Volker Weidler

In 1985, he became German Formula Three champion.

In the 1989 Formula One season, Weidler entered 10 Formula One Grands Prix, racing for the Rial team, but failed to qualify the uncompetitive car on every occasion.

After Formula One, he moved to Japan and raced in the Japanese Formula 3000 Championship and the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. He often fought over the title with Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Ross Cheever and others in the Japanese Formula 3000, and became popular in Japan.

In 1991, Weidler teamed with Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot to win Le Mans behind the wheel of the Wankel engine-powered Mazda 787B, marking also the first win of the legendary French race by both a Japanese manufacturer and engine supplier. This Wankel engine-powered car was noted for being very loud.

Possibly related to the hours spent in the noisy Mazda, Weidler began to suffer from an ear problem (sensorineural hearing loss) which eventually forced him to retire prematurely from the Japanese Formula 3000 Championship during the 1992 season though Weidler was leading the championship at that time.

When Weidler left the Japanese team, Nova Engineering, he recommended Heinz-Harald Frentzen as his successor.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

(key)

Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of the winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1987	Porsche Kremer Racing	Kris Nissen Kunimitsu Takahashi	Porsche 962C	C1	6	DNF	DNF
1989	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd	Yojiro Terada Marc Duez	Mazda 767	GTP	339	12th	3rd
1990	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Bertrand Gachot Johnny Herbert	Mazda 787	GTP	148	DNF	DNF
1991	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Johnny Herbert Bertrand Gachot	Mazda 787B	C2	362	1st	1st
1992	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. Oreca	Johnny Herbert Bertrand Gachot Maurizio Sandro Sala	Mazda MXR-01	C1	336	4th	4th