Career

After karting, Jelinski moved to the German Formula Three Championship

German Formula Three Championship

The German Formula Three Championship – currently titled the ATS Formel 3 Cup – is Germany's national Formula Three series. In the hierarchy of motor racing formulae, Formula Three is placed between national Formula Renault and championships such as GP2...

 in 1978 and European Formula Super Vee

Formula Super Vee

Formula Super Vee was a type of open-wheel motor created to act as a platform for the promotion of VW products, playing much the same role in the 1970s as formulae such as Formula Renault play today. The idea for Formula Super Vee is generally attributed to Josef Hopen, who worked as the Special...

 in 1979 finishing 4th. In 1980 he won the German F3 championship and finished 13th in the European championship. He repeated his German F3 championship in 1981. He moved to Formula Two

Formula Two

Formula Two, abbreviated to F2, is a type of open wheel formula racing. It was replaced by Formula 3000 in 1985, but the FIA announced in 2008 that Formula Two would return for 2009 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship...

 in 1982 and finished 12th. In 1983 he made 4 F2 starts and began a transition to sports cars that would last the rest of his career. In 1984 he made 6 World Sportscar Championship

World Sportscar Championship

The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992.The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance and road racing events in Europe and North America with dozens of gentleman drivers at the grid,...

 starts and two DTM

Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters

The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters is a touring car racing series based in Germany, but also with rounds elsewhere in Europe....

 starts. He captured his first World Sportscar Championship win in 1986 driving for Brun Motorsport

Brun Motorsport

Brun Motorsport GmbH was a Swiss auto racing team founded by driver Walter Brun in 1983. They competed as a Porsche privateer team in sports car racing for their entire existence, running in a multitude of international championships. They notably won the World Sportscar Championship in 1986 and...

 and moved to Joest Racing

Joest Racing

Joest Racing is a racing team that was established in 1978 by former Porsche works racer Reinhold Joest...

 in 1987. He continued with Joest until the 1991 24 Hours of Daytona

24 Hours of Daytona

The 24 Hours of Daytona, currently known as the Rolex 24 Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on a combined road course, utilizing portions of the NASCAR tri-oval and an infield...

, which he won with teammates Hurley Haywood

Hurley Haywood

Hurley Haywood is an American race-car driver who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1977 , 1983 and 1994 and is the most successful driver at the 24 Hours of Daytona with 5 wins . He won the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1973 and 1981...

, "John Winter"

Louis Krages

Louis Krages, more commonly known by his pseudonym John Winter, was a German racing driver and businessman....

, Henri Pescarolo

Henri Pescarolo

Henri Pescarolo is a former racing driver from France. He participated in 64 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 22 September 1968. He achieved one podium, and scored a total of 12 championship points...

, and Bob Wollek

Bob Wollek

Bob Wollek , nicknamed "Brilliant Bob", was a race car driver from Strasbourg, France. He was killed on March 16, 2001 at age 57 in a road accident in Florida while riding a bicycle back to his accommodation after the day's practice sessions for the following day's race, the 12 Hours of...

. He moved to DTM full-time that year driving an AZR Audi

Audi

Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....

 to 10th in points. He retired from full-time racing in 1992, but returned for the 24 Hours of Le Mans

24 Hours of Le Mans

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the world's oldest sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since near the town of Le Mans, France. Commonly known as the Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency, race teams have to balance speed against the cars' ability to run for 24 hours without sustaining...

every year until 1995, and has since occasionally come out of retirement for one-off appearances.

External links

• Frank Jelinski at Driver Database
• Frank Jelinski photos at The Motor-Racing Picture Collection