Teo Fabi wins 1991 World Sportscar Championship, Japan
As neither Mitch Evans nor Sam Bird have been able to secure the Formula E World Championship (held in mid-August at the Berlin ePrix: see news), it means Teo Fabi remains Jaguar’s final champion after winning the World Sportscar Championship 30 years ago.
Fabi had been strong throughout the eight-race season even though he had only joined the TWR-run team at the start of 1991. After winning Silverstone, finishing second at Monza and Nürburgring, and taking third at Le Mans and Magny Cours, the former Formula 1 and Champ Car World Series driver arrived at the final race of the season in October as the main title contender. Only his teammate, Derek Warwick, had any real chance of snatching the championship from him, being just eight points behind.
Fabi, though, immediately laid down a marker for his intentions at Autopolis, on Japan’s third largest island, Kyushu, by taking his third pole of the season in the Ross Brawn-designed 3.5-litre XJR-14. Warwick could only manage fourth. “That Jaguar was fantastic,” said Fabi in a 2012 Motor Sport interview. “750bhp, 750kg, lots of downforce. And the team was very well organised.”
But, a mistake at the start – changing from second to fifth – meant the Italian’s advantage lasted a mere 20m, and he watched helplessly as the Peugeot 905 of Yannick Dalmas overtook him (pictured above). Following the pair in third place was a Sauber-Mercedes C291 driven by one Michael Schumacher, and Warwick still in fourth. Fabi started to close in on Dalmas, but, after losing time while lapping the spinning Mazda 787B of the Irish driver David Kennedy, and again missing a gearchange, he decided to forfeit the race and concentrate on the championship.
He only needed to finish third to take the crown, so he pulled to one side at the end of the straight to let past the hard-charging Schumacher, who soon took the lead when the engine in Dalmas’ Peugeot expired. With Warwick up into second, the Brit started to hunt down the young German, but was unable to catch him (or his Austrian teammate, Karl Wendlinger), eventually finishing second behind the Sauber-Mercedes.
Fabi’s co-driver for that race, David Brabham, meanwhile, had taken over his car. With Brabham finishing third, he secured the 1991 Drivers’ World Championship for the Italian. Having already taken the team crown, it was a tremendous result for TWR and Jaguar.
With this being the company’s final season in WSC (it would race in the American IMSA series for 1992) it was also the perfect way for the company to end its eight-year campaign that had resulted in three drivers’ and three teams’ championships plus two victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.