Martini Racing

Martini Racing is the name under which various motor racing teams race when sponsored by the Italian company Martini & Rossi, a distillery that produces Martini vermouth in Turin. Martini's sponsorship program began in 1968. The race cars are marked with the distinctive dark blue, light blue and red stripes on white, red or silver background body cars. The car model which has won the most titles for Martini Racing is the Lancia Delta HF Integrale.

Martini's first sponsorship program happened at the Daytona 3 hours in 1962 with two Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ Coda Troncas, but they had no Martini stickers or logos on them, only "Martini & Rossi Racing Team" written along the front quarter panels.

The two key individuals at the start of Martini Racing's grand adventure were Paul Goppert, head of publicity and public relations for Martini Germany, and his close friend Hans Dieter Dechent, a racing driver specializing in endurance racing who ran an Opel dealership in Saarbrücken, Germany.

At the start of 1968, advertising unrelated to racing was permitted for the first time on the bodywork of racing cars. Paul asked Hans Dieter to place a few stickers on his car in exchange for overalls and similar equipment.

Martini stickers then appeared, in April 1968 on the Porsche 910 raced by Scuderia Lufthansa Racing Team set up by Robert Huhn, an executive manager of the German airline.

As Dechent wanted to race the sooner with its new car, the car's first appearance of 910-023 in its silver livery with front Lufthansa colors and Martini stickers was at Eberbach hill climb, the 28 April with n° 174. Then the same car appeared at Dijon-Lonvic GP on the fifth of May (n°10), then at Paris GP on May 12 (n°26) and mostly known at the 1000 km of Nürburgring on May 19 (n°24) .

Later in a minor event at the Hockenheimring in 1968. Martini Racing was then formed to enter two Porsche 907 in several sports car races in 1969 to back up the factory effort.

During the 1970s, Martini became famous in connection with Porsche in motorsport, sponsoring the works Porsche 917 that won the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans. After a one-year hiatus in 1972, as Porsche retired from the WC championship as its 917. The Martini Porsche cars won Le Mans once more in 1976 and 1977 with Porsche 936, as well as in many other events in the 1970s for the factory Porsche team, with the RSR Turbo, 935 and 936. In 1978, Martini only sponsored the works team in Le Mans, while in 1980 they were associated with Joest Racing, once more only at Le Mans.

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