at the
1976 German Grand Prix. for Georg Loos in 1977. Stommelen won the pole position for the
1969 24 Hours of Le Mans in a
Porsche 917 a year after finishing third in a
Porsche 908. In this year, he became the first man to reach speeds exceeding on the
Le Mans circuit's
Mulsanne Straight in his Porsche 917 LH. In 1970, he made his
Formula One debut with
Brabham with sponsorship obtained from the German magazine
Auto, Motor und Sport and raced both sportscars (
Toj and Porsche works teams) and Formula 1 throughout the 1970s. Stommelen inadvertently played a role in the end of the
Spanish Grand Prix's tenure at
Montjuich Park in
Barcelona when he crashed there in the
1975 race after the rear wing of his
Hill GH1 failed which caused his car to fly into the crowd, resulting in the deaths of five spectators and him being seriously injured. After his recovery, Stommelen returned to sports car racing, winning races for
Alfa Romeo and also winning the
24 Hours of Daytona a further three times. In 1976, Stommelen had the honour to drive the maiden race of the
Porsche 936 at the 300 km Nürburgring race. With a black body and without the air-intake, the 936 of this race became known as the black widow. He qualified second, between the factory
Renault Alpine A442 of
Patrick Depailler and
Jean-Pierre Jabouille in first and third. The Renault team was eager to win at Porsche's home soil. On race-day in heavy rain, Stommelen managed to overtake the Renault in front right after the start. Now in the lead, he rushed towards the Nordkehre, braked and deliberately left room for the Renaults in pursuit to overtake. The Renaults, wanting to take back the lead after 2 of 300 km, rushed past Stommelen into the water puddles and crashed into the catch-fences in tandem, with Stommelen taking back the lead again. This led to the saying "On the Nordschleife, you can never brake later than Rolf Stommelen!". After the sixth lap, the throttle cable of the 936 stuck in the "open" position. But instead of giving up, Stommelen continued the race by turning off the master switch at the bends to brake, and turning on the master switch again after the bends to accelerate throughout the rest of the race, taking second place at the end of the race. In
1978, Stommelen was given the task by the Porsche factory to drive the
Porsche 935 "Moby Dick" in Martini Colors. The 78 "Moby Dick" had a 3.2-litre Turbo Engine that produced 845 HP and Stommelen was, with 235 mph, (365 km/h) the fastest man on the Mulsanne Straight, faster than the prototypes like the Porsche 936 and the
Renault Alpine A442B which won the race. Due to high fuel-consumption of the engine, Stommelen had to pit too often to battle for the win. Stommelen continued at Le Mans with the Porsche 935, nearly winning the
24 hours of Le Mans with Dick Barbour and actor
Paul Newman as co-drivers in 1979, only to be set back by a 23-minute-long pit stop caused by a stuck wheel nut. The team would not have come so far, if Stommelen had not been constantly seconds faster than his team mates each lap. Stommelen also drove
Toj SC320 prototype sportscars with some success against the works Alfa team (Toj was a small German manufacturer). Stommelen also competed in one
NASCAR Grand National series event in 1971 at
Talladega Superspeedway in a former
Holman-Moody Ford which
Mario Andretti used to win the 1967
Daytona 500, which was rebuilt by Robert Gee (
Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s grandfather) as a
Mercury Cyclone, with
Jake Elder as crew chief. That car eventually was sold to independent driver
Darrell Waltrip to use a year later in his Cup Series debut in 1972, which is how it stands today in the latter's museum. Stommelen was also active in the German GT Championship
Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft, winning the championship in 1977 for the Gelo Racing Team in a Porsche 935. A master at the Nürburgring, he was a constant winner of races held there. In the 1980s, Stommelen was still a sought after prototype pilot and achieved success driving the
Kremer CK5,
Lancia LC1 and
Porsche 956 cars. ==Death==