Found in a 1948 issue of Automobil Revue, I was impressed by this report from a tireless Bernese racing driver who, together with a co-driver, contested the 24 Hours of Spa in 1948 in an open MG (TC? Kompressor?).
The two participants were called Fortmann and Anner and they were the only Swiss drivers in this international race in Belgium at the time. They were in fourth place in their group until just before the end, but a clutch mishap caused them to drop back to sixth place.
But let's let the racing driver Hardy Fortmann himself "speak" and show how different racing was back then compared to today!
"It was my first endurance race, but it certainly won't be my last, that's how much I enjoyed it and was captivated by it. From a sporting point of view, I rate this type of race much higher than anything I've ever done before. It's just a shame that more Swiss people didn't take part. Because the experiences and impressions conveyed by these 24 hours, an event that is tailored to the body, so to speak, of a real sports rider, will remain indelibly etched in your memory in every detail. What did it matter that we could hardly hold ourselves up afterwards because we were so tired? A race of this kind not only requires physical resilience, it also requires nerves of steel. As we saw with our own eyes, not everyone was able to keep it together.
The Belgians gave us a very warm welcome, and even during the race itself the spectators repeatedly showed us their sympathy, not least perhaps because we helped ourselves and worked and toiled ourselves, while others left it to the mechanics. My wife was the only helper in our pit; she faithfully and bravely persevered at her difficult post for 24 hours - and a bit longer - she got us the times of the others', she prepared coffee, took care of our food and prepared the'camp site' where we rested a bit during the reliefs. Of course, there was no question of sleeping.
Four hours before the end, my co-driver Anner came into the pits: oil in the clutch. We started to build and tried to get rid of the problem by pouring in gasoline. To no avail, after one lap I had to stop again. I opened the clutch again and poured gasoline in, then Anner pushed off. Lo and behold, now it was working again, so Anner was able to do his laps until the end.
Of course, we had worked out a plan and a specific lap time that we wanted to keep to throughout the race, with slight variations up and down depending on the time of day. And, of course, the car was never fully driven. Anyone who broke this elementary rule - and there were some who did - was penalized with elimination.
Despite the dreadful weather with rain and fog that turned about three kilometers of the course into night even during the day, the 'big ones' set a hell of a pace in the first few hours, as if it were a race lasting just one or two hours. Is it any wonder that the retirements, almost all caused by accidents, followed one another in an almost uninterrupted series? At dawn on Sunday morning, the "car corpses" lying at the side of the road presented a somewhat strange and uncomfortable sight. The fatal accident involving Englishman Stallebrass, who was reportedly driving his first race, was also caused by overspeeding on the bends. His car overturned five times in the direction of travel, i.e. forwards. Incidentally, the fair play, the exemplary sporting attitude of the English, which manifested itself time and again, deserves special mention. The meticulous preparation of the HRG team, whose three cars, equipped with transmitters and receivers , were not only in constant contact with each other, but also with the pits, was astonishing. In addition to more serious matters, they also entertained with ... jokes. Well, why not? It keeps you awake!
And the organization? It could have been a little better, at least in some respects. During the day, the trackside service worked well, but at night the damaged wagons, some of which were still protruding into the track, were not marked with lights, which almost proved fatal for me. When driving at night and in the fog, everyone tried, incidentally, to follow someone else in order to find their way better in the dark.
All in all, it was a great sporting experience that spontaneously made me want to take part in more long-distance races like this."
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