Hans Herrmann, who has died just over a month short of his 98th birthday, will forever be remembered for giving Porsche its first outright victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours together with Richard Attwood in 1970. But that is to overlook the other achievements of his career in both sportscars and single-seaters.
The Stuttgart native enjoyed success with both his home city’s brands, Porsche and Mercedes. In addition to the Le Mans win, Herrmann triumphed with Porsche at the Daytona 24 Hours and twice claimed victory at the Sebring 12 Hours, making him the first driver to win the unofficial triple crown of sportscar racing when he won at Le Mans. It could be argued that he actually took the quadruple, because he also won the Targa Florio road race, another classic on the world championship sportscar trail at the time.
