Nationality | German |
---|---|
24 Hours of Le Mans career | |
Participating years | 1969, 1970, 1971 |
Teams | Porsche System Engineering, Martini Racing |
Best finish | 2nd (1970) |
Class wins | 0 |
Willibert "Willi" Kauhsen (born 19 May 1939) is a German former racing driver and racing team owner from Eschweiler in Aachen, Germany.
Willi Kauhsen was a freight forwarder who went into racing in the 1960s. He regularly participated in touring and sports car races in the period 1963-1974. He became a European Touring Car Championship winner driving a Abarth 1000TC in 1967. He became a Porsche factory driver and won the 84-hour-long Marathon de la Route in 1968 on a 170 hp Porsche 911S shared with Herbert Linge and Dieter Glemser. He also won Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours in the same year, with Erwin Kremer and Helmut Kelleners. In the late 1960s, he was a regular in long distance races.
He drove a Porsche 908L with Rudi Lins for Porsche System Engineering (Porsche factory team) in 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans and retired after 317 laps.
In 1970, he drove a Porsche 917LH for Martini Racing with Gérard Larrousse at Le Mans, which finished second with 338 laps, 5 laps behind the winning 917KH of Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood. For 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans, he co-drove the famous Porsche 917/20 "Pink Pig" with Reinhold Joest, but failed to finish.