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| Born | Josef Anton Gartner (1954-01-24)24 January 1954 Vienna, Austria |
|---|---|
| Died | 1 June 1986(1986-06-01) (aged 32) Circuit de la Sarthe,Le Mans, France |
| Formula One World Championship career | |
| Nationality |  Austrian |
| Active years | 1984 |
| Teams | Osella |
| Entries | 8[1] |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Podiums | 0 |
| Careerpoints | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| First entry | 1984 San Marino Grand Prix |
| Last entry | 1984 Portuguese Grand Prix |
Josef Anton Gartner (24 January 1954 – 1 June 1986)[2] was aFormula One andsports carendurance driver fromAustria. After a successful lower formula career, including a win in theFormula TwoPau Grand Prix, he participated in eight Formula One Grands Prix forOsella during the 1984 season, scoring no points. He was killed in an accident at the1986 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Gartner was born inVienna. In 1972, he began working for the KaimannFormula Super Vee team in a technical capacity. After buying, modifying and selling a Formula Vee chassis of his own, Gartner began his motor sport career in somehillclimbing events in 1976. In 1977, aged 23, he started competing more seriously, driving in theVolkswagen-supported European Formula Super Vee championship. The following season, he finished third in the championship.[3]
Gartner moved up to the EuropeanFormula Three Championship in 1979, driving aMartini with support fromRenault, and switched toFormula Two in 1980 with a two-year-oldMarch.[4] On his Formula Two debut, Gartner's car was damaged by debris from the accident that killed his countrymanMarkus Höttinger. He was subsequently invited to take Höttinger's place in theBMW M1 Procar Championship series, in which he raced againstFormula One drivers, driving for fellow AustrianHelmut Marko.[3]
In 1981, Gartner drove a year-oldToleman TG280 at selected races and picked up a point with sixth place at theEnna-Pergusa round.[3] He finished the season with two races for theMerzario team, finishing eighth atMantorp Park. Continuing with Merzario for 1982, Gartner picked up his only point of the season with sixth at the opening round atSilverstone, but the car was generally uncompetitive in a strong field.[3]
For 1983, Gartner decided to return to running his own car, an ex-worksSpirit 201. After a fourth place atHockenheim, he won thePau Grand Prix when the first driver across the line,Alain Ferté, was disqualified because his car was underweight.[4] This win enabled Gartner to gain the necessary sponsorship for a move to Formula One.
In 1984, Gartner had secured the part-time second seat with the struggling ItalianOsella team, as teammate toPiercarlo Ghinzani, driving a year-old, non-turbo FA1E. He qualified on his debut at the1984 San Marino Grand Prix, but his race ended with an engine failure.[3] At his next race, Gartner was given the new turbocharged Osella FA1F as the team decided to run a second car at all the remaining races. At the1984 British Grand Prix, Gartner was allowed to start in 27th position because theTyrrell Racing team was participating under appeal. However, his race ended when he was unable to avoid a first-lap accident involvingPhilippe Alliot andEddie Cheever.[5] After mechanical failures in the next two races, he finished 12th at theDutch Grand Prix, five laps down on the winnerAlain Prost.
At theItalian Grand Prix atMonza, Gartner qualified 24th but finished fifth, beating fellow AustrianGerhard Berger into sixth after Ghinzani and Cheever ran out of fuel. However, Gartner was denied the two points normally awarded to the fifth-place finisher, as Osella had only entered one car at the beginning of the season.[3] Berger in sixth was similarly denied his single point, driving forATS.
Classified 12th at theEuropean Grand Prix although he retired with fuel injection problems, Gartner closed the season with a 16th place classification inPortugal, having run out of fuel. For 1985, he was in contention for a seat atArrows, but lost out to Berger.[4] He also held talks with Toleman and Osella, but both seats went to drivers with more finance in place.[3]
Gartner had finished fourth in the1985 24 Hours of Le Mans in aPorsche 962C along with teammatesDavid Hobbs andGuy Edwards. In 1985, after his season in Formula One, he joined the Fitzpatrick Porsche Group C endurance racing team, driving aPorsche 956, and also campaigned a Porsche 962 forBob Akin in theIMSA GT Championship. He won the 198612 Hours of Sebring, along with teammates Akin andHans-Joachim Stuck, finishing on three wheels,[4] and also won an international race atThruxton withTiff Needell. Gartner was aiming to join the factory Rothman's Porsche team for 1987.[3]
Whilst contesting the1986 24 Hours of Le Mans forKremer Racing with teammatesSarel van der Merwe andKunimitsu Takahashi, Gartner's Porsche 962 suffered a mechanical failure at 2:10 am on the Sunday morning, and turned hard left into the barriers on theMulsanne Straight at 160 mph (260 km/h). The car somersaulted down the track, hit a telephone pole, crashed into trees and then caught fire after it came to a rest on top of the barriers on the opposite side of the track. The accident took out 100 meters of guardrail and debris was strewn over 200 meters. Gartner was killed on impact,[4] due to a broken neck.[3] Although the cause of the accident was never determined, two marshals saw Gartner brake on the straight before the car veered off into the barriers.[3] Gartner was the last fatality at the Le Mans 24 Hours under race conditions untilAllan Simonsen was killed in the2013 race.[6]
(key)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | Pos. | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Racing Team Albatross | March 782 | BMW | THR | HOC 13 | NÜR | VLL | PAU | NC | 0 | ||||||||
| Team Jim Bean | SIL 7 | ZOL | MUG 12 | ZAN 11 | PER | MIS | HOC Ret | |||||||||||
| 1981 | Jo Gartner Racing | Toleman TG280 | BMW | SIL | HOC | THR | NÜR 7 | VLL | MUG 9 | PAU | PER 6 | SPA Ret | DON Ret | 19th | 1 | |||
| Astra Team Merzario Srl | March 812 | MIS DNQ | MAN 8 | |||||||||||||||
| 1982 | Merzario Team | Merzario 282 | BMW | SIL 6 | HOC Ret | THR 10 | NÜR Ret | MUG Ret | VLL 7 | PAU Ret | SPA 15 | HOC 7 | DON Ret | MAN Ret | PER | MIS | 17th | 1 |
| 1983 | Emco Sports | Spirit 201 | BMW | SIL Ret | THR Ret | HOC 4 | NÜR Ret | VLL Ret | PAU 1 | JAR 17 | DON Ret | MIS Ret | PER 5 | ZOL Ret | MUG 7 | 6th | 14 | |
| 1984 | Emco Sports | Spirit 201B | BMW | SIL Ret | HOC Ret | THR | VLL | MUG | PAU | HOC | MIS | PER | DON | BRH | NC | 0 | ||
(key)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | WDC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Osella Squadra Corse | OsellaFA1E | Alfa Romeo 1260 3.0V12 | BRA | RSA | BEL | SMR Ret | FRA | MON | CAN | DET | DAL | NC | 0 | |||||||
| OsellaFA1F | Alfa Romeo 890T 1.5V8t | GBR Ret | GER Ret | AUT Ret | NED 12 | ITA 51 | EUR Ret | POR 16 | |||||||||||||
Source:[7] | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 |  John Fitzpatrick Racing | David HobbsGuy Edwards | Porsche 956B | C1 | 366 | 4th | 4th |
| 1986 |  PorscheKremer Racing |  Sarel van der Merwe Kunimitsu Takahashi | Porsche 962C | C1 | 169 | DNF | DNF |
|
