Martin Schanche

Martin Schanche (born 1 January 1945 in Trondheim), nicknamed "Mister Rallycross", is a former racing driver and Norwegian politician. Nowadays he is working on new combustion-engine projects.

Martin Schanche
1998: Martin Schanche (left) and his long time arch-rival Swede Kenneth Hansen
Nationality	Norwegian
Born	January 1, 1945 Trondheim
FIA ERX Division 1 (1997–2010) Championship
Years active	1997–2001
Former teams	Martin Schanche Racing
Starts	46
Wins	8
Podiums	15
Best finish	3rd in 1997, 1998
FIA ERX Division 2 (1982–1996) Championship
Years active	1982–1996
Former teams	Martin Schanche Racing
Starts	134
Championships	3 (1984, 1991, 1995)
Wins	51
Podiums	76
FIA ERX TC Division Championship
Years active	1979–1981
Former teams	Martin Schanche Racing
Starts	30
Championships	2 (1979, 1981)
Wins	11
Podiums	19
FIA European Rallycross Cup
Years active	1977–1978
Former teams	Martin Schanche Racing
Starts	13
Championships	1 (1978)
Wins	4
Podiums	8
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	1985–1988
Teams	Strandell Porsche, Team Lucky Strike Schanche Racing
Best finish	25th 1988
Class wins	0

1981: The first public mentioning of the nickname "Mister Rallycross"

1992: Schanche in his Ford RS200 E2 en route to victory in Portugal

Biography

Schanche was born in Trondheim, as the son of a German WW2 airplane pilot, who lost his life in a plane crash only three months later, and a Norwegian mother. The little boy grew up as an adopted child of a Norwegian couple at the tiny village of Leirpollskogen in Tana, the most northern part of Norway. Today he lives in Drøbak, together with his German-born wife Birgit and their daughter Melissa, a Norwegian Weightlifting Champion of the categories for females. Martin Schanche has also two other children from a former marriage, a daughter by the name of Elisabeth, and a son named Martin junior, well known in the Norwegian rallying scene.

He started his racing career rather late, only in 1972 when he was already 27 years old. Due to his attacking driving style he was quickly nicknamed "Villmannen fra Tana" ("The Wild Man from Tana") by his fellow Norwegian competitors. In 1975 he won a silver medal in the Norwegian Ice Racing Championships. Between 1976 and 2001 he competed in Rallycross, and became the FIA European champion of 1978, 1979, 1981, 1984, 1991 and 1995, as well as the vice-champion for another eight years. With his 74 main category wins Schanche is still yet the undisputed record holder concerning the amount of overall victories in rounds counting towards the FIA European Championships for Rallycross Drivers. Beside his rallycross campaigns and four World Sports Car seasons he was a starter of the 1980 Rally Sweden, the 1982 Rally of Great Britain, and failed to set a new track record in the 1984 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), due to a flat right front tyre.

Since retiring from motorsport he has embarked on a second career as a municipality politician in Frogn for the Progress Party. In 2003 he was the subject of a lot of nationwide attention after he slapped the chin of his political opponent Torgeir Micaelsen of the Labour Party at the end of a school debate in Drammen because Micaelsen, during the debate and in front of the public, had called him a coward.[1] That attention made him an often imitated character in Norwegian radio. As of 2006, he also has been working as a consultant for Prodrive on the work of Subarus WRC-cars.[2] While active in rallycross, Schanche himself engineered transmissions and differentials for his cars. His company later on manufactured parts and modified parts for rally- and rallycross-cars.[3] Nowadays Schanche is working on projects with concepts for new combustion-engines (see External links section below).

Schanche is holder of a helicopter license and has operated his own helicopters. In 2000 he was involved in a crash in which his daughter was slightly injured.[4]

Racing record

Key: DSQ = excluded from whole event; DNS = did not start; NC = not classified for points; SUS = suspended; ( ) = dropped score, due to championship rules

Complete FIA European Rallycross Cup results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	ERC	Points
1977	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort RS 1800	AUT1 DNS	NED1 DNS	ITA DSQ	SWE1 DNS	FIN NC	BEL1 NC	SWE2 DNS	NED2 DNS	BEL2 DNS	GER 3	AUT2 DNS	18th	12
1978	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort RS 1800	AUT 6	ITA 2	SWE 2	FIN NC	BEL 1	NED 1	FRA 1	GBR 1	GER 2			1st	131

TC Division

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	ERX	Points
1979	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort RS 1800	AUT 2	ITA 3	FIN 4	SWE 5	FRA 1	BEL 1	NED 4	GBR 1	GER 2			1st	130
1980	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort RS 1800	AUT 16	ITA 1	SWE 1	FIN 3	DEN 5	BEL 3	NED 1	NOR 5	GBR 3	FRA 6	GER 1	2nd	138
1981	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort RS 1800 Turbo	AUT NC	SWE 2	FIN 1	DEN 2	BEL 11	NED 1	FRA 1	NOR 4	GBR 1	GER 10		1st	121

Division 2

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	ERX	Points
1982	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort RS 1800 Turbo	AUT 7	SWE 6	FIN 3	FRA 9	BEL 6	NED 1	NOR 1	GBR 1	GER 3				2nd	102
1983	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort RS 1800 Turbo	AUT 10	SWE 1	FIN NC	FRA 5	BEL 3	NED 1	NOR 5	GBR NC					4th	69
1984	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort XR3 Turbo	AUT 5	SWE 2	FIN 1	FRA 1	BEL 1	NED 1	GBR NC	GER 1	NOR 1				1st	149
1985	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort XR3 Turbo	AUT 6	FIN 6	SWE 6	FRA 2	BEL 2	NOR 1	GBR 1	GER 1	NED 6				2nd	138
1986	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort XR3 Turbo	AUT 7	FIN 1	FRA 1	BEL 4	NED 1	NOR 1	GBR NC	GER DNS	SWE 6				2nd	114
1987	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford RS200 E2	AUT NC	SWE DNS	FIN NC	ESP NC	FRA 12	IRE DNS	BEL 1	NED 1	NOR 22	GBR 1	GER 4		6th	78
1988	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford RS200 E2	ESP 5	AUT 2	SWE (DSQ)	FIN (7)	IRE 2	FRA 6	BEL 1	NED (10)	NOR (6)	GBR 1	GER 5		2nd	109
1989	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford RS200 E2	ESP (3)	AUT 1	SWE (6)	FiN 2	IRE 2	FRA 1	BEL 2	NED 2	NOR (6)	GBR (9)	GER 2		2nd	125
1990	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford RS200 E2	AUT (6)	SWE 4	FIN 2	IRE 3	FRA (6)	BEL 1	NED 1	NOR (11)	GER 1	GBR 1			2nd	125
1991	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford RS200 E2	POR 1	AUT 1	FIN 1	FRA (2)	IRE (DSQ)	SWE (6)	BEL (6)	NED 1	NOR 1	GBR 1	GER 1		1st	140
1992	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford RS200 E2	GBR 1	AUT DNS	POR 1	FIN DSQ	SWE SUS	FRA SUS	IRE SUS	BEL NC	NED 5	NOR 1	GER 1		4th	92
1993	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort RS2000 T16	AUT 3	POR 6	FRA (NC)	IRE 5	SWE (NC)	FIN DNS	BEL 1	NED 6	NOR 4	GER 3			5th	90
1994	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort RS2000 T16	AUT (16)	POR 2	FRA 2	IRE 3	GBR 1	SWE (5)	FIN 1	BEL 4	NED 1	NOR (6)	GER (5)		2nd	122
1995	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort RS2000 T16	AUT (DSQ)	POR (6)	FRA 1	SWE 2	GBR 2	IRE (3)	BEL 1	NED 1	NOR 1	FIN 1	CZE 1	GER (6)	1st	154
1996	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort RS2000 T16	AUT 7	POR 7	FRA 15	SWE DNS	IRE DNS	GBR (NC)	BEL 9	NED (NC)	NOR 4	CZE 1	GER 4		9th	76

Division 1^*

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	ERX	Points
1997	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort RS2000 T16	AUT 1	FRA 1	POR 5	GBR DSQ	SWE (6)	FIN 1	BEL (NC)	NOR 1	CZE (6)	GER 3	3rd	107
1998	Martin Schanche Racing	Ford Escort RS2000 T16	AUT 4	POR (6)	FRA 3	SWE 3	GBR DNS	FIN 1	BEL 2	NOR (5)	GER 1	CZE 4	3rd	113
1999	Martin Schanche Racing	Opel Astra G T16	CZE DNS	FRA (NC)	POR 7	SWE 15	FIN 11	BEL 12	NED 10	NOR 9	GER NC		11th	38
2000	Martin Schanche Racing	Opel Astra G T16	POR 5	FRA 5	CZE (NC)	SWE 7	BEL (NC)	NED 6	NOR 1	POL 4	GER 5		5th	90
2001	Martin Schanche Racing	Opel Astra G T16	FRA (5)	POR 2	AUT (6)	CZE 1	SWE 4	BEL 2	NED 5	NOR 3	POL (7)	GER (10)	4th	94

^* Division 2 was rebranded as Division 1 in 1997.

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Class	No	Tyres	Car	Team	Co-Drivers	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1985	C2	97	A	Strandell 85 Porsche Type-934 3.3 L Turbo Flat-6	Strandell Porsche	Stanley Dickens	-	DNS	DNS
1986	C2	89	G	Argo JM19 Zakspeed 1.8L Turbo I4	Team Lucky Strike Schanche Racing	Martin Birrane Torgjer Kleppe	1	DNF	DNF
1987	C2	117	G	Argo JM19B Zakspeed 1.8L Turbo I4	Team Lucky Strike Schanche Racing	Will Hoy Robin Smith	5	DNF	DNF
1988	C1	117	G	Argo JM19C Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8	Team Lucky Strike Schanche Racing	Robin Smith Robin Donovan	278	25	16

Publications

• Martin Schanche, by Sverre Amundsen, Racing Revyen 1979, 126 pages, Norwegian language, ISBN 82-990531-0-2.
• Martin Schanche – i fyr og flamme, by Rolf Nordberg, Cappelens Forlag 1981, 136 pages, Norwegian language, ISBN 82-02-09490-9.
• Martin – så glad, så sint, så fort…, by Sverre Inge Apenes, Godbok 1986, 158 pages, Norwegian language, ISBN 82-7398-000-6.
• Martin – Historien han aldri har fortalt, by Asle T. Johansen, Fri Flyt AS 2016, 240 pages, Norwegian language, ISBN 978-82-93090-46-5.

References

1. Hanse, Arild A. (26 July 2006). "Risikerer fengsel". Drammens Tidende (in Norwegian). Retrieved 23 March 2010.
2. "- Skal lete lenge etter større vriompeiser".
3. Racing, Martin Schanche. "Martin Schanche Racing".
4. Av BJØRN K. BORE og FRODE HANSEN. "Schanches helikopter styrtet". dagbladet.no.

External links

Media related to Martin Schanche at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Schanche working on revolutionary combustion-engine (in Norwegian)
• Schanche working on unique engine (in Swedish)