile Federation) is an association established on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. It is the governing body for ...

(FIA) and

International Motor Sports Association The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive direc ...

(IMSA) regulations. It ran from 2 February 1980 to 28 September 1980, and comprised 11 races, including races run with Camel GT Championship. A World Challenge for Endurance Drivers was also held over an eleven-round series, six of which were run concurrently with rounds of the World Championship for Makes. The Challenge was not awarded World Championship status, but would be promoted the following season and join the Championship for Makes. The 16 combined events made for one of the most gruelling and varied championships in the history of motor racing. Some events, notably Le Mans and Daytona featured prototype sports cars. Others like the second shorter Daytona race and the Spa 24 Hour were touring car events with the rest consisting mostly of Grand Touring sportscars. Some of the European races featured

Sports 2000 Sports 2000 is a restricted-rules class of two-seat, mid-engined, open-cockpit, full-bodied sports-prototype racecar used largely in amateur road racing. Sometimes known as S2000 or S2, the class was developed by John Webb, then of the Brands Hatch ...

open bodied sports cars, but nothing larger than two litres engine capacity. No single driver started more than ten of the 16 races, with the Monza 1000 and the Riverside 5 Hour both occurring on the same day (and strangely both events counting towards the drivers title) no driver could attempt all 16. With over 1100 drivers competing it was one of the largest entries in the history of the sport. The World Championship of Makes was contested in two classes, under and over 2000 cc of engine capacity. At the end of the championship

Lancia Lancia () is an Italian car manufacturer and a subsidiary of FCA Italy S.p.A., which is currently a Stellantis division. The present legal entity of Lancia was formed in January 2007 when its corporate parent reorganised its businesses, but it ...

and

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

had won the two classes respectively with the same pointscore. The tie was broken in favour of Lancia, a fitting reward for the Italian manufacturer who had fielded a factory team of two or three

Lancia Montecarlo The Lancia Montecarlo (Type 137) is a Pininfarina-designed mid-engined sports car produced by Lancia in Italy from 1975 to 1981. Cars from the first series, which were produced from 1975 to 1978, were known as Lancia Beta Montecarlos and those fr ...

s across the European races featuring Formula One drivers and World Rally Champions like

Riccardo Patrese Riccardo Gabriele Patrese (born 17 April 1954) is an Italian former racing driver, who raced in Formula One from to . He became the first Formula One driver to achieve 200 Grand Prix starts when he appeared at the 1990 British Grand Prix, an ...

Eddie Cheever Edward McKay "Eddie" Cheever Jr. (born January 10, 1958) is an American former racing driver who raced for almost 30 years in Formula One, sports cars, CART, and the Indy Racing League. Cheever participated in 143 Formula One World Championship ...

Michele Alboreto Michele Alboreto (; 23 December 1956 – 25 April 2001) was an Italian racing driver. He was runner up to Alain Prost in the 1985 Formula One World Championship, as well as winning the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans and 2001 12 Hours of Sebring spo ...

Piercarlo Ghinzani Piercarlo Ghinzani (born 16 January 1952) is a former racing driver from Italy. He currently manages his own racing team, Team Ghinzani, which was created in 1992 and is currently involved in several Formula Three championships. Early career Bef ...

Walter Röhrl Walter Röhrl (; born 7 March 1947) is a German rally and auto racing driver, with victories for Fiat, Opel, Lancia and Audi as well as Porsche, Ford and BMW. Röhrl has scored 14 victories over his career, with his notable achievements including ...

and

Markku Alén Markku Allan Alén (born 15 February 1951) is a Finland, Finnish former Rallying, rally and race car driver. He drove for Fiat, Lancia, Subaru World Rally Team, Subaru and Toyota Team Europe, Toyota in the World Rally Championship, and held the ...

, as well as providing support to the

Jolly Club Jolly Club was an Italian motor racing team, which competed in the World Rally Championship, the Sportscar World Championship, the European Touring Car Championship and briefly in the Formula One World Championship, along with several domestic cha ...

team's Montecarlo who made trips to North America when the factory team did not. In the World Endurance Challenge, only three drivers competed in ten races over the season and two of them were rewarded with first and second in the Challenge. American John Paul, Sr. won the series despite collecting only one win, the final race; the

Road America 500 The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America (formerly the Road America 500) is a sports car racing, sports car race held at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The event began in 1950, and in 1951 was added to the SCCA National S ...

co-driving with his son, John Paul Jr. in their

Porsche 935 The Porsche 935 was a race car developed and manufactured by German automaker Porsche. Introduced in 1976 as the factory racing version of the Porsche 930, 911 (930) Turbo and prepared for Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA-Group 5 ( ...

. Paul raced a variety of Porsches, 935s and a

930 Year 930 ( CMXXX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * 17 June (traditional date) – The Althing, the parliament of Iceland, is established at ...

as well as a

Mazda RX-3 The is an automobile which was produced by Mazda in Japan from 1971 to 1978. It was sold as the Mazda 808 in some export markets including Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, and as the Mazda 818 in many others - this was mostly due to Peugeot havi ...

at the 6 Hours of Daytona touring car race. British driver John Fitzpatrick was just five points behind Paul at seasons finish despite taking three race wins at Sebring, Riverside and Mosport. He had used Porsche 935s and an

AMC Spirit The AMC Spirit is a subcompact car, subcompact marketed by American Motors Corporation (AMC) from 1979 until 1983 as a Facelift (automobile), restyled replacement for the AMC Gremlin, Gremlin. The Spirit shared the Gremlin's Automobile platform ...

in his championship chase. Porsche 935 and Mazda RX-3 racer

Dick Barbour Dick, Dicks, or Dick's may refer to: Media * ''Dicks'' (album), a 2004 album by Fila Brazillia * Dicks (band), a musical group * ''Dick'' (film), a 1999 American comedy film * "Dick" (song), a 2019 song by Starboi3 featuring Doja Cat Names ...

finished third, four points behind Fitzpatrick. Two drivers lost their lives during the season. Martin Raymond was killed in a

Chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * '' Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock ...

B36 at Brands Hatch and

Manuel Quintana Manuel Pedro Quintana Sáenz (October 19, 1835 – March 12, 1906) was the President of Argentina from 12 October 1904 to 12 March 1906. He died in office. Biography Manuel Quintana was born on October 19, 1835, son of Eladio de la Quintan ...

died in a qualifying accident at Sebring in his

Porsche 911 The Porsche 911 (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in german: Neunelfer) is a two-door 2+2 high performance rear-engined sports car introduced in September 1964 by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a rear-mounted flat-six engine and origin ...

Schedule

The following 16 races made up the 1980 World Championship for Makes and World Challenge for Endurance Drivers.

Season results

Although a multitude of classes contended for the Championship for Makes, only the overall race winners are listed here. Although a multitude of classes contended for the World Challenge for Endurance Drivers, only the overall race winners are listed here.

World Championship for Makes - Results

The World Championship for Makes was only open to select categories of cars. This included the FIA's

Group 5 Special Production Cars Group 5 was an FIA motor racing classification which was applied to four distinct categories during the years 1966 to 1982. Initially Group 5 regulations defined a Special Touring Car category and from 1970 to 1971 the classification was applied to ...

Group 4 Grand Touring Cars Group 4 referred to regulations for sportscars and grand touring (GT) cars used in racing and rallying, as regulated by the FIA. The group was introduced in 1954 and was replaced by Group B for the 1982 season. Production requirements Prior ...

, Group 3 Series Production Grand Touring Cars,

Group 2 Touring Cars The Group 2 racing class referred to regulations for cars in touring car racing and rallying, as regulated by the FIA. Group 2 was replaced by Group A in 1982. The FIA established Appendix J regulations for Touring and GT cars for 1954 and the t ...

, and Group 1 Series Production Touring Cars. An overall championship was awarded as well as two class titles: Division 1, for cars over 2000 cc and Division 2 for those under 2000 cc. Points were awarded to the top ten finishers in each division in the order of 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1, with only the best eight results out of the eleven races being counted.Seasonal Survey, Beta follows Alfa, Autosport, 29 January 1981, page 33 Only the best placed entry of each make in each division was eligible to score points, with no points awarded to other placings.

Overall Championship

The overall championship was to be awarded to the make achieving the highest net point score in either Division. The resultant tie between Porsche and Lancia was decided in Lancia's favour due to the greater number of Division victories scored by the Italian make.János L. Wimpffen, Time and Two Seats, 1999, page 1288

Division 1 : Over 2000 cc

Division 2 : Under 2000 cc

World Championship for Makes - The cars

The following models contributed to the net points scored by makes in the 1980 championship.

Division 1

* Ferrari 512BB *

BMW M1 The BMW M1 (model code E26) is a mid-engined sports car produced by German automotive manufacturer BMW from 1978 until 1981. In the late 1970s, Italian automobile manufacturer Lamborghini entered into an agreement with BMW to build a production ...

Opel Monza The Opel Monza is an executive fastback coupe produced by the German automaker Opel from 1977 to 1986. It was marketed in the United Kingdom as the Vauxhall Royale Coupé by Vauxhall. Monza A1 (1977–1982) The Monza was planned as a succes ...

Division 2

* BMW 320i *

Fiat X1/9 The Fiat X1/9 is a two-seater mid-engined sports car designed by Bertone and manufactured by Fiat from 1972–1982 and subsequently by Gruppo Bertone from 1982–1989. With a transverse engine and gearbox in a mid-mounted, rear-wheel drive conf ...

* Ford Escort RS 2000 *

Opel Kadett The Opel Kadett is a small family car produced by the German automobile manufacturer Opel from 1936 until 1940 and then from 1962 until 1991 (the Cabrio continued until 1993), when it was succeeded by the Opel Astra. Kadett I (1936–1940) ...

World Challenge for Endurance Drivers - Results

The World Challenge for Endurance Drivers was won by John Paul Sr. from John Fitzpatrick and

Brian Redman Brian Herman Thomas Redman (born 9 March 1937 in Burnley, Lancashire and educated at Rossall School, Fleetwood, Lancashire), is a retired British racing driver. Racing for Carl Haas and Jim Hall's Chaparral Cars, Brian Redman won the 1974, '7 ...

.1980 World Challenge for Endurance Drivers - points table
Retrieved on 22 December 2009

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:1980 World Sportscar Championship Season World Sportscar Championship seasons