Like many Austrian drivers, Marko, whose racing career had been delayed while he gained a doctorate in law, cut his teeth on Super Vee racers. In 1969 he drove the works McNamara in F3, but he had already tried his hand in sports cars, on which he concentrated the following year.

    Driving Martini Racing's Porsche, Marko soon made his mark, finishing third at Le Mans in 1970 and then winning the classic race with Gijs van Lennep a year later. Luck generally deserted Helmut in other major events, but he handled a little Lola T212 sports car entered by Karl von Wendt to devastating effect in 1971, winning the Auvergne Trophy, the Cape 3 Hours and three rounds of the European 2-litre championship. By this time he had made a solid start to his Grand Prix career, his initial hire-drive agreement with BRM proving so satisfactory that he soon became a full team member.

    For the 1972 season Marko had a BRM contract for Formula 1, and a seat in the Alfa Romeo sports car team, for whom he scored second places in both the Targa Florio and the Osterreichring 1000 Km and thirds at Daytona and in the Nurburgring 1000 Km. His F1 season started well with fourth place in the non-championship Brazilian GP, but in the French GP at Clermont Ferrand a freak accident saw a stone thrown up by another car shatter his visor and embed itself in the unfortunate driver's eye. Happily Marko was able to bring the car safely to a halt, but the sight of the eye could not be saved, and a potentially fine Grand Prix career was lost.

    Marko subsequently stayed within the sport working for Renault Austria, and also guided the fledgling career of the ill-fated Helmuth Koinigg, while he later helped Karl Wendlinger to make such an impact on his entry to Formula 1. Over recent seasons Marko has run a successful Formula 3000 team, taking Jorg Muller to the title in 1996.

(c) 'Who is Who' by Steve Small, 2000