35 Facts About Stefan Bellof

Stefan Bellof competed with the Tyrrell Formula One team during 1984 and 1985.

Stefan Bellof was killed in an accident during the 1985 1000 km of Spa, a round of the World Endurance Championship.

Several other top-five championship placings occurred during the next few years before Stefan Bellof claimed his first karting title, by winning the International Karting Championship of Luxembourg in 1976.

Georg won the German Karting Championship in 1978, while Stefan Bellof finished in eighth position in the same race, improving to third in 1979 and becoming German champion in 1980, while dovetailing a campaign in Formula Ford.

Stefan Bellof moved into Formula Ford at the tail end of the 1979 season, as a member of Walter Lechner's Racing School setup, making his bow at Hockenheim in November 1979, where he finished in second place.

Stefan Bellof contested three VW Castrol Europa Pokal races, of which he won one.

Stefan Bellof joined Mike Thackwell and Alain Ferte at a test session with Maurer Motorsport at Circuit Paul Ricard in France at the end of the 1981 season.

Eje Elgh, who finished third with Maurer in the 1981 European Formula Two Championship was present at the test and was impressed by Stefan Bellof, and recommended him to team boss Willy Maurer to sign him for the 1982 season.

Stefan Bellof followed this win up with a second successive triumph at the Jim Clark Gedachtnisrennen at Hockenheim, having started from pole position and achieved the fastest lap during the race.

Stefan Bellof made only one trip to the podium with second at Jarama while he lost another podium when he was disqualified from third place at the Pau Grand Prix, after his and teammate Ferte's cars were found to be underweight at the race's conclusion.

The previous weekend, Stefan Bellof had joined Kremer to compete in the Hessen Cup at Hockenheim as part of the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft, but retired with transmission failure.

In 1983 Stefan Bellof joined the Rothmans-backed Porsche factory team for the World Endurance Championship driving a Porsche 956 alongside Derek Bell.

The next race on the calendar was the 1000 km Nurburgring in which Stefan Bellof rewrote several records at the Nordschleife.

Stefan Bellof set the fastest lap during the race, with a lap time of 6 minutes, 25.91 seconds, which remains the official Nordschleife lap record for all cars.

Stefan Bellof added two more wins later in the season at Kyalami and at Fuji, as he ended the season in fourth position.

Stefan Bellof added a win in the non-championship Norisring Trophae race.

Stefan Bellof was the dominant force in the 1984 championship driving alongside Bell, with John Watson joining the team.

Stefan Bellof contested races with Brun Motorsport with whom he won at Imola partnering Hans-Joachim Stuck.

Bell and Stefan Bellof won the opening round of the season at Monza, but only after the pairing were reinstated to the results.

Stefan Bellof only contested six sportscar races in 1985, taking one win at the Norisring alongside Thierry Boutsen again in DRM.

Stefan Bellof did move into the championship ahead of the 1984 season, joining Tyrrell Racing Organisation, to partner Brundle in naturally aspirated, Ford-engined machinery, which were giving away in excess of 150 horsepower to their turbo rivals.

Stefan Bellof failed to finish in his first two races in Brazil and South Africa, before scoring his first two championship points in successive races at Zolder and Imola.

Retirements followed in Canada and in Detroit, where Brundle claimed the team's best result of the season with second position as Stefan Bellof stuck his Tyrrell in the pit wall.

Stefan Bellof returned at the Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril where the weather conditions were similar to that of Monaco 1984 in which Stefan Bellof had slithered his way up to the on-the-road positioning of third place.

Stefan Bellof started way down the order in 21st place, but by the race's conclusion, he had managed to make it into the top six, and claiming a point for the team, which would be Bellof's first as all of his 1984 results were expunged.

Stefan Bellof failed to qualify in Monaco, the only time Bellof failed to qualify in his short Formula One career, along with his exclusion at the 1984 Austrian Grand Prix.

Stefan Bellof made amends for his error of 1984 in Detroit, by finishing fourth in the 1985 race, which would ultimately be his final three points in Formula One.

Stefan Bellof was making his fourth appearance of 1985 in the series, despite there not being any clashes with his Tyrrell campaign in Formula One.

On lap 78, Stefan Bellof was racing Jacky Ickx's works Porsche 962C from the La Source hairpin on the run to Eau Rouge corner.

Ickx's car hit the wall on the right rear side, while Stefan Bellof's car went straight into the barriers, breaking through and hitting a secondary wall.

Stefan Bellof was pronounced dead of massive internal injuries after he had reached the track hospital.

The accident involving Stefan Bellof was the second in the space of three weeks in which a driver was killed at the wheel of a Porsche.

Stefan Bellof's talent had been noted by many of the rival teams that he had been competing against in Formula One, including an offer from Ferrari for the 1986 season, with a meeting scheduled with Enzo Ferrari before his death.

Stefan Bellof is often mentioned as Michael Schumacher's childhood racing idol.

In 2010 Stefan Bellof's family donated his racing mementos to the local Sammler und Hobbywelt museum for public display.