Inside Rothmans Porsche – Manfred Jantke, Helmut Flegle and Jürgen Barth – Le Mans 1985
Jürgen Barth joins the Porsche brain trust in their Le Mans pit box. Barth, the son of former F1 and Sports Car ace Edgar Barth has been deeply involved with Porsche as an engineer and race driver. Note he is not in a team uniform and is also wearing the International Racing Press Association armband secured through his belt. I.R.P.A was an organization founded by veteran photographer and writer Bernard Cahier to identify working journalists and aid in their accreditation. It shows that while Barth was deeply embedded in the Porsche team, he was also a writer reporting on their progress. A telephone mounted on a wood panel is hanging on the back wall of the pit box. Although probably still functional it is a relic from Le Mans history. Previously, the telephone was a direct line to the signal station at the Mulsanne corner, the point furthest away on the track. Before radio communications it allowed teams to talk to their members stationed at the corner who could relay relay race information back to the main pits and also display pit boards with instructions to the drivers on track.
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