Jul 8

Jul 8 VIN: the John Fitzpatrick Racing Porsche 956 chassis 102

Porsche - Porsche 956 - Porsche VINs - 956 VINs - John Fitzpatrick Racing - Siegfried Brunn

History of chassis 102

Chassis 102 was one of a dozen Porsche 956s sold to customer teams for 1983. The car was purchased new by John Fitzpatrick Racing who also acquired chassis 110 mid-way through the season.

During 1983, Fitzpatrick’s cars usually appeared in the white and blue colours of title sponsor, J. David & Company. Established in 1979, the J. David investment group promised annual returns of 40%-50% on the interbank and foreign currency markets.

Company founder, Jerry David Dominelli, purchased multiple homes, several private jets and spent millions of dollars on high end cars. 1983 was the second season Dominelli had bankrolled the Fitzpatrick team.

For 1983, chassis 102 was normally allocated to John Fitzpatrick and David Hobbs.

The car’s debut came in the DRM season opener at Zolder where Fitzpatrick drove single-handedly to finish second. Thereafter, he was usually partnered by Hobbs.

During the course of the ‘83 season, Fitzpatrick and Hobbs most notably took third at Spa, fifth at Monza and fifth at Le Mans (where 102 ran in the white and green colours of Skoal Bandit with Rupert Keegan also on board).

Elsewhere in 1983 there was a sixth place finish for chassis 102 at Monza, a result matched by South Africans Sarel van der Merwe, Tony Martin and Graham Duxbury when they shared the car for the season-ending Kyalami 1000km (in white and blue Kreepy Krauly livery).

In December 1983, things began to unravel for Jerry David Dominelli when he was arrested for running a Ponzi scheme. $80m had gone missing from the company accounts and Dominelli was ultimately jailed for ten years.

With the loss of the team’s title sponsor for 1984, John Fitzpatrick ran his fleet of cars (which now included a third 956, chassis 114) with backing from a variety of sponsors to include Skoal Bandit, Sachs, Nigrin, Marlboro and Bob Jane T-Marts.

Aside from a couple of second place finishes for Franz Konrad in the DRM (at Diepholz and the Nurburgring), chassis 102’s results in 1984 were patchy. Its best placings in nine World Championship outings were sixth at Brands Hatch (for Thierry Boutsen, Guy Edwards and David Hobbs), eighth at Imola (Keegan, Konrad and Hobbs) and ninth at Sandown Park (Keegan and Konrad).

For 1985, the by now plain white chassis 102 appeared in two races backed by Jarvis Construction. After placing eleventh at the season opening Monza 1000km, drivers Dudley Wood and Manuel Lopez were joined by Guy Edwards for the Silverstone 1000km.

Having started twelfth on the grid, Wood came in after 36 laps to hand over to Lopez. With cold tyres and full tanks, Lopez left the pits and floored the throttle. Unfortunately, the car instantly got away from him. It span across the track, slammed backwards into the barrier, flipped around and then smacked the barrier head on.

Chassis 102 was wrecked, but Lopez escaped the spectacular accident with just a twisted ankle.

John Fitzpatrick sold the remains of chassis 102 to Siegfried Brunn in December 1988.

Notable History

John Fitzpatrick Racing

White and blue J. David livery

20/03/1983 DRM Zolder (J. Fitzpatrick) 2nd oa, 2nd C class (#11)
10/04/1983 WSC Monza 1000km (J. Fitzpatick / D. Hobbs) 5th oa (#16)
08/05/1983 WSC Silverstone 1000km (J. Fitzpatrick / D. Hobbs) 8th oa, 8th C class (#11)
29/05/1983 WSC Nurburgring 1000km (J. Fitpatrick / D. Hobbs) 6th oa, 6th C class (#11)