There is hardly a motorsport event that takes place on less space than the Indianapolis Oerlikon event. The oval is just 400 meters long with four banked turns at an angle of 44.5 degrees. Roughly speaking, the entire racing event on 27 July 2017 took place on an area around 180 meters long and 150 meters wide.
That would be about two or three football pitches on which the race track, the racing cars and the estimated 4,000 spectators were spread out. In addition, there was the cyclists' paddock and the catering area, which catered for the physical well-being of participants and visitors with sausages and beer (and other drinks).
Uncertain weather
The original date of July 25, 2017 had to be dropped when the meteorologists announced bad weather.
The alternative date two days later, however, promised better conditions for the 15th Indianapolis Oerlikon, even if some participants looked anxiously at the sky and the number of visitors was somewhat lower than in previous years due to the uncertain weather.
Nine vehicle fields
Organizer Georg Kaufmann had once again put together a diverse starting field with nine groups of vehicles, four of which were two- or three-wheelers, while the others were for cars built between 1929 and 1991.
The composition always changes slightly from year to year, so in 2017 spectators were able to admire a Ferrari 340 America and an Allard J2, among others, which were not present the year before.
An original sprint car
A 1930 sprint car with a Ford four-cylinder engine and only the bare essentials on board was particularly fitting for the occasion. Over 80 years ago, this racing car was driven at over 150 km/h on the beach at Pendine Sands on the south coast of Wales. Of course, it had to slow down a little on the narrow Oerlikon oval.
In general, the stresses on a car in the tight banked corners are not negligible, the centrifugal force pushes the car to the ground and many a car owner has had to make adjustments to the suspensions in preparation.
Le Mans winner in a Maserati
Marco Werner, the 1995 24 Hours of Daytona winner and 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, paid a visit to Zurich-Oerlikon. He sat in Kaufmann's Maserati 250 F and drove a few brisk demo laps.
Audi works driver Werner has a soft spot for old racing cars and can always be spotted on board a wide variety of makes.
Ändu Pauli from the Swiss television program Tacho was also on the road in a classic car. He was allowed to drive Kaufmann's Lagonda.
Enthusiastic audience
The many motorcycle and classic car enthusiasts who attended were once again delighted with the event and took the opportunity to meet old friends and watch the racing cars of yesteryear on the track while enjoying sausages and bread.
The nine historic racing cars completed their laps three times, with speedy cyclists racing wheel-to-wheel with the latest equipment in between.
So now we can look forward to the 16th running of this friendly event in Zurich-Oerlikon.
