Martin Schanche

 ( Official ) 

Martin Schanche (born 1 January 1945), nicknamed "Mr. Rallycross", is a Norway former racing driver and politician.

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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 Municipality, 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 politician in Frogn Municipality 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. 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 WRC-cars. 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. 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.

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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

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Complete FIA European Rallycross Cup results

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

! style="background:#FFFFBF;" 1st ! style="background:#FFFFBF;"

131

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Complete FIA European Rallycross Championship results

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TC Division

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

! style="background:#FFFFBF;" 1st !style="background:#FFFFBF;"

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 !style="background:#DFDFDF;"

2nd !style="background:#DFDFDF;"

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

! style="background:#FFFFBF;" 1st ! style="background:#FFFFBF;"

121

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Division 2

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

! style="background:#DFDFDF;" 2nd ! style="background:#DFDFDF;"

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

! style="background:#FFFFBF;" 1st ! style="background:#FFFFBF;"

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

! style="background:#DFDFDF;" 2nd ! style="background:#DFDFDF;"

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

! style="background:#DFDFDF;" 2nd ! style="background:#DFDFDF;"

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

! style="background:#DFDFDF;" 2nd ! style="background:#DFDFDF;"

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

! style="background:#DFDFDF;" 2nd ! style="background:#DFDFDF;"

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

! style="background:#DFDFDF;" 2nd ! style="background:#DFDFDF;"

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

! style="background:#FFFFBF;" 1st ! style="background:#FFFFBF;"

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)

! style="background:#DFDFDF;" 2nd ! style="background:#DFDFDF;"

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) ! style="background:#FFFFBF;"

1st ! style="background:#FFFFBF;"

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

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Division 1^*

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 ! style="background:#FFDF9F;"

3rd ! style="background:#FFDF9F;"

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 ! style="background:#FFDF9F;"

3rd ! style="background:#FFDF9F;"

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.

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Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

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Publications

• Martin Schanche, by Sverre Amundsen, Racing Revyen 1979, 126 pages, Norwegian language, .
• Martin Schanche – i fyr og flamme, by Rolf Nordberg, Cappelens Forlag 1981, 136 pages, Norwegian language, .
• Martin – så glad, så sint, så fort…, by Sverre Inge Apenes, Godbok 1986, 158 pages, Norwegian language, .
• Martin – Historien han aldri har fortalt, by Asle T. Johansen, Fri Flyt AS 2016, 240 pages, Norwegian language, .

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External links

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

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