Stefan Belloff. A very quick driver with a too short career.
It had been a while since Ken Tyrrell built a winning car. In 1985 he would the last one to have Turbo engines. But, like no one else could, he could spot talent; think about Stewart, Cevert, Scheckter, Depailler, Alboreto and Pironi. His driver in 1985 is Stefan Bellof, always smiling and with a carefree outlook on life. Stefan is fast, very fast and only in his second year in the F1.
Stefan Bellof and his brother Georg started racing karts in 1972 and were unstoppable. They were champions in Germany and raced also abroad. Georg went on studying and arranged for his brother a deal with Walter Lechner. Stefan made his debut in his team with a Formula Ford at the end of 1979 and a year later, he was already champion in the Ricoh Cup. The next year, after a duel with Volker Weidler, he was German FFord champion. In the same year, he ended third in the German F3 championship with a Bertram Schäfer Ralt-Toyota. During these races, he established his name as a wild but driven racer, fun to watch. But he had no money to race further in the F3. The real estate mogul and racing fanatic Georg Loos provided the money. Stefan won the next three races. Loos had unfortunately nothing to offer him for 1982. In the meantime, it became clear that BMW would give his engines to Willi Maurer, a German F2 constructor. They gave him a hint to hire Stefan Bellof next to Beppe Gabbiani.
Bellof silenced all critics by dominating the wet International Trophy race at Silverstone, equalling Dave Morgan's long-standing record of winning his F2 debut. A fortnight later he took the Jim Clark Memorial Trophy, with a superb win at Hockenheim. However, a valve failure at Thruxton was just the start of a decline in form for the team, with numerous engine troubles, and a chassis which was too delicate for Bellof's aggressive style, meaning he didn't win another race that year and ended 4th in the European Championship.
Because they heard of some frictions between BMW and Willi Maurer, Porsche approached Beloff and put him in their Endurance team in the Rothmans Porsche 956. Klaus Bishof, at that time engineer at Porsche said : “The 956 was his car. There is nobody who could drive it like Stefan. And we all liked it !”. In 1983 Beloff is also again active in the F2. It did not go according to plan. He had a big accident in Spa and his car was disqualified in Pau and Misano. So it was a P09 in the championship. But, with teammate Derek Bell, he won the 1000 km Silverstone, Fuji and Kyalami. And…he also had a big crash at the Nürburgring.
The F1 world beckons. McLaren boss Ron Dennis wanted an option and let him test the car and Arrows BMW also wanted him, but Maurer made a deal with Team Tyrrell. They were the only team not to run a turbocharged engine in 1984, relying on the DFY Cosworth classic V8. In this car Beloff became, next to Ayrton Senna, the highlight of the year. In his third race at Zolder, he was already in the points. His fame came at full swing in the rainy GP at Monaco. In that race, everybody was surprised to see Senna having a sensational race to hunt down Prost, but hardly anyone noticed Bellof at first. He started the race in the last position, in lap 24 he was already fourth behind the Ferrari of Rene Anoux. He made a gutsy manoeuvre at Mirabeau, took third place and with a clear track he was 1,5 seconds faster per lap than Senna. Stefan would have won, but the race was stopped after 31 laps. That got the attention of Enzo Ferrari which ended with an option to drive for them in 1986. In 1984 he became the World Champion Endurance drivers thanks to victories at Monza, Nürburgring, Spa, Imola, Fuji and Sandown Park. On top of that he was DRM champion.
In 1985 Stefan had again some great races in the Tyrrell -Ford 012 ( P04 Detroit, P06 Portugal) and the Tyrrell-Renault 014, although there were some troubles concerning publicity stickers on his helmet. He was replaced in Brasil by Stephan Johansson because of that. Ken Tyrrell also did not liked his driver racing in the endurance series, but he could not stop him. Stefan was no longer a works Porsche driver, but he was driving the private Brun-Porsche to a third place in Monza together with Thierry Boutsen.
The 1000 km of Spa race was on September 1th, in between two F1 races. Brun had asked Gerhard Berger, but Boutsen wanted to win before his home crowd, so he asked for Stefan. Boutsen got the Porsche in the lead when he gave the steering wheel to Beloff after 72 laps. Stefan is flying and hunts down Jacky Ickx. He stayed on his tail for five laps. His sense of humour, the total lack of fear and his belief that anything is possible force him to the left in the slipstream of the new 962 on the 77th lap on the descent to Eau Rouge. He wants to pass Ickx on the outside of the world's most challenging corner. It's a hopeless rash move. The nose of the Brun Porsche is on Ickx's left rear wheel at 230 km/h. The Belgian makes a minimal trajectory change and both cars touched a got into a spin. The Brun car hits with the front the guard rail and the 956 folds like a harmonica around it and started to burn. The shock probably killed the driver. All engines stopped. That day remains a sad day. A future great champion was lost forever.
