The 1981 World Sportscar Championship season was the 29th season of

FIA FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used. Fia or FIA may also refer to: People * Fia Backs ...

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 ...

motor racing. It featured the 1981 FIA World Endurance Championship which was contested over a fifteen race series which ran from 31 January to 27 September.Results, World Endurance Championship of Drivers / World Endurance Championship of Makes, Autocourse, 1981/82, pages 247 & 248 The former World Challenge for Endurance Drivers was renamed to the World Endurance Championship of Drivers for 1981 and the World Championship of Makes was renamed to the World Endurance Championship of Makes.

Bob Garretson Bob Garretson (born April 8, 1933) is a former American racing driver. Garretson was the owner-driver of a Porsche 935 sports car team named Garretson Enterprises in the early 1980s that competed part-time in both the World Sportscar Championshi ...

won the World Endurance Championship of Drivers and Lancia was awarded the World Endurance Championship of Makes.

Schedule

World Endurance Championship of Drivers was contested over all fifteen races however only six of the races counted towards the World Endurance Championship of Makes.

Season results

Although various classes of cars contested the championship races, only the overall race winners are listed in the table below. * The 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Los Angeles Times Grand Prix and the Road America 500 were also rounds of the 1981 IMSA GT Championship. * The 6 Hours of Daytona was restricted to Racing Stock class cars (i.e. IMSA RS). * The 24 Hours of Spa was restricted to Belgian Touring Cars János L Wimpffen, Time and Two Seats, 1999, page 1330 (i.e. Group 1).

World Endurance Championship of Drivers

The World Endurance Championship of Drivers was open to FIA

Group 1 Group 1 may refer to: * Alkali metal, a chemical element classification for Alkali metal * Group 1 (racing), a historic (until 1981) classification for Touring car racing, applied to standard touring cars. Comparable to modern FIA Group N * Group On ...

Group 2 The term Group 2 may refer to: * Alkaline earth metal, a chemical element classification * Astronaut Group 2, also known as The New Nine, the second group of astronauts selected by NASA in 1962 * Group 2 (racing), an FIA classification for cars in ...

Group 3 Group 3 may refer to: *Group 3 element, chemical element classification *Group 3 (racing), FIA classification for auto racing * Group 3, the third tier of races in worldwide Thoroughbred horse racing * Group 3 image format, Group 3 & Group 4 are ...

Group 4 Group 4 may refer to: *Group 4 element, chemical element classification *Group 4 (racing), classification for cars in auto racing and rallying * G4S, formerly Group 4 Securicor, a prominent British security company *IB Group 4 subjects The Group 4 ...

Group 5 Group 5 may refer to: *Group 5 element, chemical element classification *Group 5 (racing) 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 def ...

Group 6 Group 6 may refer to: *Group 6 element, chemical element classification *Group 6 (racing) Group 6 was the official designation applied by the FIA to two motor racing classifications, the Prototype-Sports Car category from 1966 to 1971 and the Two ...

Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for touring cars and ''Group B'' for GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 special production cars (closed top touri ...

and GTP cars and to

IMSA 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 ...

GTX, IMSA GTP, IMSA AAGT, IMSA GTO, IMSA GTU and IMSA RS cars.Endurance Racing Supplement, page 8, Autosport, December 1981 Drivers Championship points were awarded on a 20-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis to the first twenty overall finishers at each round. Bonus points were also awarded as follows: * 0 points for Category 1 (Group 6 over 2 litres) * 1 point for Category 2 (Group 5 over 2 litres, GTP over 2 litres, Group C over 2 litres, IMSA GTX over 2 litres, IMSA GTP over 2 litres, IMSA AAGT) * 2 points for Category 3 (Group 6 under 2 litres, Group 5 under 2 litres, Group 4 under 2 litres, IMSA GTO, IMSA GTX under 2 litres) * 3 points for Category 4 (GTP under 2 litres, Group 2 over 2 litres, IMSA GTU, Group C under 2 litres) * 4 points for Category 5 (Group 4 under 2 litres, Group 1 over 2 litres) * 5 points for Category 6 (Group 2 under 2 litres, Group 1 under 2 litres, IMSA RS) Only half points were awarded at the shortened Nurbugring round. All points scored were retained towards the championship totals.

Results

A total of 371 drivers scored points in the 1981 World Endurance Championship of Drivers.

World Endurance Championship of Makes

The World Endurance Championship of Makes was open FIA

and

cars and to IMSA GTX cars. Cars from all eligible groups were combined, and then divided into two Divisions based on engine capacity. Points were awarded on a 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1 basis for the top ten places in each Division at each race.Peter Higham, The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing, 1995, page 260 Only the best placed car of each make in each division at each race was eligible to score points. Cars from groups not included in the championship (e.g. FIA Group 6 cars) were disregarded when assessing divisional positions for championship purposes. Only half points were awarded for the shortened Nurburgring race. The best five round results could be retained by each make.

Results

The overall World Endurance Championship of Makes title was won by Lancia. Although both Lancia and Porsche scored 100 points from their best five class results, Lancia was awarded the title based on its six divisional victories against the five scored by Porsche .

Over 2000 cc

Under 2000 cc

References

External links

1981 World Endurance Championship Race Results

Racing Sports Cars
{{DEFAULTSORT:1981 World Sportscar Championship Season World Sportscar Championship seasons

Schedule

Season results

World Endurance Championship of Drivers

Results

World Endurance Championship of Makes

Results

Over 2000 cc

Under 2000 cc

References

Further reading

External links