Josef Anton Gartner was a Formula One and sports car endurance driver from Austria.
18 Facts About Jo Gartner
1.
2.
Jo Gartner was killed in an accident at the 1986 24 Hours of Le Mans.
3.
Jo Gartner moved up to the European Formula Three Championship in 1979, driving a Martini with support from Renault, and switched to Formula Two in 1980 with a two-year-old March.
4.
On his Formula Two debut, Jo Gartner's car was damaged by debris from the accident that killed his countryman Markus Hottinger.
5.
Jo Gartner was invited to take Hottinger's place in the BMW M1 Procar Championship series, in which he raced against Formula One drivers, driving for fellow Austrian Helmut Marko.
6.
In 1981, Jo Gartner drove a year-old Toleman TG280 at selected races and picked up a point with sixth place at the Enna-Pergusa round.
7.
Jo Gartner finished the season with two races for the Merzario team, finishing eighth at Mantorp Park.
8.
For 1983, Jo Gartner decided to return to running his own car, an ex-works Spirit 201.
9.
In 1984, Jo Gartner had secured the part-time second seat with the struggling Italian Osella team, as teammate to Piercarlo Ghinzani, driving a year-old, non-turbo FA1E.
10.
At his next race, Jo Gartner was given the new turbocharged Osella FA1F as the team decided to run a second car at all the remaining races.
11.
At the 1984 British Grand Prix, Jo Gartner was allowed to start in 27th position because the Tyrrell Racing team was participating under appeal.
12.
However, Jo Gartner was denied the two points normally awarded to the fifth-place finisher, as Osella had only entered one car at the beginning of the season.
13.
Jo Gartner held talks with Toleman and Osella, but both seats went to drivers with more finance in place.
14.
Jo Gartner had finished fourth in the 1985 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Porsche 962C along with teammates David Hobbs and Guy Edwards.
15.
Jo Gartner won the 1986 12 Hours of Sebring, along with teammates Akin and Hans-Joachim Stuck, finishing on three wheels, and won an international race at Thruxton with Tiff Needell.
16.
Jo Gartner was aiming to join the factory Rothman's Porsche team for 1987.
17.
Jo Gartner was killed on impact, due to a broken neck.
18.
Jo Gartner was the last fatality at the Le Mans 24 Hours under race conditions until Allan Simonsen was killed in the 2013 race.