A victory that shouldn’t have been there. Freddy Kottulinski’s success at the Dakar
The Dakar Rally is one of the sport’s most famous motorsport competitions, with both established rallyists and representatives of other motorsport disciplines keen to try their luck at one of the world’s most prestigious circuits.
In 1980, however, something happened that is absolutely unique in the history of the event. In the off-road class, a driver who had previously competed in a completely different kind of motorsport and who had never even dreamed of such grand success in these competitions, won.
Motorsport legend Freddy Kottulinski was born on 20 July 1932. Despite his aristocratic origins as a young man from an old Austro-Silesian family, it was not easy for him at the outset of his life. The Second World War and the enormous tragedy that befell his family at this time made its toll. To survive, the young man took on all kinds of work, while also studying to become a car mechanic.
In the late 1940s, Freddie emigrated from Germany to Sweden, where he rented a small garage to repair cars. The business went very successfully, and three years later he was the owner of a small garage, where he was able to hire five workers.
In 1959 Freddy Kottulinski took part in his first car race and three years later he was already an established sportsman, winning several prestigious competitions.
Afterwards, for two decades Freddy Kottulinski has driven primarily in circuit racing, first for BMW, and then for Audi. He achieved particular success in Formula 3 tournaments.
In 1978, Freddy Kottulinski tried his hand at rally racing for the first time and his debut was a major success. Paired with the then famous Marc Zurer, he won the World Cup in Division 1.
Unsurprisingly, Freddy was offered the chance to drive the 1980 Paris-Dakar marathon in a Jeep called Iltis. This car is a joint brainchild of Audi and Volkswagen. Kottulinski participated in the creation of this car. But nevertheless, he first rejected the offer of one of the main developers, Roland Gumpert, who wanted to see him in the team. But he later agreed because of a passionate desire to test himself on the new track. And the challenge was not an easy one.
Due to technical problems crew consisting of Freddy Kottulinski and navigator Ernst Loeffelmann started much later than planned. Also no-one warned the riders of the peculiar desert climate like the bitter night chill. The crew started in summer outfit, so every overnight stay was an ordeal. The inexperience of the 19-year-old navigator caused no less problems. Therefore the riders were very surprised to find out in the middle of the competition that they were among the leaders. Nevertheless, the crew was very sceptical about their chances in the race where Jean Ragnotti was the undisputed favourite. The more so, the renowned rally driver was driving a car with characteristics far superior to Kottulinski’s.
But suddenly Cottulinski crew became leaders in the jeep class in the penultimate stage and didn’t give up positions till the end of the competition. The fact is that even with the enormous number of problems encountered on the track the riders were extremely lucky. The other competitors had even more problems.
Freddy Kottulinski, having won the rally, flatly refused to take part in any other similar competitions until the end of his career, saying that such tremendous luck could not be repeated a second time.
The renowned driver died in 2010, and his last event was the 2006 North Loop Marathon.
