‘Hans im Glück’ is gone: the man who brought Porsche the first Le Mans, he was 97

He will be best remembered for the year 1970, when he and Richard Attwood in the Porsche 917K (#23) brought Porsche its first overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Road & Track recalls that Herrmann was also known for his ‘luck’ in his career, i.e. for repeatedly avoiding the worst in an era when accidents were a brutal part of the sport, so he was nicknamed ‘Hans im Glück’.

Herrmann was not only a ‘trainer’; for Sunday’. Porsche states that it also did countless test kilometers at the Weissach Development Center, which at the time often meant working on reliability and details that later decide races. In short, he was part of a generation that built the brand both on the track and behind the scenes.

For motorsport fans, it is the departure of another big name from the time when Le Mans and endurance were driven in completely different conditions, with less safety and more ‘instinct’. In the farewell, Porsche describes him as a man who knew how to get the most out of the most difficult conditions, and 1970 remains the moment that changed the history of their racing story.