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Günter "Bobby" Klass (13 June 1936 in Stuttgart – 22 July 1967 near Florence〔http://www.circuitostradaledelmugello.it/storia/storiacircuito.htm〕) was a versatile German racing driver, competing in hillclimbing, rallying, and the World Sportscar Championship as factory driver for Porsche and the Scuderia Ferrari. ==Career== Günter Klass's career began in the early 1960s. In 1963,〔http://wsrp.ic.cz/wsc1963.html〕 Klass took part in a World Sportscar Championship event, the 1000 km Nürburgring, in which he and Sepp Greger shared a factory-entered Porsche 356 B Carrera Abarth GTL. In rallying, e.g., at Wiesbaden, he entered driving a private Porsche 356 B Carrera 2, with Rolf Wütherich as co-driver. Wütherich, a Porsche mechanic, had also been co-driver for James Dean, and was serving in that capacity during Dean's fatal car crash. Wütherich was badly injured in the incident. In 1964, Klass continued to enter road races, sometimes representing the factory and sometimes with private entries. At the time, Porsche's cars had a maximum capacity of 2000 cc and were considered to be underdogs in major events. At the Targa Florio, Klass and Jochen Neerpasch finished seventh, with veteran racer and team manager Huschke von Hanstein having been entered on the same car, without competing. On the Nürburgring, Klass/Greger finished fifteenth overall and third in their class. In the Tour de France for automobiles, Klass/Wütherich finished fourth after 2200 km in a factory-entered new Porsche 904, while at the 1000 km of Paris at Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry, he and Robert Buchet did not finish while driving a privately entered car of the same type. In the 1965 World Sportscar Championship season Klass was entered into races several times by Porsche, which had not yet started the ambitious race program that would lead to the development of the 917. Klass did not finish the race in Le Mans, but ranked fifth both in Sebring and at the Targa Florio, and came in sixth place at Nürburgring. A Porsche 904 of the Swiss team Scuderia Filipinetti carried Klass to a sixth-place finish at the Schauinsland hillclimb in Germany. In 1966, he became a European rallying champion〔http://www.rallye-stars.com/palmares/c_pilot.htm〕 driving a Porsche 911R. Vic Elford, competing in the Rally Corsica, drove a second 911 given to him by Huschke von Hanstein, Porsche's man in charge of racing. Elford later recalled that the service van provided by Porsche contained only wheels and tires, and no spare parts at all, and that he complained about the lack. Hanstein, however, assured him that, ''“Porsches, even rally-prepared Porsches, simply don't break.”''〔Vic Elford: ''Porsche High-Performance Driving Handbook'', Published by MotorBooks/MBI Publishing Company, 1994, ISBN 0-87938-849-8 ()〕 The same year, Porsche, under Ferdinand Piëch, started a serious effort toward improving their sports car racing and developed the new Porsche 906. At the Targa Florio, Klass was selected to drive the special hill climb 906 with the 2200 cc, eight-cylinder engine that was derived from the 1962 F1-winning Porsche 804. He duly put the 270 bhp car on pole, his only〔http://www.racing-database.com/poles.asp?Driver=G%FCnther%20Klass〕 pole in WSC races, one second〔''Vaccarella's #230 4.0 Ferrari 330P3 goes round in 39'7"1, which is better than his 39'21"0 realised last year during the second lap of the race at the wheel of a 3.3 Ferrari 275P2. Immediately after Klass gets in the 8-cylinder #224 2.2 Porsche 906P/8 and records 39'05"7. Giancarlo Baghetti does 39'13"0 in the #196 2.0 Dino 206S Berlinetta. When Parkes tries to beat that time in the #204 2.0 Dino Barquetta he loses control on the downhill stretch to Campofelice and damages front suspension and body during his first outing. Fastest 2-litre Porsche is the fuel-injected #218 906P of Mitter in 39'40"0. The other Porsches are playing it cool and learn the circuit between 40 and 42 minutes.'' - http://www.imca-slotracing.com/QUIZZ2.htm〕 ahead of the much more powerful 12-cylinder Ferrari 330P3 driven by Sicily's local heroes, Nino Vaccarella and Lorenzo Bandini. After battling the Ferrari's drivers while it was “raining the proverbial pushrods”, Klass reclaimed the lead lost by his ill team mate Colin Davis. Soon after, however, he brushed with Porsche team mate Gerhard Mitter who, with a standard 2000 cc six-cylinder version, had set the fastest〔http://wspr-racing.com/wspr/results/wscc/ms1966.html#4〕 race lap, and both drivers were out of the race. With three factory Porsches now out due to crashes, the possible 1-2-3 triumph was lost, a disappointment for which Klass seems to have received the lion's share of blame from Zuffenhausen. Klass raced twice more for Porsche, in major races Nürburgring and Le Mans,〔http://www.wspr-racing.com/wspr/results/wscc/ms1966.html#7〕 at the latter of which Klass and Rolf Stommelen won the 2000 cc sports car class. Klass also raced for Porsche at the first Grosser Preis von Hockenheim at the new Hockenheimring. This event only counted in the small classes towards the World Sportscar Championship, and in the absence of major competition, Porsche gave three factory-entered 906Es to the local hero drivers from Stuttgart, Hans Herrmann, Gerhard Mitter, and Klass, with several private 906s, driven by Udo Schütz, Jo Bonnier and others, completing the parade. Klass clocked his only〔http://www.racing-database.com/fl.asp?Driver=G%FCnther%20Klass〕 WSC fastest lap in that slipstream battle. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Günter Klass」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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