Al Holbert

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alvah Robert "Al" Holbert (born November 11, 1946 at Abington, Pennsylvania, died September 30, 1988) was an American automobile racing driver who was a five-time champion of the IMSA Camel GT series.

The son of racecar driver Bob Holbert, who also ran a Volkswagen-Porsche dealership in Warrington, PA, near Philadelphia, Holbert worked for Roger Penske whilst studying at Lehigh University. In 1971, Holbert scored his first race win in a Porsche and would turn professional in 1974 and scored his first of his two IMSA titles in 1976 and 1977 in a Chevrolet Monza.

From 1976-1979 Holbert raced 19 career races in NASCAR. In those 19 races, in which he drove primarily for James Hylton, Holbert scored 4 top ten finishes.

He also added a Can-Am championship title in 1983 along with an IMSA GTP title in a Porsche powered March 83G when Porsche were unable to make their 956 eligible for competition that year. Holbert finished fourth in the 1984 Indianapolis 500, and led the Porsche IndyCar effort in 1987-1988. He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1983, 1986, and 1987, the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1986 and 1987 and the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1976 and 1981. Holbert was the head of the Porsche North America's Motorsports Division and ran his own racing team, Holbert Racing. In 1988, Holbert realised that the Porsche 962 that had brought him success in his earlier years was becoming outmoded by the newer generation of racers from the likes of the Jaguar XJR-9 and the Electramotive's Nissan GTP racer, planned to build an open top Porsche engined racer for customer teams.

On September 30, 1988, Holbert was at the IMSA Columbus Ford Dealers 500. That evening, Holbert was fatally injured when his plane crashed shortly after takeoff near Columbus, Ohio after he diverted his aircraft away from a group of houses where it was heading toward to when it developed an engine failure. At the end of the season, the team was disbanded and IMSA would retire his race number 14.

Holbert Racing, notably employed chief mechanic Kevin Doran, who would later become a noted team owner.

Son Todd was also a mechanic, and is currently with Toyota developing their NASCAR Tundra and Camry vehicles.

[edit] Awards

• In 1993, Holbert was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.

Preceded by Jacky Ickx Derek Bell	Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1983 with: Vern Schuppan Hurley Haywood	Succeeded by Klaus Ludwig Henri Pescarolo
Preceded by Klaus Ludwig Paolo Barilla Louis Krages	Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1986 with: Derek Bell Hans-Joachim Stuck	Succeeded by Derek Bell Hans-Joachim Stuck Al Holbert
Preceded by Derek Bell Hans-Joachim Stuck Al Holbert	Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1987 with: Derek Bell Hans-Joachim Stuck	Succeeded by Jan Lammers Johnny Dumfries Andy Wallace