Photos

Rothmans Porsche at Goodwood – since I have no pics from 1982 here is one with a Rothmans Porsche on a lollypop, yes and I do have a Camel branded jacket on too!
(Photo: Sean Penrose)

Article

Rothmans Porsche 956 – 1982

I’d escaped early 1970’s F1, ended up working in advertising and saw this white 956 testing. It seemed natural to call Derek Bell and Jürgen Barth and find out a bit more.

From there I produced an A4 document detailing the era of the 917 and that legendary time in sportscar racing, I presented it to Rothmans to see if it was a possibility. Rothmans main sponsorship at the time was in F1 with March and it wasn’t going well. They took the decision to go with Porsche. March didn’t qualifying either car at Monaco GP in front of a huge amount of Rothmans guests, and so the sponsorship moved fully to Porsche. Once those decisions were taken Rothmans was a part of the re-emergence of sportscar racing with the soon to become winning 956.

Jürgen did doing the initial test driving. First race was Silverstone 6 hours with Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell for this first ‘test’ race. At the Le Mans 24 hour race that year Jacky Ickx sharing with Derek Bell came 1st, Jochen Mass & Vern Schuppan came 2nd and Hurley Haywood & Al Holbert & Jürgen Barth came 3rd.

The car went on to huge success, a new type 962 followed, and the Group C era is remembered as a new dawn for sportscar racing.