Audi Sport Joest

Reinhold Joest began competing in hill climbs from 1962, winning two German championship titles before 1967. He moved to circuit racing and was called into the Porsche works programme, achieving numerous results across the early 1970s in sports car endurance events. In 1969 he finished third at Le Mans in a Ford GT40. He finished second overall at Le Mans in 1978 in a Porsche 936, and second overall again in 1980, also winning the 24 Hours of Daytona that same year in a Porsche 936 and claiming the Interserie championship. He concluded his driving career by winning his final race, the 9 Hours of Kyalami in 1981, sharing the car with Jochen Mass.

Joest Racing competed as a privateer Porsche team through the late 1970s and 1980s. In 1982 and 1983 the team won back-to-back DRM championships with Bob Wollek. The team's first Le Mans victory as an entrant came in 1984, when Klaus Ludwig and Henri Pescarolo drove the number 7 Porsche 956 to win. In 1985, the same chassis won again with a different driver crew, making Joest only the second team in Le Mans history to win back-to-back races with the same car.

In 1991 the team won the 24 Hours of Daytona with a Porsche 962.

In 1993, Joest Racing entered the DTM with Opel, running the Opel Calibra. The team scored its first DTM victory for Opel at Donington Park in 1994 with Manuel Reuter. The partnership culminated with the ITC title in 1996, again with Manuel Reuter.

Simultaneously, the team returned to Le Mans prototype racing using the Porsche WSC-95, a car based on a Jaguar XJR-14 chassis. The WSC-95 won Le Mans in 1996 driven by Davy Jones, Manuel Reuter, and Alexander Wurz. In 1997 the same car won again, with Michele Alboreto, Stefan Johansson, and Tom Kristensen — the first of Kristensen's nine Le Mans victories across his career.

In 1998, Joest Racing signed with Audi to become its factory works operation. For the 1999 Le Mans, the team ran the new Audi R8R, finishing third and fourth. From 2000 to 2002, Audi Sport Team Joest won Le Mans three consecutive years with the Audi R8. The programme simultaneously dominated the American Le Mans Series, taking four successive ALMS titles from 2000 to 2003.

Joest introduced diesel power to prototype racing with the Audi R10 TDI, winning Le Mans in 2006, 2007, and 2008 — the first diesel victories at the circuit. The successor R15 TDI was beaten by Peugeot in 2009, but in 2010 all Peugeot entries retired and Joest took a clean sweep of the results. The R18 TDI won in 2011 in difficult circumstances; of three cars entered, only one survived the full distance.

The Audi R18 e-tron quattro hybrid won the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012 and 2013. In 2012, Audi locked out all three podium positions at Le Mans. The drivers' championship that year went to Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler, and Benoit Treluyer. Over the eighteen-year partnership, Joest and Audi combined for thirteen Le Mans victories and four WEC titles.

Audi withdrew from prototype racing at the end of 2016.

In 2017, Joest Racing took over the Mazda RT24-P programme in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Following a development year in 2018, Mazda Team Joest scored its first win with the car at the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen in 2019. The team subsequently won at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Road America, Sebring, and the Daytona WeatherTech 240 — five wins in total. In 2020 the team started from pole at the Daytona 24 Hours and set the lap record, finishing second overall. The partnership with Mazda ended in March 2020.

From 2021, Joest Racing supported Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus in the FIA World Endurance Championship with the SCG 007 LMH Hypercar. In the 2023 WEC season the team recorded podiums at Sebring, Spa, and Le Mans. Both Glickenhaus entries finished the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023, maintaining a perfect finishing record for the manufacturer in the Hypercar era.

Joest Racing accumulated fifteen overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, more than any other private team in the race's history. Reinhold Joest's transition from works driver to team principal produced one of the most enduring records in endurance motorsport, encompassing partnerships with Porsche, Opel, Audi, Mazda, and Glickenhaus across five decades.