The A.D.A.C. 1,000-Kilometre Race - Nurburgring
Moss the Absolute Master
Adenau, June 7th.
When the cars and drivers began arriving at the Nurburgring the day before practice commenced, the Eifel countryside was looking its best, bathed in warm sunshine, and even those people who hate the fantastic circuit and loathe the 1,000-kilometre sports-car race, could not help being in a good mood. As previous reports in Motor Sport have pointed out, the running of the annual 1,000-kilometre race has always left a lot to be desired, such things as timekeeping in practice, speed differential between competing cars, calibre of drivers and so on all showing a lack of imagination. However, in spite of the character of the meeting being unchanged, there was the usual enormous and varied entry of cars ranging from the latest 340-b.h.p. V12 works Ferrari down to a private 190SL Mercedes-Benz roadster, and drivers from Moss and Brooks down to “Johann Seif” and “Giovanni Saponi”!
The race can be viewed in two ways, an open scratch race for all competitors and a series of class races run concurrently, and normally the outright winner would come from the large sports-car class, though after the performance of the Porsches in the recent Targa Florio this was no longer a certainty, and the Germans had given much publicity to the fact that Porsche were leading the Manufacturers’ Championship at the beginning of the third round, which was the 1,000-kilometre race. Practice went on all day Thursday and all day Friday, and again on Saturday morning, so that there was plenty of time to prepare cars, modify them, mend them or use them, and as touring cars were allowed to be used for practice to save wearing out the racing cars no driver could complain of lack of opportunity to familiarise himself with the 22.8. kilometres of mountains that make up the Nurhurgring. Various parts of the circuit had been resurfaced, so that much of the terrors for suspension systems were now removed, and the tricky S-bend at Wippermann had been reshaped and edged with rounded kerb stones.
In Class 1 the full Ferrari team were represented by three 12-cylinder Testa Rossa cars, as used in the Targa Florio, and driven by Behra/Brooks, Hill/Gendebien and Allison/Gurney. From Scotland came two Erurie Ecosse cars, a Lister-Jaguar driven by Gregory/ Ireland and a Tojeiro-Jaguar driven by Flockhart/Lawrence, and from England a lone works Aston Martin DBR1/300 driven by Moss/Fairman. Originally David Brown had no intention of entering any cars, but having won the race for the two previous years he could hardly refuse the organisers’ plea to send at least one car, so Reg Parnell and his mechanics look the actual car that had won last year. To complete the big class there was the sleek green Lister-Jaguar of Taylor & Crawley, driven by Michael Taylor and Peter Blond, Graham Whitehead’s DBR1/300 Aston Martin, with Naylor as co-driver, a Centro-Sud Maserati 300S driven by the Portuguese pair Cabral/Nogueira Pinto, and the 1958 V12 Testa Rossa Ferrari of the Americans Carveth/Geitner.
Class 2 was for sports cars from 1,501-2,000 c.c. and in this were the two works RSK Porsches, with the latest wishbone independent rear ends and 1,600-c.c. engines, driven by Maglioli/Herrmann and von Trips/Bonnier. The Dino 196 Ferrari of the Scuderia Eugenio Castellotti was driven by Cabianca/Scarlatti, and there were two 1,600-c.c. twin-cam M.G.s of the Fitzwilliam Racing Team, driven by Martyn/Graham and de Selincourt/Carnegie, as well as an A.C.-Bristol owned by an American Air Force Officer, Lt.-Col. Cockrell, who had the German von Saucken as co-driver. Buxton and Parnell had a Lotus Eleven fitted with an over-bored single-cam Climax engine of 1,530 c.c., and to complete the entry there were two interesting experimental Porsche coupes. The first was a new prototype 1600 Super with 90 b.h.p., new brakes, racing Solex carburetters and a rev.-lintit of 6,500 r.p.m., still using the basic push-rod engine, and the second car was a G.T. Carrera fitted with disc brakes on the front. Both cars were fitted with modified rear suspension which consisted of a wide single-leaf transverse spring, pivoted in the middle below the rear-axle casing and joined to the swing axles by short links, this extra spring giving a double-rate suspension in conjunction with the normal torsion-bars. Although both these cars were Gran Turismo coupes they had to run in the sports-car class as the G.T. classes were for strictly homologated cars, and these two were experimental prototypes. Of this class the only serious contenders in the general picture were the two 1600 RSK Porsche Spyders, the rest being more concerned with a class victory.
Class 3 was for sports cars 1,101-1,500-c.c., and had Barth/de Beaufort in a 1958 works RSK Porsche, with low-pivot swing-axle rear end, Seidel/Shelby in the former’s private RSK Porsche, the Swiss drivers Walter/Heuberger in a new RSK Porsche, and Goethals/Romain in a similar car. A Lotus Fifteen with twin-cam Climax engine, driven by Piper/Green, looked like keen opposition to the German cars and there were two OSCAs to help it: a new and much modified car driven by de Tomaso/Colin Davis and a 1958 standard car driven by the two American girls Isabella Haskell/Denise McCluggage. The de Tomaso car had alloy wheels, disc brakes, alloy top wishbones, lightened frame, modified rear axle location and a lightweight body that hinged up in a complete front half and a complete rear half, in very English style.
Class 4 was for 751-1,100-c.c. sports cars and had the interesting entry of a Lola-Climax driven by Ashdown and the designer Eric Broadley, this successful little English car making it’s first European appearance. There were three Lotus Elevens, the one driven by Campbell-Jones/Horridge making its second visit to the Nurburgring, and Hicks/Power with a similar car and a blue one owned by the Frenchman Lefebvre and driven by himself and the American Monaco. The only other entry was that of Brugger/Meyrat, two Swiss drivers with a D.K.W. three-cylinder “special,” being a neat little two-seater built from production D.K.W. parts.
The final sports group was Class 5 for 351-750-c.c. cars and comprised two factory D.B.s and three French-owned Stanguellinis. One D.B. was the bizarre coupe used in the Targa Florio and driven by Laureau/Armagnac, using an early fan-cooled flat-twin engine, and the other was a new open two-seater driven by Masson/Bartholoni, this having a new push-rod inclined o.h.v. engine cooled solely by air ducted from a slot in the projecting nose cowling.
In order to bring the number of entries up to a figure that would not be lost when spread around the length of the Nurburgring there were three Gran Turismo categories, one comprising two Ferrari coupes from the Equipe Belge, a 300SL Roadster, a 190SL and a TR3, this being Class 6. Then came ten Porsche Carreras, two 1600 Supers and a lone twin-cam M.G.-A. this being a Fitzwilliam team entry and driven by Fletcher/Dashwood. In the last class, which was an Alfa-Romeo Giulietta benefit, fourteen various models from Zagato-bodied Veloces to ordinary Sprints were opposed by a Lotus Elite. This was the first appearance of an Elite at the Nurburgring and was a private venture of Lumsden, with Riley as co-driver.
As can be imagined, with all this lot practising, the Nurburgring was a very busy place for two and a half days, and the paddock was the usual scene of much work by the mechanics. To begin with the outstanding thing was the time put up by the Bonnier/von Trips Porsche, which was 9 min. 40.5 sec., a considerable improvement over the existing sports-car lap record and which was seconds faster than the Aston Martin and all the works Ferraris. It was not until Saturday morning that the Ferrari drivers concluded their now continual arguments as to what they wanted in the way of handling and road-holding, though at no time did they seem to want to modify the 12-cylinder engines, which must have been some consolation to the engineers. Finally the Behra/Brooks car was sorted out and the English driver did 9 min. 39 sec., and then the Frenchman did 9 min. 37.4 sec., which was the fastest of all practice, so the other two Ferraris were given similar spring and shock-absorber settings. During all this “chassis tuning” there had been an occasion when the rear shock-absorbers were more powerful than the coil-springs and the suspension was staying compressed as if on a ratchet; this caught out Phil Hill on a fast bend near Flugplatz and he slid into violent contact with a bank, so that the sounds of panel beating rang from the Ferrari garages for some time after that. The Taylor/Blond Lister-Jaguar was also undergoing a face-lift for Taylor had had a misunderstanding with a fence post when entering the paddock. These sort of troubles were repairable, but the two American girls were unable to mend their OSCA when a gearbox shaft broke, so they had to withdraw.
Altogether 68 cars were due to line up for the Le Mans type start and they were arranged in descending order of practice times, irrespective of any mistakes made by the timekeepers, such as giving the Lola tenth fastest time with 10 min. 11.6 sec. when in actual fact it had not broken 11 min., and giving one of the private Carreras a time almost equal to the works special Carrera. However, in 1,000 kilometres of racing, or 44 laps of the Nurburgring, these discrepancies at the start would not count for much, though they could make the line-up look a little foolish.
As 9 a.m. approached on Sunday morning and the cars lined up before the pits there was panic in the Porsche team, for their number one car, which was to be second on the grid, broke its engine while being warmed up. In the almost impossible time of 31 min. the mechanics had removed the broken 1,600-c.c. engine and replaced it by a spare 1,500-c.c. unit, and with barely five minutes to go before the start the car was running again and was driven up to its place at the head of the line of cars, next to the number one Ferrari. Meanwhile permission had been obtained to put Barth/de Beaufort in this car and to give their low-pivot swing-axle car to Bonnier/von Trips, both cars now being in the 1,500-c.c. class, leaving only one works Porsche in the larger class.
Reading along the line of drivers awaiting the signal to run to the cars and start this 44-lap race there were Brooks, Barth, Gurney, Moss, Hill, Herrmann, von Trips, Gregory, Whitehead, Ashdown, Cabianca, Shelby, Linge, Harzheim, Lawrence, Walter, Romain, and so on. In spite of showing a certain lack of interest in the race during practice, Moss was his usual terrific self when the flag fell, and the works Aston Martin took off so quickly it looked as though no one else was going to race. Obviously Aston Martin were planning an identical race to last year, with Moss going as hard as he could from the start, making up sufficient time for a slow co-driver to do his stint without losing the lead, for the rules of the race forbade any driver to drive for more than three hours at a stretch. Thanks to Moss this tactic had worked in 1958, but just why he should have been made to do the same thing again this year was hard to understand. That he was capable of a repeat performance was shown on the opening lap, when he pulled out an 18-sec. lead by the time he got back to the pits, and following came Gurney way ahead of the third man, who was Phil Hill, with Whitehead, Herrmann, Barth, Brooks, von Trips and Cabianca following. The Lola was going extremely well and keeping up with a number of bigger cars, and Campbell-Jones was going splendidly in his Lotus Eleven. Gregory had made a very poor start with the Scottish Lister and had got away amongst the Giuliettas and things, but he passed something like 35 cars on the opening lap! Long after everyone had gone away on their second lap Davis arrived with the OSCA, having slid off the road into a ditch and spent a long time getting the car out. He was now so late that de Tomaso decided to withdraw the car, and already an Alfa T.I. saloon and a Stanguellini had retired.
Moss went on in the same way on lap two and the general order did not change, though the field was spreading out into groups, especially amongst the G.T. cars, and Porsches and Giuliettas were going past in bunches. The black M.G.-A of Fletcher/Dashwood disappeared when its final-drive pinion stripped, and Power went off the road without damage to himself when he selected neutral instead of top gear on a fast downhill bend in Hicks’ Lotus Eleven. The little Swiss D.K.W. Special stopped at the pits to change plugs. After three laps Moss was returning up the road behind the pits as Gurney went by the front on his way down to the Sudkerve, and there was now a long pause before Hill, Whitehead, Herrmann and Barth arrived. The Walter/Strahle Carrera was leading its class comfortably but in the Giulietta class two Zagatos were nose to tail, being those of Berney/Foitek and Schulze/Mahle, while the private Elite was running splendidly in fifth position. Before he had completed his fourth lap Moss was already lapping the slower cars and still drawing away from Gurney, so that he was disappearing round the Nordkerve by the time Gurney arrived at the pits. Next time round he was 47½ sec. in front, which meant that he had appeared over the horizon, gone past the pits, round the Sudkerve, back up behind the pits and round the Nordkerve while Gurney was still coming up the Tiergarten rise leading to the pits plateau. Whitehead was going well and holding fourth place just behind Hill, and then came the three Porsches of Herrmann, Barth and von Trips, followed by Brooks in the third works Ferrari and Shelby in another Porsche. The Taylor/Blond Lister stopped to have its bonnet catches attended to, one of the Belgian G.T. Ferraris stopped to look at the rear suspension, and the French-owned Lotus Eleven stopped and changed drivers. In the general category there was no actual racing going on, the event having now settled down into one of high-speed reliability and endurance, though Gregory dropped out on lap six when the Lister broke a universal joint in a drive shaft, probably due to “bottoming” in some of the dips.
It was now a question of sitting and watching to see how many laps Moss was going to cover without stopping and how big a lead he had built up, for he was just going on and on, making everyone else look like amateur drivers. As the Aston Martin used up its fuel load Moss went faster and faster, rapidly approaching the lap record, which he finally broke on lap eight with a time of 9 min. 41 sec., the old record being 9 min. 43 sec., and, not content with this, he went even faster and on his 11th lap he recorded 9 min. 32 sec. While Moss was showing himself to be the absolute sports-car master on the Nurburgring, others were vainly trying to keep up, while some were in the pits with trouble or were retiring. The Carnegie/de Selincourt M.G. was in trouble with a blown head gasket, the sleek green Lister was still having the bonnet fixings coming adrift, the Dino 196 Ferrari blew its engine up, the Buxton Lotus broke the front of its chassis, and the leading Giulietta was having engine trouble, having been revved to 8,000 r.p.m. in its endeavours to keep the lead.
On lap 10 the Lola was still in 11th position, which was truly remarkable, and Ashdown had got down to nearly 10 min. 30 sec. for the lap and was way ahead in the 1,100-c.c. class. He was leading the Ecosse Tojeiro and then they both stopped at the pits for fuel, Broadley taking over the little car and Flockhart the big one. On the next lap the serious business of pit stops and driver-changes amongst the leaders began when Gurney pulled in for fuel and Allison took over, and while the car was stationary Hill, Herrmann and Whitehead went past, but the next time round the private Aston Martin stopped for fuel and Naylor took over. Meanwhile many of the smaller cars had been stopping and the Lotus Fifteen, which had been running very well, refused to start when Green took over from Piper. There was nothing wrong with the car, which made the situation more frustrating; it was merely that the battery was just not man enough to turn the hot twin-cam Climax engine. After changing batteries and considerable delay, the car was restarted and went back into the race sounding as healthy as ever.
Among the G.T. Porsches there was some close racing going on for the Carreras of Walter/Strahle and Busch/Heinz were nose to tail and stopped for fuel and a driver change at the same time in adjacent pits. The Schulze/Mahle Zagato Giulietta was now comfortably leading its class, the Swiss pair having burst their engine, and the Elite was not only still running without any signs of trouble but was second in the class. Even the owner had given it only five or six laps’ life on the Nurburgring, and here it was still going strong after 11 laps. While Allison was settling down to his opening lap he was passed by Brooks and Barth, and at the end of 12 laps the order was Moss, Hill, Herrmann, Whitehead, Brooks, Barth, Allison, von Trips and Shelby, all on the same lap, but at the end of the next lap von Trips failed to appear as his near-side rear wheel had broken off as he rounded the corners before Dottinger-Hohe. He came to rest without damage and proceeded to walk off the course to a nearby garage to borrow some tools so that he could fit the spare, and two laps later he re-appeared at the pits to have a new wheel fitted and for Bonnier to rejoin the race.
On lap 14 Hill drew into the Ferrari pit for fuel, tyres and to hand over to Gendebien, and Herrmann came in to hand over to Maglioli; then a piece of typical Ferrari planning seemed to take place, for while Hill was still at the pits Brooks also came in to hand over to Behra, and for a moment chaos reigned. All this time Moss was going on and on, showing no signs of stopping, even though the Aston Martin mechanics were standing at the ready on each lap. After completing only two laps Naylor brought Whitehead’s Aston Martin back to the pits having broken the gear lever off and the car was retired, and Flockhart slid off the road near Brunnchen in the Tojeiro at about the same time, and then the leading Giulietta stopped with a broken rear brake pipe, and though a temporary repair was made it did not last and the car was withdrawn, leaving the Lumsden/Riley Elite in the lead of the class. At the end of 15 laps Moss was so far ahead that it was difficult to believe that the others were racing against him, and then came Barth in the 1,500-c.c. Porsche, yet to make a pit stop. Allison, Gendebien, Brooks, Maglioli and Shelby, and then came Moss again, starting his 16th lap, after which Barth drew into the pits to hand over to de Beaufort and refuel, and the Porsche dropped to sixth place. Bonnier was a long way back and when he stopped to have the steering checked, as it was getting stiff, he lost even more ground, and the Lola which had been going so well now did not reappear, for Broadley had slid off the road into a ditch. He could not get out unaided so enlisted help, and in consequence was disqualified. Taylor had been trying to make up time for the delays with the bonnet fasteners and overdid things at Flugplatz and went right off the road, to land upside down in a field, being trapped under the car until help arrived. He was incredibly lucky to get away with a dislocated shoulder and no other injuries. The fast and tricky Flugplatz section was taking its toll for already the Swiss driver Meyrat had crashed heavily, later to die from his injuries.
At long last, after 17 laps of non-stop driving, Moss came into the Aston Martin pit, and while mechanics changed the rear wheels he refuelled the car from two gravity hoses, and Fairman was in and away before anyone else was even in sight. Now the character of the race changed for not only did Fairman have the whole Ferrari team in full cry behind him, but it began to rain, and when he finished his first lap in heavy rain he had 5 min. 20 sec. lead over Gendebien, Allison and Behra, who were running in line-ahead formation, with the Porsches of Maglioli, de Beaufort and Seidel some way further back, and a lap behind came two more private Porsches, of Walter/Heuberger and Goethals/Romain. On lap 19 Fairrnan’s lead was only 5 min. 06 sec. and Behra had overtaken Allison. Another lap and Fairman had lost another 9 sec., and so the torture for Moss went on, with all his valuable lead being relentless whittled away.
At half-distance, or 22 laps, the Aston Martin lead was down to 4 min. 10 sec., and Moss could have wept, but on the next lap he could have been forgiven for committing murder for the Aston Martin was overdue and Bonnier went by making signs that Fairman had spun off the road. He had lost control on a downhill section before Brunnchen and was backwards in a ditch and sweating blood to get the car back on the road unaided. First Gendebien went by the pits and into the lead to start his 24th lap and then Behra went by before the unhappy Fairman arrived and stopped at his pit; the car was undamaged and, just as Maglioli went past, Moss took over again, leaving his co-driver to explain things to the Team Manager.
The track was drying out fast and Moss lost no time in catching the Porsche and set out after the two Ferraris, which were now over a minute ahead, the third Ferrari having stopped to refuel, change all wheels and let Gurney take over. The way Moss closed on the two Ferraris was quite fantastic and gave the impression that the Aston Martin was a far superior car, whereas in actual fact it was the sheer brilliance of the Moss ability that was doing it. Behra responded to the challenge and closed on Gendebien, but the Aston Martin was getting closer all the time and was only 30 sec. behind at the end of lap 26, Gendebien returning along behind the pits, Behra being in the Sudkerve and Moss passing the front of the pits. Although there was still a huge field running and some of the G.T. Porsches were running only seconds apart, and the Elite was still leading its class, all eyes were on the three leading cars. By the time they had reached the Karussell on lap 27 Behra had passed his team-mate but at the end of the lap the three cars were nose to tail and Moss was trying to get past Gendebien. This he achieved before the end of lap 28, now behind and close enough to Behra to be able to pick his moment for getting back into the lead, but he found no opportunity during the 29th lap and the two cars appeared over the brow of the hill from Tiergarten side by side, and Behra then pulled into his pit, letting Moss go by into the lead.
Another typical piece of Ferrari planning became apparent as Gendebien also drew into the pits, and there was pandemonium as both cars had all the wheels changed and were refuelled, Brooks and Hill rejoining the race. On this lap Maglioli also stopped, the brakes were adjusted, and Herrmann took over, and de Beaufort coasted in with a dead engine; it was started up and the noise was so awful that without further ado it was wheeled away to the dead-car park to join the RSK of Goethals, which had been off the road and damaged a cylinder head.
At the end of 31 laps Moss was comfortably in the lead and Brooks had let Hill go by into second place as he was only doing the race under sufferance, not liking the busy traffic-driving, and reckoning that one Ferrari in second place was as good as any other. In fourth place came Gurney, losing ground due to clutch slip caused by oil leaking out of the rear main bearing, and behind him came the Maglioli/Herrmann Porsche, all the rest of the runners having been lapped. With the regulation forbidding a driver to do more than three hours’ continuous driving Moss had to do some careful planning so that he could do the last period of the race, so at the end of lap 33 he stopped and refuelled and handed back to Fairman, this being achieved before the Ferraris appeared, but as Hill started his 34th lap he was only 1 min. 38 sec. behind the Aston Martin, and in one lap he had reduced that to 49 sec., so once more Moss had to sit in the pits and suffer. On the 35th lap Hill took the lead and Fairman returned to the pits, having let Moss have the required amount of rest, and before Brooks appeared Moss had dragged his co-driver out by the arm, leapt in and was away, now only 22 sec. behind Hill. Barring accidents, everything was under control, for Moss could now drive to the finish, had nine laps to do and knew he could outdrive Hill and that Brooks would not put up a fight.
While all this excitement had been going on Seidel had broken the engine on his Porsche, and three of the Carreras were sounding very rough but still going as well as ever, while the Elite had not missed a beat and the third twin-cam M.G. had succumbed to ignition trouble. Amongst the troubles of the many there were some cars that were still running regularly, the two Belgian G.T. Ferraris, though the earlier one of Bianchi/Dernier was proving hard work to drive due to inferior handling, the Campbell-Jones/Horridge Lotus Eleven which was leading its class and running faultlessly, the 3-litre Maserati of the Portuguese pair and the V12 Testa Rossa of the American drivers, while the young Mexican driver Rodriguez and the American Levine were keeping the prototype 1600 Super Porsche going like a clock — and it had lapped the Elite. The experimental Carrera which had had its Porsche disc brakes replaced by Girlings the day before the race had worn its pads out and Linge and Pucci had lost a lot of time having them changed.
It was now just a matter of time before Moss caught Hill, and as he started the 39th lap he tried to get by on the inside of the North Turn but just failed, and after following the Ferrari down through the twists and turns of Hatzenbach he went by near Flugplatz and finished the lap firmly in the lead. Never missing a beat the Aston Martin reeled off the remaining laps and, in spite of overwhelming odds, Moss won the 1,000-kilometre race for the second year running and Aston Martin scored their third successive victory. As an improvement over previous years the race was stopped as soon as Moss had won and the class winners did not have to go on and complete the full 44 laps. The race had almost been a repeat of 1958, though this time the Ferrari team were broken up by the 1600 RSK Porsche of Maglioli/IHerrmann, thus keeping the Stuttgart firm ahead in the World Championship. While completing the last lap the American 3-litre Ferrari slid off the road and stuck in a ditch, which was very bad luck, having run the whole race and been consistently in the first dozen. Naturally the Moss/Fairman Aston Martin won the big sports-car class, Maglioli/Herrmann won the 2-litre class, Walter/Heuberger won the 1,500-c.c. class with their private RSK, Campbell-Jones/Horridge won the 1,100-c.c. class, and the smaller sports cars were so far behind that giving them class wins hardly seemed justified. The two Belgian Ferraris dominated the big G.T. class and the 1,600-c.c. G.T. class saw a close finish between five Carreras that finished on the same lap. With every possible credit to the drivers Lurnsden and Riley, who had also prepared the car, the Elite won the 1,300-c.c. class in front of considerable Alfa-Romeo opposition, and finished the race without putting a wheel wrong.
Results:
1,000 Kilometre Race – Nurburgring – 44 Laps – Dry-wet-dry.
1st: S. Moss/J. Fairman (Aston Martin DBR1/3200) 7 hr. 33 min. 18.0 sec. 132.8 k.p.h.
2nd: O. Gendebien/P. Hill (Ferrari V12 TR) 7 hr. 33 min. 59.0 sec.
3rd: C. A. S. Brooks/J. Behra (Ferrari V12 TR) 7 hr. 36 min. 45.0 sec.
4th: U. Maglioli/H. Herrmann (Porsche 1600 RSK) 7 hr. 40 min. 57.0 sec.
5th: D. Gurney/C. Allison (Ferrari V12 TR) 1 lap behind.
6th: H. Walter/A. Heuberger (Porsche 1500 RSK) 2 laps behind.
Nurburgring Natters
Admittedly the Aston Martin tactics paid off, as they did last year, but surely it would make winning more easy if they found Moss a co-driver of higher calibre. To run a single-handed race two years running is enough to take years off his life.
It is to be hoped that the Lotus firm will give every credit to the privately-owned Elite and the old Lotus Eleven of Campbell-Jones, for they both won their class and brought much honour to the Chapman firm.
The regular and trouble-free run of the two Swiss drivers Walter and Heuberger with the former’s private RSK Porsche, which finished sixth overall and won the 1,500-c.c. class, shows what can be done with a production sports/racing car.
After giving much publicity to the Porsche factory’s chances in the World Championship the A.D.A.C. profited by having a gate of 230,000 people, much to the chagrin of the A.v.D., who have moved the German G.P. to the Avus track because they thought it was not possible to attract big crowds to the Nurburgring any more.
The TR3 Triumph driven by the American servicemen Ballard and Russell afforded them great fun until one side of its front suspension collapsed. Undaunted, they stripped it at the pits and fitted parts “borrowed” from a parked TR3. Although still running at the end they were too far behind to be classified. The American-owned A.C.-Bristol was crashed on the opening lap, its owner getting away unhurt thanks to being thrown clear, but the car was a write-off.
The Piper/Green Lotus Fifteen was running well on the last lap when the right-hand rear radius-rod broke, and Keith Green had to finish the lap holding the rear suspension together with his rather tired hand.
How rude can you get — Moss had disappeared from the Nurburgring bare minutes after the race finished, leaving his co-driver to collect the silverware that evening. Adding insult to injury, the Aston Martin team arrived very late for the official prize-giving. — D.S.J.