Gijs van Lennep began racing in 1964 and within a few years was enlisted as a Porsche works driver, competing in sports car races driving everything from a 911 to the mighty 917. A member of a Dutch aristocratic family (his title was ‘Baron’), he raced a wide range of machinery from touring cars to Formula 1 where, over a four-year period, he scored points for Ensign and Williams in addition to winning the European Formula 5000 title in 1972.
But it was sports cars that were his speciality, winning Le Mans twice, the first time co-driving with Helmut Marko in a Martini-Porsche 917 in 1971 and again in 1976 driving a Porsche 936 with Jackie Ickx, after which he retired from full-time racing. He is shown here at the wheel of a Gulf-Mirage M6 during the 1972 BOAC 1000km where he partnered Derek Bell in the new Cosworth powered car. Designed by Len Bailey, the car was quick but suffered reliability issues mainly due to the serious vibration of the Cosworth DFV F1 engine that threatened to shake the car apart; at the flag it had failed to record sufficient laps to be classified as a finisher.
From the book ‘Moments in Motorsport’ by Trevor Legate
