There are very few names in the motorsport world that are as highly respected as Niki Lauda’s. One of the most technical, determined, and calculating drivers of all time, he was a major influence to legends that raced against him and raced after him, names such as Hunt, Rosberg, Prost, Senna, Schumacher, Hakkinen, and Hamilton.
However, in 1969, a few years before he set foot in a Formula car of any type, there was a little sports car company out of Stuttgart that was looking to move up in racing from GTs to full on prototype racing. Lauda, at the time, was a gig driver, or what the Europeans called a “jobbing” driver that was ready to race in whatever car was given to him as he worked towards the ranks of Formula Two and Formula One. As fate would have it, that little sports car company, Porsche, decided to hire one Niki Lauda to race for them at the Osterreichring 1000 KM.
