Porsche Kremer 935 K3 - Crawford
May 25, 2007

A brief description of the 1980 racing career of # 000 0011
(courtesy of Ulrich Trispel - because Ulrich is "The Man")

In 1980 the top series in motor racing was the “Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft” (DRM). It was open for modified production cars according to FIA group 5. The field was divided into two divisions: division 1 (capacity > 2000 cc) and division 2 (capacity up to 2000 cc).

In 1979 the championship had been won by Klaus Ludwig, driving the superior Kremer Porsche 935 K3. For 1980 the Kremer brother intended to repeat this success, collected sponsor money from the “Jägermeister” company and built a new car, # 000 0011.

Very much to the disappointment of the Kremers, Klaus Ludwig decided suddenly to change the team and signed a contract with Erich Zakowski’s Zakspeed Racing Team to race a Ford Capri Turbo in division 1.

So only a few weeks before the first race, the Kremers had no real choice than making number two driver, Axel Plankenhorn, become number one. Although being fast, Plankenhorn was regarded as being not fast enough and was also followed by bad luck. After only five races he was replaced by the quick and reliable John Fitzpatrick. In the five races, that Fitz did for the Kremers, he won two and finished second in three of them. In the other three championship races, John (who had other obligations) was replaced by Jochen Maas once and Rolf Stommelen twice. Stommelen had suffered the same fate as Plankenhorn, having started the season as number one driver of Equipe Liqui Moly / Joest racing and having parted with the team before the end of the season.

In addition to the 13 races of the DRM s/n 000 0011 took part in two world championship races, the 6 hours of Silverstone in England and the 24 hours of Le Mans. Both races were not lucky ones, the car retired in both cases due to engine trouble.

In some sources the car is believed to have participated also in the 1000 Kms of Nürburgring, being driven there by Fitzpatrick/Barbour/Plankenhorn. This is very unlikely, as this car was a white car and probably belonged to Dick Barbour’s stable. In the same car John Fitzpatrick won the DRM race at Norisring.

In detail:

1980-03-23 “Bergischer Löwe”, Zolder (B),DRM race 1
Axel Plankenhorn race no. 2 sponsor: Jägermeister
pole position
4th in division 1 (14 cars)

1980-03-30 Nürburgring 300 Km, Nürburgring (D), DRM race 2
Axel Plankenhorn race no 2 sponsor: Jägermeister
3rd in practice
retired (left road in the rain)

1980-04-13 Jim-Clark-Race, Hockenheim (D), DRM race 3
Axel Plankenhorn race no 2 sponsor: Jägermeister
4th in practice
2nd in division 1 (15 cars) (note: Plankenhorn had lead the race until the last bend,
then there was a collision with Klaus Ludwig’s Capri, Ludwig won …)

1980-04-27 Eifelrennen, Nürburgring (D), DRM race 4
Axel Plankenhorn race no 2 sponsor: Jägermeister
6th in practice
6th in division 1 (16 cars)(note: had to pit for a tire change)

1980-05-11 6 Hours of Silverstone (GB), world championship race 5
John Fitzpatrick / Axel Plankenhorn / Guy Edwards
race no 19 sponsor: Gilette
pole position
retired (engine), fastest lap

1980-05-18 Airfield race Mainz-Finthen (D), DRM race 5
Axel Plankenhorn race no 2 sponsor: Jägermeister
pole position
retired (broken drive shaft, lost wheel)

1980-06-01 Kreuzritter-Rennen, Spa-Francorchamps (B), DRM race 6
John Fitzpatrick race no 2 sponsor: Jägermeister
3rd in practice
2nd in division 1 (18 cars, wet race)

1980-06-14/15 24 Hours of Le Mans (F), world championship race 7
Jean-Louis Lafosse / Ted Field / Danny Ongais
race no 41 sponsors: Panasonic, Interscope, Sartec
8th in practice
retired (engine)

1980-06-20 200 miles of Nuremberg, Norisring (D), DRM race 6
Jochen Maas race no 2 sponsor: Jägermeister
5th in practice
retired (engine)

1980-07-13 Bavaria-Rennen, Salzburgring (A), DRM race 8
John Fitzpatrick race no 2 sponsor: Jägermeister
2nd in practice
2nd in division 1 (20 cars)

1980-07-27 Airfield race Diepholz (D), DRM race 9
Rolf Stommelen race no 2 sponsor: Jägermeister
2nd in practice
6th in division 1 (19 cars) [note: had to pit after collision with Volkert Merl’s 935]

1980-08-24 Westfalen-Cup Race, Zolder (B), DRM race 10
John Fitzpatrick race no 2 sponsor: Jägermeister
3rd in practice
race winner (17 cars)

1980-09-07 Hessen-Cup, Hockenheim (D), DRM race 11
John Fitzpatrick race no 2 sponsor: Jägermeister
3rd in practice
2nd in division 1 (17 cars)

1980-09-21 Supersprint, Nürburgring (D), DRM race 12
Rolf Stommelen race no 2 sponsor: Jägermeister
3rd in practice
retired (broken oil pipe, fumes caused drivers illness)

1980-09-28 Preis von Baden-Württemberg, Hockenheim (D), DRM race 13
John Fitzpatrick race no 2 sponsor: Jägermeister
2nd in practice
race winner (16 cars)

Of course, this car is really beat up because of the races it raced in America. We will give the stats on what the car did in IMSA at a later date. So look at these pictures. There is a saying at Gunnar Racing..."we make chicken salad out of chicken shit"...and don't forget it!

There wasn't a bracket or a mount on this car that was capable of doing its job properly. That means, re-making all the brackets you see in all of these pictures. Did we tell you how much fun this is?...or even, how much time it takes?

Thank God, if it were easy, everybody would be doing it.

Shit, shit and more shit, but these crash marks are deserving. This was a great car and will be again when we are done with it.

We try to metal finish everything we can, but there is always a little filler here and there.

Panel after panel have to be re-fab'd and replaced.

Chop, cut, burn, fix, fab, and replace for months.

Every corner of the car has been hit...who knows how many times.

How about this duct? It's been repaired 100 times, so we have to replace it.

When we're done, we have a pile of 011. When the owner sells the car, hopefully the new buyer will get what was left behind.

When we are doing all this work, the chassis is bolted to the frame table. Of course, this car was bent so we had to straighten it to get it to bolt to the fixtures.

Did I tell you how long this takes?

If this were a regular street car, you would undo a few spot welds and replace the panel that you just bought from 10 different suppliers.

These parts were hand made one at a time. There was no assembly line...therefore, when we repair them, everything's a one-off, which means...we can't go to the local Porsche store to get the part.

Here's a teaser photo that I took of Andy about 3 months ago. Remember, I said that the car would be finished before the updates are.

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