The weather gods did not bode well, with snow forecast down to the lowlands. The weather didn't have to be eaten (or enjoyed) as hot (or cold) as it was cooked. During the three days of racing, the conditions gradually improved, but Saturday once again demanded a lot of stamina from the fans, as the temperatures were cool and light rain clouded the view and the fun. Seen in this light, the 15,000 spectators counted is probably a good result.
No world record again
This year it was supposed to succeed, that was the announcement. 949 classic cars should have completed a lap of the Hockenheimring. In the end, there were 723 vehicles on Saturday evening, a respectable result given the modest weather.
The organizers also thanked the participants for taking on long journeys despite the adverse conditions and for bringing their lovingly maintained cars to Baden.
Dwarves again the biggest
An inexperienced spectator would hardly have guessed that the battle of the dwarves was a regularity event. It looked more like fierce duels and sometimes things went wrong. This was the case in the second race on Sunday, for example, when Wahl on an NSU TT and Kühnel on an Austin Mini Cooper didn't quite see eye to eye in the Parabolika on the first lap, which ended with a flying rear-view mirror and three badly undulated vehicles. There were three, because Edouard's Austin Cooper S was also pushed into the barriers by Wahl and Kühnel, who had gone off course. Edouard loudly threw off his gloves and cursed for several minutes about the mishap. The fact that he also slammed his helmet onto the roof of the little Briton probably did more damage to the latter than to the already badly dented Cooper.
As always, the dwarves proved to be an entertaining bunch. Around fifty vehicles from three racing series, including Mini Cooper, NSU TT, DKW F11, Steyr-Puch 650TR, Abarth OT and TC, Autobianchi A-112 and Fiat 127, completed their laps with a lot of noise and set impressive lap times of just over two minutes.
The winner of the Coppa Abarth Mille Trophy was Manfred Beckers in the first race and Joop Schouten in the second. In the British Car Trophy, Sven-Olaf Homann was the most consistent twice, while Heinz Fleischauer and Roland Müller topped the NSU consistency rankings once and once respectively.
However, the spectators were far less interested in this than in the interesting battles for positions that developed between different vehicles. Hubert Nagl in a Fiat Abarth 1000 TC and Olaf Schley in a Simca Rallye 2 fought a thrilling duel, which was great entertainment for the spectators.
Close race in the juniors
The practice times for the Formula Junior Monoposti as part of the FIA Lurani Trophy raised hopes of an exciting race. John Fyda in his Lotus 22 had distanced Pierre Tonetti in the Brabham BT6 by just 1.5 tenths, followed a few tenths behind by the experienced driver Urs Eberhardt in the Lotus 27.
The tide then turned in the race, as Eberhardt won both races, followed by Fyda and Gelmini in the first race, while Amez-Droz was able to work his way up to second place ahead of Gelmini in the second race. In both races, the top three were within 2.5 seconds of each other, which shows how evenly matched the racing was here.
Loud sports cars
While the small Osella sports cars of Kalb and Frenz were still ahead in the first race for the Petronas Cup of SuperSports, the powerful McLaren M8F with a displacement of 8.4 liters took the lead in Sunday's race. Peter Hoffmann drove to victory ahead of Michiel Campagne in the truest sense of the word.
The field also included some rather unorthodox vehicles, such as a Ginetta G12 that lost its entire rear section in the first race but was still able to continue.
Historic sports cars and limousines in the all-round competition
A visual highlight were the racing cars from 1947 to 1965, which raced against each other in the NK HTGT. Georg Stummeyer's Ford GT40 had already shown impressive dominance in practice, which he was then able to translate into a clear victory in the first race with a lead of almost 15 seconds over the Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport of Michiel Campagne, who was one of the multiple starters.
The tide then turned in Sunday's race when Stummeyer spun in front of the Corvette in the Mercedes corner and had to retire from the race. Campagne took the lead and opened up a reassuring lead over second-placed Michael Ehrlich in the Bizzarrini GT 5300, who was able to fend off the Jaguar E-Type Vorköpers and the Shelby Mustang Waaijenberg.
Once again, the lightweight Lotus Elans were impressive, making it into the top positions despite their lack of power. In general, the two rounds of the NK HTGT presented a picture that was typical of a national championship in the 1960s. Saloons battled against large series sports cars, with specialized racing cars pulling away at the front.
Youngtimers as crowd favorites
Once again, the vehicles in the Youngtimer Touring Car Challenge, in which cars from the seventies were responsible for thrilling racing, provided many splashes of color. Half a dozen BMW M1s strengthened the field this year and the French were also back with their exotic vehicles, including the pretty Jide 1600 from 1973.
With a qualifying time of 1:48, Daniel Schrey in a Porsche 935 K3 had already shown in practice that there was no way around him and he won both heats. While Jan Bot in the BMW March M1 IMSA car took second place in the first race, Franck Metzger in the well-placed Cesca Grac sports car was not to be denied the second-highest step on the podium in Sunday's race.
The tough but largely non-contact duels - for example between the actually very different Ford Falcon (Marc Louail) and BMW M 635 CSI (Mathijs Bakker) - which sometimes lasted many laps, are likely to remain unforgotten among the spectators.
In honor of Jim Clark - Formula 2 demonstration run
A special moment was provided by a pack of almost 20 historic Formula 2 cars that circled the Hockenheimring in honor of two-time Formula 1 world champion Jim Clark, who died 45 years ago in a Formula 2 race at the Hockenheimring. The cars also commemorated their drivers of the time, including Jackie Stewart, Ronnie Peterson, Tim Schenken, Reine Wisell, Rolf Stommelen, Silvio Moser, Gerry Birel, J.P. Jassaud, Xavier Perrot, Edy Cheever, Klaus Ludwig, Stefan Bellof and Edi Taveri. It was also nice to see Jo Vonlanthen driving his own F2 from back in the day around the circuit.
Racing history in motion
Once again, the "Race History on Track" group brought the old days back to life. Magnificent formula cars loudly transported spectators back to the past, when Formula 1 cars still experimented with twelve cylinders or monstrous winged engines.
A vehicle from this demonstration class, the Embassy Hill GH2 Formula 1 by Franz Guggemos, was then awarded the prize for the most beautiful exhibit in the Formula class by Prof. James Kelly and 20 of his students, while the McLaren M6b by Dr. Alexander Lienau and the BMW M1 Procar by Dimitri Cuyvers received the award for the most beautiful sports car and GT respectively.
Lots of activity in the paddock
The open paddock is one of the beloved features of historic motorsport. The pit lane and paddock were already well frequented early on Saturday morning, although most of the vehicles were still covered up or had not even arrived yet...
Despite the wintry temperatures, the racing air attracted many visitors. As soon as an engine started howling, a cluster of visitors immediately formed around the mechanics, cameras were pulled out and held aloft to take a snapshot home with them.
And the future?
While Georg Seiler, the managing director of Hockenheim-Ring GmbH, was very satisfied with the event and emphasized the variety and proximity to the public of the Jim Clark Revival, some spectators may still wish for a little variety within the weekend, but above all from year to year.
Where have the pre-war cars gone? How about reviving the former one-make cups (Alfasud, R5 or VW Golf), where have the historic Formula 1 racers gone? Or why not bring the Group C sports cars to Hockenheim? One or two innovations would perhaps ensure that even more people make the pilgrimage to Baden in 2014 ...
