Frank Biela

Frank Biela

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Nationality	German
Born	(1964-08-02) August 2, 1964 Neuss, West Germany
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Participating years	1999–2008
Teams	Audi Sport Joest, Audi Sport UK, Champion Racing
Best finish	1st (2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007)
Class wins	5 (2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007)

Frank Biela (born 2 August 1964 in Neuss) is an auto racing driver, mainly competing in touring cars and sportscar racing. He has raced exclusively in cars manufactured by the Audi marque since 1990.

Biela started his career in 1983 in karting before joining the Ford Youngster Team programme in 1987 alongside Manuel Reuter and Bernd Schneider. He drove for the team in Formula Ford and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (the German touring car championship), where he won the race at AVUS in 1987. Biela continued to compete in the DTM in 1988, and also raced a limited season in German Formula Three, scoring two wins.

Biela driving an Audi R10 in the 2006 Le Mans 24 Hours.

In 1990, he moved to Audi, winning the DTM race at the Nürburgring and the DTM championship in 1991 before Audi left the DTM in mid-season of 1992. Biela stayed with the company, and with the rise of the two-litre Class 2 (Super Touring) rules in other series across Europe, he was entered in various European touring car series over the following few seasons such as the French Supertouring Championship in 1993 driving the Audi 80 (in which he won the championship in) entered by Audi into the championship pairing alongside Marc Sourd. Since his French Supertouring Championship victory in 1993, he is the only standing non-French driver to win it. In 1995, he won the Touring Car World Cup race at Paul Ricard in the new Audi A4, which quickly became one of the dominant touring cars of the mid-1990s.

During the AVUS Berlin race in September 1995, Biela's Audi struck Kieth O'dor's already accident-stranded Nissan Primera squarely on the driver's side, fatally injuring O'dor, who died later that day in a Berlin hospital.

For 1996, Audi decided to enter a works team of two A4s in the BTCC. Biela was selected to lead the team; alongside team-mate John Bintcliffe, the new Audi team dominated the competition. Biela comfortably won the title, finishing every single race and being classified in the top ten in all but two races (an 11th place finish and a disqualification). He also capped an astonishing season by taking first place in the Guia Race of Macau.

Because of the Audis' dominance in 1996, the BTCC organisers imposed a heavy ballast weight "penalty" on all four-wheel-drive cars for the 1997 season. With his Audi badly handicapped by the penalty, Biela initially struggled to make a serious impact. The weight penalty was halved at the midpoint of the season, and results immediately improved to the point where Biela finished second overall to eventual champion Alain Menu. Biela then left Britain to return to the German Super Tourenwagen Cup for 1998, but was largely ineffective. He finished a lowly 14th in the final standings as the A4 (in a new two-wheel-drive racing configuration) became outclassed by rival manufacturers.

In 1999, Biela abandoned touring cars in favour of joining the Audi R8 sports car project, racing under the Audi Sport Team Joest name. It was a good match, and Biela excelled in sportscar racing over the next few seasons, winning several classic events at the wheel of the R8 as well as three ALMS races. The highlight of Biela's time with the R8 team was three successive victories (2000-2002) in the 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside Emanuele Pirro and Tom Kristensen. Audi began to scale back support for the R8 programme after the 2002 season. After winning the ALMS series in 2003, Biela returned to the revamped German touring car series, driving an Audi for Joest Racing (the team which had run Biela's R8 for his three Le Mans wins); the season was not a success.

Biela continued to race an R8 at Le Mans each year with mixed results. In 2003, he missed the pit lane after just 15 laps and ran out of fuel. He finished 5th and 3rd in 2004 and 2005, respectively. In December 2005 he participated in the first runs of the new Audi R10 diesel sportscar, the R8's successor. Driving an R10 (again for Team Joest) in the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans, alongside Pirro and new team-mate Marco Werner, Biela took his fourth victory to date in the classic race. He repeated the victory with the same car and team in 2007.

His greatest achievements include winning:

• 1991 Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft German Touring Car Championship with an Audi V8 (he has also finished 2nd and 3rd in DTM)
• 1993 French Touring Car Championship
• 1995 short-lived Touring Car World Cup one-off race
• 1996 BTCC in 1996 (finishing as runner-up the year after)
• 1996 Macau Grand Prix Guia Race
• 2000, 2001, 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans with an Audi R8
• 2006, 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans with an Audi R10

Racing record

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position - 1 point awarded all races) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	Pos	Pts
1996	Audi Sport UK	Audi A4 quattro	DON 1 1	DON 2 1	BRH 1 1	BRH 2 4	THR 1 1	THR 2 3	SIL 1 11	SIL 2 1	OUL 1 2	OUL 2 2	SNE 1 2	SNE 2 DSQ	BRH 1 2	BRH 2 8	SIL 1 3	SIL 2 2	KNO 1 1	KNO 2 2	OUL 1 2	OUL 2 1	THR 1 2	THR 2 3	DON 1 4	DON 2 3	BRH 1 4	BRH 2 1	1st	289
1997	Audi Sport UK	Audi A4 quattro	DON 1 Ret	DON 2 3	SIL 1 7	SIL 2 Ret	THR 1 1	THR 2 Ret	BRH 1 9	BRH 2 6	OUL 1 3	OUL 2 Ret	DON 1 1	DON 2 3	CRO 1 4	CRO 2 17	KNO 1 2	KNO 2 1	SNE 1 3	SNE 2 9	THR 1 2	THR 2 1	BRH 1 1	BRH 2 5	SIL 1 8	SIL 2 15			2nd	171

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1999	Audi Sport Team Joest	Didier Theys Emanuele Pirro	Audi R8R	LMP	360	3rd	3rd
2000	Audi Sport Team Joest	Tom Kristensen Emanuele Pirro	Audi R8	LMP900	368	1st	1st
2001	Audi Sport Team Joest	Tom Kristensen Emanuele Pirro	Audi R8	LMP900	321	1st	1st
2002	Audi Sport Team Joest	Tom Kristensen Emanuele Pirro	Audi R8	LMP900	375	1st	1st
2003	Audi Sport UK Arena Motorsport	Perry McCarthy Mika Salo	Audi R8	LMP900	28	DNF	DNF
2004	Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx	Allan McNish Pierre Kaffer	Audi R8	LMP1	350	5th	5th
2005	ADT Champion Racing	Allan McNish Emanuele Pirro	Audi R8	LMP1	364	3rd	3rd
2006	Audi Sport Team Joest	Marco Werner Emanuele Pirro	Audi R10 TDI	LMP1	380	1st	1st
2007	Audi Sport North America	Marco Werner Emanuele Pirro	Audi R10 TDI	LMP1	369	1st	1st
2008	Audi Sport North America	Marco Werner Emanuele Pirro	Audi R10 TDI	LMP1	367	6th	6th

Complete 12 Hours of Sebring results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1999	Audi Sport Team Joest	Perry McCarthy Emanuele Pirro	Audi R8R	LMP	304	5th	5th
2000	Audi Sport North America	Emanuele Pirro Tom Kristensen	Audi R8	LMP	360	1st	1st
2001	Audi Sport North America	Emanuele Pirro Tom Kristensen	Audi R8	LMP900	370	2nd	2nd
2002	Audi Sport North America	Emanuele Pirro Tom Kristensen	Audi R8	LMP900	327	5th	5th
2003	Infineon Team Joest	Marco Werner Philipp Peter	Audi R8	LMP900	367	1st	1st
2004	Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx	Allan McNish Pierre Kaffer	Audi R8	LMP1	350	1st	1st
2005	ADT Champion Racing	Emanuele Pirro Allan McNish	Audi R8	LMP1	361	2nd	2nd
2006	Audi Sport North America	Marco Werner Emanuele Pirro	Audi R10 TDI	LMP1	117	DNF	DNF
2007	Audi Sport North America	Marco Werner Emanuele Pirro	Audi R10 TDI	LMP1	364	1st	1st

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos	Pts
2004	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi A4 DTM 2004	HOC 16	EST 15	ADR Ret	LAU 12	NOR 11	SHA1 13	NÜR Ret	OSC 13	ZAN 9	BRN 14	HOC 11	17th	0
2007	Abt Sportsline	Audi A4 DTM 2007	HOC	OSC 18†	LAU	BRH	NOR	MUG	ZAN	NÜR	CAT	HOC		23rd	0

¹ - Shanghai was a non-championship round.

• † — Retired, but was classified as he completed 90% of the winner's race distance.

Complete Porsche Supercup results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Points
2007	Porsche AG	BHR	BHR	ESP	MON	FRA	GBR	GER 18	HUN	TUR	BEL	ITA	NC‡	0‡

‡ Not eligible for points due to being a guest driver.

External links

• Official Website (German)

Awards and achievements
Preceded by John Cleland	Autosport National Racing Driver of the Year 1996	Succeeded by Alain Menu
Sporting positions
Preceded by Hans-Joachim Stuck	German Touring Car Champion 1991	Succeeded by Klaus Ludwig
Preceded by Marc Sourd	French Touring Car Champion 1993	Succeeded by Laurent Aïello
Preceded by Paul Radisich	Winner of the FIA World Touring Car Cup 1995	Succeeded by none
Preceded by John Cleland	British Touring Car Champion 1996	Succeeded by Alain Menu
Preceded by Kelvin Burt	Guia Race winner 1996	Succeeded by Steve Soper
Preceded by Pierluigi Martini Yannick Dalmas Joachim Winkelhock	Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2000 with: Tom Kristensen Emanuele Pirro	Succeeded by Frank Biela Tom Kristensen Emanuele Pirro
Preceded by Frank Biela Tom Kristensen Emanuele Pirro	Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2001 with: Tom Kristensen Emanuele Pirro	Succeeded by Frank Biela Tom Kristensen Emanuele Pirro
Preceded by Frank Biela Tom Kristensen Emanuele Pirro	Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2002 with: Tom Kristensen Emanuele Pirro	Succeeded by Tom Kristensen Rinaldo Capello Guy Smith
Preceded by Tom Kristensen	American Le Mans Series champion 2003 with Marco Werner	Succeeded by Marco Werner J.J. Lehto
Preceded by Marco Werner J.J. Lehto	American Le Mans Series champion 2005 with Emanuele Pirro	Succeeded by Allan McNish Rinaldo Capello
Preceded by J.J. Lehto Marco Werner Tom Kristensen	Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2006 with: Emanuele Pirro Marco Werner	Succeeded by Frank Biela Emanuele Pirro Marco Werner
Preceded by Frank Biela Emanuele Pirro Marco Werner	Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2007 with: Emanuele Pirro Marco Werner	Succeeded by Allan McNish Rinaldo Capello Tom Kristensen