The BMW M1 PROCAR Season 1979

During the 8 races of the 1979 Procar season, the five best-placed Formula 1 drivers from Friday practice received a BMW works M1 for qualifying and the starting grid for the following GP on Sunday and started on Saturday according to their practice times in front of the field of qualified private drivers had to qualify for the following starting grid on Friday afternoon. The factory M1s were painted white with a diagonal BMW Motorsport stripe (light blue-dark blue-red) – from the front left to the rear right. The F1 pilots had the same start number as on their F1 cars. Exception: the drivers from Ferrari and Renault were banned from starting the Procar races by their teams.

The races of the 1979 season

The results of the 1979 PROCAR season

This picture was taken at the end of the first season of the Procar series:

Niki Lauda won the championship with his privately owned M1, not least because of the comfortable points-lead, that he had developed after his fifth race. Particularly in the last two races, Hans-Joachim Stuck was gaining on him. Thanks to coming second place in the final race, Niki Lauda won the championship.

The scores for the races were awarded as follows: 20 points for the winner, 15 points for 2nd place, 12 points for 3rd place, 10/4th, 8/5th, 6/6th, 4/7th, 3/8th, 2/9th and 1 point for 10th place.

As best private owners, Niki Lauda and Hans-Joachim Stuck each received a brand new BMW M1. Clay Regazzoni and Markus Höttinger each received a BMW 528i for second place. Nelson Piquet and Toine Hezemans each received a BMW 323i for third place.

Please click on the race number in the first row of the table for information on the desired race. Or select the race in the race overview further up this page.