Herbert Linge
Herbert Linge ( born June 11, 1928 in Weissach ) is a German racing driver of the postwar period; he drove the Porsche sports car.
Life
He was one of the first apprentices at Porsche in 1943. Later he was instrumental in building the Porsche service network involved in foreign countries and especially in the United States.
1952-1954 he worked as a race mechanic for the Porsche factory team. In this mission he was awarded with the famous Carrera Panamericana road race as the best mechanic.
His breakthrough as a racing driver, he managed in 1954. As a passenger of Hans Herrmann at the Mille Miglia Porsche 550 Spyder he scored the first class victory. Further victories in France and in the Rally of Liège- Rome -Liège followed. In parallel, he continued to work as a mechanic at Porsche in the experiment. Linge was never tenured racer, but was often used because of its excellent driving skills to do so. This was offset by occasional use with other brands ( Abarth ) does not prevent.
He was involved in the development of the first Formula 2 and Formula 1 vehicles from Porsche, but he only drove sports car races, including Le Mans 24 Hours race. His racing career he finished 1969 in this race after his co-driver John Woolfe was killed in an accident in the first round.
In 1970 he rose again in the race car to doublen the actor Steve McQueen in the Hollywood movie "Le Mans".
Since then Linge worked in a senior position in the test center in Weissach until his retirement in 1993.
His life -forms advocated for the improvement of the safety precautions in racing.
The Porsche Cup and the ONS security squadron were equipped with the sports car with fire extinguishers to heranzuschaffen doctors and aid more quickly to an accident vehicle, based on ideas of Herbert Linge. For this he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.
Today you can see Herbert Linge to the circuit at classic car rallies.
Sporting successes
In 1963, Herbert Linge won the German GT championship. Many second and third places are not mentioned here.