Hans-Peter Joisten

5/1/1942 - 21/7/1973

Record updated 04-Jan-07

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Hans-Peter Joisten started racing in national circuit events. In 1970 he came a 4th in the Marathon de la Route an 84 hour marathon at the daunting Nürburgring, sharing a BMW 2002 with Karl-Heinz Eisenschenk and Hans-Günther Stoffel.

In 1972 he signed for to drive for the Faltz-Alpina team to drive a BMW 2800 in the European Touring Car Championship co-driving with with Jurgen Neuhaus.

Staying with Faltz-Alpina for 1973 he drove BMW 3.0 CSL with a young Austrian named Niki Lauda. They finished third 3rd in the Grosser Preis der Tourenwagen at the Nürburgring and on 24 June 1973 they won the Nürburgring 24 Hour race.

Still with Faltz-Alpina in 1973, his career was tragically cut short at the Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hour race. During practice he had put the BMW 3.0 CSL 2nd on the grid sharing with Harald Menzel. However before the start Menzel joined Belgian Alain Peltier in the number 20 car, and Joisten teamed up with the experienced Australian Brian Muir.

At around 11 pm on Saturday 21 July 1973, seven hours into the race, Joisten's was leading when he lapped two Group 1 Alfa Romeos GTV, driven by Claude Ballot-Léna and Roger Dubos, in the long right hand bend at Burneville.

Just as he passed Dubos on the slippery Malmédy bend, Joisten suddenly swerved to the right and crashed into the Armco and spun back into the middle of the track where he was collected head on by Dubos. They were both killed instantly.

Claude Ballot-Léna also crashed into the BMW. He was unhurt and immediately ran back to try to help and to warn other approaching cars. "Pooky" in a works Alfa Romeo GTV deliberately crashed into the guard-rail to avoid the wreckage as did Huub Vermeulen in a Opel Commodore GS.

Shortly after, Massimo Larini crashed his works Alfa Romeo GTAm at Les Combes. He was transferred to hospital in Liège, but passed away seven days later.

Autodelta-Alfa Romeo withdrew their cars from the race as did the Faltz-Alpina team.



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