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1958-66
Speedboats first love, becomes European Champ before taking to 2 wheels |
There is arguably no driver on this site with a career as varied or as long as Austrian Dieter Quester, from Vienna. As a teenager, he began competing in outboard speedboats, and in both 1958 and 1962 was crowned European Motorboat champion. Moving from the water to the land, he spent the years 1963 to 1965 racing motorbikes, variously on BMW, Norton and NSU products, before switching to four wheels in late 1965, followed by his marriage to Julianna the following year.
The importance of that seemingly trivial fact was that Julianna was a member of the House of Hohenzollern, and also the daughter of BMW top man Alexander von Falkenhausen. As a result, it cemented a working relationship with the Munich marque that would last until the end of the 20th century, such that writing Quester's biography is a bit like writing the history of BMW motorsport. In 1966, in his first full season in cars he immediately took out the Austrian touring car championship, and won the International BMW Motorsport Trophy to boot. |
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1967-69
Back to back class titles in European Touring Car racing in BMW 2002 |
By 1967 he had become a BMW works driver, and towards the end of the year the company entered him in a Lola T110 BMW to compete in the Swiss Mountain GP at Ollon-Villars, a round of the International Manufacturer's Championship (the World Sportscar championship as it was then known). After coming 3rd in this event, BMW gave him a prototype with which to compete in the European Hillclimb championships in 1968 and 1969, in which he placed 4th and 3rd respectively.
BMW also supplied him with a 1990cc BMW 2002 for the 1968 European Touring Car Championship, and with wins in Division 3 at Aspern, Belgrade and the Nurburgring, and sharing the driving with the likes of other BMW-anointed men such as Dieter Basche, Hubert Hahne and Kurt Ahrens, Quester took the Division 3 title with 42.5 points. Five more class wins in 1969 at Belgrade, Brno, Brands Hatch, Jarama and Marchairuz saw Dieter wrap up a second title, this time with 46.5 points. |
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1969-72
Some success racing in ESC, dabbling in ICM and WCM |
To prove that he was not exclusively tied to BMW, though, in 1969 he had competed at the International Championship for Makes world championship sportscar event at Zeltweg in David Piper's Lola T70 with the car's owner, and from 1970 to 1973 raced occasionally in the European 2 litre Sportscar Championship. In 1970, driving an Abarth 2000SP, he retired at Paul Ricard, but claimed heat results of 1st and 2nd en route to 2nd overall at the Salzburgring. He also raced at Hockenheim in a Chevron B16 BMW.
In the 1971 ESC he drove a works Abarth 2000SP/71 at the Nurburgring but retired, before doing four events in the 1972 series in a Bosch Racing Chevron B21 BMW. Recording 3 heat 2nd places plus two heat wins, he was 1st outright at the Salzburgring and 2nd at Dijon. He also drove an Abarth-Osella SE021 at the World Championship for Makes round at Buenos Aires, but again retired. Then in 1973, the last year of the ESC, he took an Osella PA1 Abarth to 3rd outright at Misano and 4th outright at Zeltweg. |
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1972-73
"Holy trio of successive ETCC wins, Batman!" |
In terms of his BMW commitments, however, apart from their Formula Two program (more on that shortly) Dieter was instrumental in the early 1970s in the development of the BMW 3.0 CSL, the heavily-winged car known as the 'Batmobile' which would epitomise saloon car racing in the 1970s. An early version of it, an Alpina BMW 2800CS, was entered for Quester and John Fitzpatrick for the Le Mans 24hrs in 1972, but was never practised, and come 1973 the 3.0 CSL was ready.
Quester shared a 3.0 CSL in the 1973 ETCC mainly with Toine Hezemans, but also with Hans-Joachim Stuck and Harald Menzel. After early teething trouble, Quester, Hezemans and Menzel came 2nd at Nurburgring, before Quester and Hezemans reeled off three straight wins at the Spa 24hrs, Zandvoort and Paul Ricard, taking Dieter to 3rd in the ETCC with 75 points. With the same car, the pair also raced in the WCM round at Nurburgring, where they came 9th, and also at Le Mans where they finished 11th. |
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1967-70
Horror year in F2, but DQ enters the seventies with 3 wins and a podium |
Quester's connections with BMW also took him into open wheeler racing as early as 1969. This was not entirely new territory for him; in December 1967 he had actually won the Freeport Formula Vee Governor's Cup in the Bahamas, of all places. But at the start of 1969, BMW established a program for Formula 2. After starting the year in a Lola T102 with a BMW engine, Quester soon had a BMW 269 chassis at his disposal. But the car was not reliable, and Dieter was not a classified finisher in any F2 race in 1969.
1970 was somewhat better. 7th at Thruxton and 5th at Montjuich Park in the 269 were offset by numerous mechanical failures and even a DNQ at the non-championship event at Rouen. But on the debut of the BMW 270 at the Salzburgring, also a non-title race, the new car was immediately on the pace, and Quester came 3rd. He then won the championship race at Hockenheim to come 4th in the F2 title with 14 points, before taking out the non-championship event at Neubiberg and the Macau Grand Prix. |
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1970-71
Five times the F2 bridesmaid in '71, but never the bride |
That win at Hockenheim was a dramatic affair indeed. Quester found himself in a race-long dice with Clay Regazzoni in the Tecno, and on the last lap the Swiss driver was ahead approaching the stadium section. Not wanting Dieter to get a slipstream, Regazzoni squeezed the Austrian for space, but it was too late, as Quester was alongside. Regazzoni turned into the stadium; the BMW's rear wheels rode over the nose of the Tecno and both spun, but Quester recovered quickest and took the flag; their clash was big news in Italy and Austria!
The end of 1970 saw BMW pull the plug on its F2 program though, but Quester was keen to continue in the category, perhaps with eyes on Formula One. In 1971, he started the season in a Brabham BT30 FVA run by March Engineering, before joining the Eifelland team to run a March 712M BMW. Unable to collect another victory, he did however manage four 2nd places at Jarama, Rouen and Vallelunga (twice), as well as another 2nd at a non-title race at Hockenheim, eventually placing 3rd in the title with 31 points. |
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1972-74
At the crossroads, Dieter decides against ETCC for more F2 with Harper |
Unable to get into F1, in 1972 he only had a one-off outing in a Matchbox Team Surtees TS10 BDA/Hart at the Österreichring, where he retired with fuel pressure problems. But despite his exploits in the BMW 3.0 CSL in the ETCC in 1973, in truth his career was at a crossroads. Dieter had ambitions to excel in open wheelers, but that had seemingly come to naught. In 1974, he decided against another season in the ETCC, and was on the verge of retirement before getting a deal with the Harper team to race in F2 again.
Unfortunately, this brought no better results than before. After an unsuccessful start to the season in a March 742 BMW, the team switched to a Chevron B27 chassis, first with a Ford engine, then with a BMW powerplant. 11th at the Salzburgring, 16th at Karlskoga and 9th at the non-championship race at Rouen was the best Quester could manage. Despite all this, towards the end of 1974, out of nowhere came the opportunity for him to graduate to F1 after all. |
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1969 BMW F2 First entry in F1 came for BMW, amid tragic events |
That opportunity came at Quester's native Austrian GP, where sponsorship from Memphis International ensured that the Surtees team gave him a ride in one of their TS16 machines powered by a Cosworth V8 engine. There would be four Surtees entered, the other three at the hands of Leo Kinnunen, Derek Bell and Jean-Pierre Jabouille. However, it would have been misleading to think that this was the first time Dieter had been entered in a Formula One Grand Prix.
Back in 1969, Quester had actually been entered for the German GP by BMW. These were the days when F2 cars were allowed to participate in the World Championship German event, and BMW entered 269s for both Quester and Gerhard Mitter. But during practice, a wheel came off Mitter's 269, and the German crashed fatally. Quester's entry was subsequently withdrawn. So the 1974 Austrian was not the first time Dieter had been entered for an F1 race, but it would be the first time he tasted an F1 car. |
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1974 Surtees Solid performance for Dieter, taking a solid top 10 finish in Austria |
He didn't do too badly either. In qualifying, he recorded a time around the daunting Österreichring of 1:38.88, just 3.48 seconds slower than the time of pole-sitter Niki Lauda in the Ferrari, and 0.21s behind Ian Ashley's Token directly in front of him. This gave him the 25th fastest time, and he snuck onto the grid as the last car to qualify, 0.29s clear of Ian Scheckter's Hesketh. Quester's Surtees was the only one of the four to make the cut, with Kinnunen, Bell and Jabouille all failing to do so.
In a solid race drive come Sunday, Quester stayed out of trouble and came home 9th despite having been lapped three times by eventual winner Carlos Reutemann in the Brabham. Dieter could have been well pleased with his day's work; there were three other classified finishers behind him. Tim Schenken in the Trojan was 4 laps down in 10th, Hans-Joachim Stuck's March had stopped but was classified 11th, and double World Champion Graham Hill languished 6 laps down in 12th after a troubled race! |
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1975-76
Leaving open wheelers behind, DQ takes wins in ETCC, IMSA and WCM |
Having competed in F1 and proven that he could handle it, Quester could now happily return to racing in saloon cars, and he has done so to this very day. In 1975, he raced a Schnitzer BMW 3.0 CSL in three rounds of the ETCC, retiring at Monza with Walter Brun and at Brno with Albrecht Krebs, but winning at the Salzburgring from pole with Urs Zondler. He also won a one-off outing in IMSA at Riverside with Stuck, and came 2nd in a solitary start in the European GT Championship in a Porsche Carrera RSR.
1976 saw Dieter campaigning a 3.5 litre version of the CSL in the World Championship of Makes, sharing his car various with Krebs, Brian Redman, Gunnar Nilsson and Ronnie Peterson, with the highlights being victories at the Nurburgring with Krebs, and at the Österreichring with Nilsson. For the non-championship Le Mans 24hrs, though, Quester was back in a Schnitzer 3.0 CSL with Krebs and Alain Peltier, but the car retired from the race. |
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1977-78
Takes out his third ETCC title, with five wins and a 2nd place |
The following year, Quester made a triumphant return to the ETCC, taking out his third title in that championship in an Alpina 3.0 CSL with 125 points, taking five wins alongside Nilsson, Hezemans, Tom Walkinshaw and Patrick Neve, and also sharing the car to a 2nd place once with Umberto Grano. He also made two starts in the WCM in an Osella PA5 BMW with Giorgio Francia and Diulio Truffo, and drove a Division II HAT BMW 320 in a Deutsche Rennsport Meistershaft (DRM) event at the Norisring.
For 1978, once again Dieter went from the ETCC to the WCM, driving a Faltz Preparation BMW 320i with drivers such as Bell, Walkinshaw, Peterson, Stuck, Wolfgang Wolf and Markus HÖttinger, his best results being 3rds at Mugello and Watkins Glen. Another attempt at Le Mans, this time in an Osella PA6 BMW with Walkinshaw and Rad Dougall ended once more in retirement. Some of these races also counted towards the World Championship for Endurance Drivers, in which Quester came equal 76th with 15 points. |
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1978-79
Takes a trip down under to try Bathurst, but teammate Bell crashes |
During 1978, Quester also took his Faltz 320 to 4th in Division II in a one-off DRM race at the Norisring, and in the same car came 12th in the unrelated non-championship Norisring Trophy event. For something completely different, he also teamed up with Derek Bell to drive a Holden Torana in the Bathurst 1000 touring car race in Australia, only for Bell to crash the car after just 5 of the 163 laps. Undaunted, in 1979 Dieter would return for a second attempt, again in a Torana, this time with leading local driver Bob Morris.
For the main part of 1979 though, Quester was on the move again, this time joining the Procar circuit to race BMW M1s. He proved to be competitive, coming 5th at Zolder and 6th at Silverstone, and 7th at Zandvoort and Monza as well as at the Gunnar Nilsson Memorial Procar race at Donington. However, he failed to qualify for Le Mans in a March Racing BMW M1 with Guy Edwards and Ian Grob, but in yet another one-off DRM start came 2nd in Division II in a Ford Capri Turbo at the Salzburgring. |
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1980-81
Leaner years as Dieter makes his way around various series, always competitive |
1980 found Quester competing in Procars once again, but with a 5th at the Österreichring and 6th at the Norisring his only top 6 results he slipped from 12th the previous year to equal 14th with 15 points. In two WCM starts in a BMW M1 entered by BMW France, he took 6th at Mugello with Didier Pironi, and came 14th at Le Mans with Pironi and Marcel Mignot. And in another solitary outing in the DRM he raced a Division I Castrol Österreich BMW M1 at Hockenheim.
In 1981, he left Procars and raced primarily in the World Championship for Drivers and Makes, driving an M1 entered by BMW North America at Daytona with David Hobbs and Marc Surer, taking 4th at Monza in an ORECA M1 with Teo Fabi, finishing 16th at the Nurburgring in a Sauber M1 with Surer, and retiring at Le Mans again for Sauber with Surer and David Deacon. Still with Sauber, Dieter came 8th at the Norisring Trophy, and drove at the Salzburgring round of the DRM in Division I. |
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1982-85
Returns to ETCC in blaze of glory with Schnitzer, taking his 4th title |
After a low-key 1982 in which he did two DRM races in a BMW M1 and retired at Le Mans in a Sauber SHS C6 Ford with Stuck and Jean-Louis Schlesser, for 1983 Dieter returned to the ETCC, and just as in 1977 he did so in a blaze of glory. In a Schnitzer BMW 635 CSi, despite sharing with different drivers such as Stuck, Carlo Rossi, Manfred Winkelhock, and Hans Heyer, Quester finished ten races in the top 5, claiming wins at Monza and the Nurburgring, accumulating 181 points en route to a fourth ETCC crown.
In the 1984 ETCC, though, in the face of the strengthening Jaguar and Rover challenges, Quester finished outside the top 10 in his Schnitzer 635 CSi, recording four podium finishes with Stuck, and 3rd at the Spa 24hrs with Stuck and James Weaver. Things slipped even further in 1985, as Dieter only drove in selected ETCC races, with a number of co-drivers including Emanuele Pirro, Johnny Cecotto, Markus Oestreich, Manuel Fernandes and Luis-Perez Sala, 2nd at the Spa 24hrs being the only result of note. |
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1983-86
Victory at Spa 24hrs amongst attempts at Le Mans and Daytona |
The results picked up slightly in the 1986 ETCC, Quester rebounding to 9th overall with 143 points in his Schnitzer 635 CSi, sharing his car with Otto Rensing, Roberto Ravaglia, Altfrid Heger, Thierry Tassin and Weaver, scoring five podium results including victory in the Spa 24hrs. For the 1987 championship, though, Dieter moved to the Linder team to drive a BMW M3, and after wins at Donington with Winfried Vogt and at Nogaro with Oestreich, took 6th in the standings with 149 points.
Throughout the years 1983 to 1987 Quester also competed in a number of sports car events. In 1983 he raced at Le Mans with John Fitzpatrick and Hobbs in a Porsche 956 but retired, and in 1984 he drove a Lola T616 Mazda in three World Endurance Championship races (at Monza, the Nurburgring and Fuji) and one IMSA event (at the Daytona 24hrs) with the likes of Boy Hayje, Rick Knoop, Pete Halsmer and Ron Grable. |
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1985-88
Consistent in DTM, but takes a win in the last year of the ETCC |
In 1985 Dieter drove a BF Goodrich Porsche 962 in the two early-season IMSA classics at Daytona and Sebring, crashing out at Daytona with Halsmer and John Morton, but taking third at Sebring with Halsmer and Knoop. Later in the year he was meant to race at Le Mans with Max Welti and John Nielsen in a Sauber C8 Mercedes, but the car never started the race after a practice crash. But in 1986 he got his Le Mans start in the Sauber C8, this time with Christian Danner and Henri Pescarolo, but the car retired.
1988 saw Quester focus his attentions mainly on the DTM in Germany, where he once again drove for Schnitzer, this time in a BMW M3. Although he was consistent, taking 9th in the championship with 167 points, a win eluded him. That year, in what was to be the last ETCC, he also competed in three rounds in his Schnitzer M3, retiring at Donington with Ellen Lohr, coming 4th at Estoril with Eric van de Poele, but winning the Spa 24hrs again, this time with Heger and Ravaglia. |
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1989-94
Drops back to Austrian touring cars, winning the title (for the second time) |
From 1989 to 1991 he would continue racing in the DTM, coming 15th in 1989 driving for the Zakspeed team in their BMW M3, scoring 127 points including 3rd place and fastest lap at Mainz-Finthen. In 1990, though, in a BMW M3 Sport Evolution, he dropped to 20th overall with only 20 points, and a return to the Linder team for the 1991 season only saw his results drop further. In 1989, he had also raced at the Daytona 24hrs, where he retired in his Spice SE89P Pontiac shared with Costas Los and Jeff Kline.
After dropping out of the DTM in 1992 and only competing in selected touring car events throughout Europe, in 1993 he went back to the Austrian touring car championship for the first time since 1966, and just as he did 27 years previously, he walked off with the title in a BMW M3. A switch to the German Super Touring championship in 1994 in a BMW 320 brought little success though, Quester finding it hard to match the leading works teams. |
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1993-99
Still busy in his mid-50s, Quester tastes success in IMSA and Group N |
In 1993, aged 54, Quester also placed 20th at the Sebring 12hrs in an Ed Arnold Racing BMW M5 with Chris Hodgetts and David Donohue, and later in the year, in an IMSA Supercar event also at Sebring, finished 7th. The following year he raced at the Sebring 12hrs again, taking 17th in a Pegasus BMW with Halsmer and Oliver Kuttner, and in 1995 Dieter entered four (and started three) IMSA events, sharing a GTS-2 class Prototype Technology Group (PTG) BMW M3 with the likes of Donohue, Halsmer and John Paul Jr.
For 1996, Dieter once again started the year in the GTS-2 class PTG M3, retiring at Daytona with Halsmer and Manfred Wollgarten, but coming 15th outright and 3rd in class with Halsmer, Wollgarten and Donohue at Sebring. After a 16th (and 8th in class) in Texas, Quester then also recorded a 3rd in class at the Daytona 3hrs with Boris Said. But apart from these four outings, he spent most of 1996, and then also 1997, 1998 and 1999 in International Group N racing back in Europe, a relatively low-profile series. |
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1997-98
First forays into FIA GT racing, while always thereabouts in IMSA |
There was more IMSA action for Quester in 1997. In his PTG M3 he retired again at Daytona with Marc Duez, Oestreich and Said, but came 4th in GTS-3 class at Sebring and 3rd in class at Watkins Glen. In the separate IMSA GT championship, where Dieter shared the M3 with Duez, he came 6th in GTS-3 class with 165 points, including four class 2nd places at Lime Rock (where they were 4th outright), Mosport, Pikes Peak and Sebring, and a class win and 8th outright at Laguna Seca.
Also in 1997, Quester made his FIA GT championship debut, coming 15th outright and 3rd in GT2 class at the A1-Ring in an ORECA Chrysler Viper GTS-R with Justin Bell, Derek's son. Then, in 1998, he once again raced in the PTG M3 at Daytona, now part of the US Road Racing Championship, but with Peter Cunningham, Mark Simo and RJ Valentine the car once again didn't finish. One last start for PTG at Daytona the following year, with Simo, Cunningham, Said and Ernie Irvan, also ended in retirement. |
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1998-2000
Career with BMW comes to a close at age 60, but DQ's still racing |
The years 1998 and 1999 saw Quester not only race in Group N back in Europe, but also in the Italian Super Touring championship, where he drove a Red Bull-sponsored BMW M3 for Team Duller Motorsport. But against more professional opposition, Dieter found the going tough, and in 1999 didn't even record a single top ten result. This would prove to be a rather anticlimactic way to end, at age 60, his seemingly never-ending career with BMW, for 2000 would prove to be the first year since 1966 when he did not race a Munich product.
Instead, Dieter teamed up with the Red Bull RWS Motorsport team to race Porsches. At Daytona, now part of the Grand-Am championship, he came 10th overall and 2nd in GTU class in a Porsche 996 GT3-R with Philip Peter, Hans-JÖrg HÖfer, Luca Riccitelli and Hans Willems. In a 911 GT3-R, Quester participated in the Sebring and Silverstone rounds of the ALMS, and in the 996 he also took one class win at the Lausitzring and two class 2nds at Brno and Magny-Cours in the N-GT class of the FIA GT championship. |
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2001-02
Still going strong with Red Bull RWS, takes a class win at Spa |
In 2001 and 2002 Quester has continued racing for RWS, although once again he has been unable to finish the Daytona 24hrs. In 2001 he also raced at Sebring, but also retired there with shock absorber problems. In both years, though, RWS' main efforts have been in the N-GT class of the FIA GTs. Last year, Quester came 4th in class with 52 points, a good result despite missing three rounds, and including class victory in the Spa 24hrs with Norman Simon and Antonio Garcia, and another win at Brno.
In 2002, in a new Porsche 996GT, Quester and Riccitelli started the year with a DNF at Magny-Cours, but since then have finished 7th at Silverstone and 21st at Brno. On a personal note, Dieter has now become divorced from Julianna, but together they had 3 children. In his spare time he enjoys cross-country skiing, cooking, fishing and mountain-biking. He still lives in Vienna, and when asked in 2001 about retirement from motor racing, he replied: "When I have quiet moments I think of stopping, and then I say, 'Are you crazy? What for?'" |
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