1000 km race on the Nürburgring
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The 1000 km race on the Nürburgring (proper spelling mostly: ADAC 1000 km ) is a long-distance or sports car race that the ADAC organized from 1953 to 1983 on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring . From 1984 the races took place on the new Grand Prix track, with one exception in 2010. The initiators of the competition were the later ADAC President Hans Bretz, Paul von Guilleaume and Georg A. Heinemann. Before the reconstruction of the racetrack, 44 laps of 22.810 km or 1003.64 km had to be driven.
history
1953 to 1982
The first race on August 31, 1953, which was classified as the World Sports Car Championship , was won by Alberto Ascari / Giuseppe Farina in a Ferrari 375 MM (4.5 l) in 8:20:44 hours or with an average of 120.268 km / h . Stewart / Salvadori (Jaguar) finished second ahead of the Germans Karl-Günther Bechem / Theo Helfrich on Borgward RS, who covered the 44 laps in 8:50:33 hours, followed by Trenkel / Schlüter (Porsche), Seidel / Peters ( Veritas ) and Lawrence / Stewart (Jaguar). 50 vehicles started the race with a Le Mans start . There was no 1000 km race at the Nürburgring for the next two years before the uninterrupted series from 1956 to 1991 began. In 1955 a 500 km race was held. The 1956 race was won by Schell / Taruffi / Behra / Moss in a Maserati 300S in 7: 43: 54.5 hours (129.8 km). Winner of the racing car class up to 1500 cm³ and fourth in the overall classification were Wolfgang von Trips / Umberto Maglioli with a Porsche 550 RS in 8: 01: 45.9 hours (125.0 km / h).
After the success in the first race in 1953 , Scuderia Ferrari was unable to achieve overall victory in the six following races. The Italian racing team wanted to counteract this fact with a large number of vehicles in 1962. The Scuderia brought four racing cars to the Eifel, three Dino-Ferraris and a 330LM . Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien drove a Dino 256SP with 2.4-liter engine, the Mexican Rodríguez brothers Pedro and Ricardo a Dino 268SP with 2.6-liter eight-cylinder engine. The third Dino was a 196SP driven by Lorenzo Bandini and Giancarlo Baghetti . The 330TRI is driven by Willy Mairesse and Mike Parkes . Gendebien and Hill won the race.
In 1966, the ZDF tried for the first time to transmit television images from a moving racing car and used a Porsche 904 as a camera car, which was driven by journalists Paul Frère and Rainer Günzler . Despite the large recording device that was attached to the driver's right, the car achieved a lap time of 9:36 minutes and a starting position in the midfield during practice. Apparently electrical interference, however, impaired the quality of the black-and-white images sent.
The winners of the 1000 km on the Nürburgring on June 1, 1966 were Phil Hill and Joakim Bonnier on a chaparral with a 5.4 liter engine and an automatic two-speed gearbox in a time of 6: 58: 47.6 hours. John Surtees drove the fastest lap in a Ferrari 330 P3 with 8:37 minutes = 158.832 km / h.
In order to reduce the speed before the start and finish and to increase safety, a "braking curve" was built in 1967, which extended the race distance to 1004.74 km with 91 left and 85 right turns. Despite this "chicane", Joseph Siffert / Vic Elford won in 1968 in a Porsche 908 in the new best time of 6: 34: 06.3 hours, an average of 152.96 km / h.
In 1969 the 1000 km race began for the first time with a so-called Indianapolis start , in which the participants drove an introductory lap on the start-and-finish loop behind a lead vehicle and then started the race with a flying start. Juan Manuel Fangio and race director Erwin Illg jointly approved the race for 65 cars in various categories. Porsche fielded the 917 for the first time , which took 8th place in the overall ranking. Siffert / Redman came first with a Porsche 908/02 in 6: 11: 02.3 hours (162.5 km / h).
After the 1973 oil crisis , the 1974 1000 km race was limited to 33 laps or 753.555 km. It won Jean-Pierre Jarier / Jean-Pierre Beltoise on a Matra-Simca 670 C in 4: 07.24,1 h (182.6 km / h) before Rolf Stommelen / Carlos Reutemann on Alfa Romeo 33 TT 12, with a round of Back in second place. Hans-Joachim Stuck in the BMW 3.0 CSL drove a new touring car lap record of 8: 12.8 minutes (166.8 km / h) in this race, in which sports cars, special grand tourisme cars and special touring cars started. In the following year, the full distance was covered again, and in 1976 there were even three additional laps, a total of 47 and 1073 km.
The last 1000 km race on the “classic” Nordschleife took place on May 30, 1982. The winner after 44 laps was Michele Alboreto / Teo Fabi in a Lancia LC1 in 5: 54: 10.830 hours (170.208 km / h) ahead of Henri Pescarolo / Rolf Stommelen in a Rondeau M382C Ford. Manfred Winkelhock drove the fastest lap in 7: 23.870 minutes (185 , 19 km / h).
During and after the construction of the Grand Prix circuit
During the construction of the new Grand Prix track in 1983, the former start and finish loop and the pit area were no longer available. Therefore, a connecting piece with a short pit lane, gas station and a grandstand (T13) was created between the Hohenrainkurve and the entrance to the Hatzenbach section. The route length was shortened from 22.835 km to 20.832 km. The race continued unchanged over 44 laps, which now corresponded to only 916.608 km (48 laps with 999.936 km would have been almost exactly the nominal distance).
Since the previous year, had Porsche 956 the measure of things in the new group C developed. The young works driver Stefan Bellof decided the team-internal competition for the pole position, which is relatively unimportant for the race, and set the best time with 6: 11.13 minutes. In the race, Stefan Bellof also set the official lap record for this route variant with 6: 25.910 minutes (194.33 km / h), but he had an accident on the 19th lap in the Pflanzgarten section. The car took off and smashed against the guardrail; Bellof was unharmed. The second works car with Jackie Ickx / Jochen Mass won in 5: 26: 34.630 hours (168.402 km / h) ahead of Bob Wollek / Stefan Johansson and Keke Rosberg / Jan Lammers / Jonathan Palmer in a privately entered Porsche 956. After a serious accident by Walter Brun had stopped the race and started again, which led to the distance being shortened to 916 km.
After the Grand Prix track was opened on May 12, 1984, the first 1000 km race on this new, 4.542 km long circuit took place in July. After 207 laps (940.194 km) Derek Bell / Stefan Bellof won in a Porsche 956. For the first and only time, the future Formula 1 world champion Ayrton Senna took part in a Group C race at the wheel of a Porsche 956.
Beginning again in 2000
After 1991 there was a break, it was not until 2000 that 1000 km were driven again in view of the strong German teams of BMW and Audi . The race in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS), the counterpart to the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), was won in the rain by the bizarre front-engine Panoz LMP-1 from Jan Magnussen / David Brabham in front of a BMW V12 LMR , an Audi R8 and the second Panoz.
After a further three-year break, the race has been an integral part of the annual program at the Nürburgring since 2004 and is held as part of the Le Mans Endurance Series (LMES).
A special feature on July 4, 2004 was that the race did not start at the traditional start time on Sunday morning or Sunday lunchtime, but on Saturday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. and was held into the evening. So the spectators in Germany got the rare pleasure of a sports car race at night. The race was scheduled for 195 laps (1003.8 km), the changeable weather reduced the lap times. When the 6-hour mark was exceeded, the race was waved off after 180 laps, whereby a special regulation of the series organizer ACOs was applied, which also ended the race prematurely in the following years. The winners were Pierre Kaffer / Allan McNish in 6: 00.32.645 hours (154.2 km / h) ahead of Jamie Davis / Johnny Herbert .
Continuation from 2010
After the previously established Le Mans Series no longer had the race on the calendar in 2010, the Düsseldorf ADAC local club DAMC 05 continued the ADAC 1000 km race Nürburgring as part of the Oldtimer Festival in the tradition and on behalf of the ADAC, now as Event with older vehicles, again on the Nordschleife and the addition "classic".
The winners were Daniel Schrey and Wolfgang Pohl in the Porsche 911 Carrera RS against Frank Schmickler , Ralf Schnitzler and Patrick Simon .
In the following two years the race was not held. As part of the 3-hour race of the Blancpain Endurance Series 2012 at the Nürburgring, it was announced that the 1000 km race would be revived in 2013. In 2014 the race was held as part of the Blancpain Endurance Series. In 2015 the race was part of the FIA World Endurance Championship . In 2021, the 1000km race will again be held as a classic event on the Nordschleife.
Serious accidents on the Nordschleife
Serious accidents were not absent on the inadequately secured Nürburgring-Nordschleife until 1971. In 1964 the Englishman Brian Hetreed (Aston Martin) and the Frankfurt Rudolf Wilhelm Moser ( Porsche 904 ) had a fatal accident during training; the Sicilian Vincenzo Arena, whose AC Cobra hit two trees, survived with several broken bones. In the 1000 km race in 1965, Honoré Wagner from Luxembourg was killed when his Alfa Romeo fell down a steep slope.
In 1970 the Finn Hans Laine (24) burned in his car after straying from the track during training in the Antonius beech section. In the same year, the Formula 1 drivers refused to start at the Nürburgring, whereupon u. a. Guard rails were installed and the previous so-called protective ditches were replaced by flat edge strips. The first fatal accident of a racing driver after the conversion work of 1970/71 occurred in 1975 when Walter Czadek from Saarbrücken had an accident while training for the 1000 km race due to a burst tire in the Antoniusbuche section.
In 1981 the Swiss Herbert Müller died after crashing his Porsche 908 Turbo into a Porsche 935 parked at the edge of the track in the Kesselchen area. Why Müller went off the track in front of the Kesselchen and crashed into Bobby Rahal's parked Porsche could never be precisely clarified. Both the 908 and the 935's tanks burst upon impact; a few hundred liters of gasoline ignited and turned the scene of the accident into a hell of a flame. Neither the marshals who rushed up nor the crews of four rescue vehicles were able to contain the flames. The wreck burned for 15 minutes. Herbert Müller had no chance of escaping this inferno; According to the rescue doctors, the Swiss died on impact.
Overall winner
literature
- Jan Hettler: 1000 kilometer race, 1953-1983. The ADAC sports car world championship races on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife , Delius Klasing Verlag GmbH, 1st edition 2015, ISBN 978-3-667-10310-9
- Thora Hornung: 50 years of the Nürburgring - curve labyrinth for experts. Görres-Verlag, Koblenz 1977.
- Jörg-Thomas Födisch: Nürburgring - The chronicle of the legendary race track. Verlagsunion Erich Pabel - Arthur Moewig, Rastatt 1991, ISBN 3-8118-3065-1 .
- Programs for the ADAC 1000 km race.
- “ Auto, motor und sport ”, various editions.
- Jörg-Thomas Födisch, Michael Behrndt, Matthias Behrndt: ADAC 1000 km race - Nürburgring World Endurance Championship since 1953. Heel Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-89880-903-0 .
Web links
- Official website of the new ADAC 1000 km
- Official website of the 2008 race
- News and reports about GT and sports car racing
- Results lists ( Memento from May 25, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
Individual evidence
- ↑ ADAC 1000 km classic ( Memento of the original from May 9, 2012 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , DAMC 05 homepage, accessed on April 26, 2010.
- ^ ADAC 1000 km classic , FHR homepage, accessed on April 26, 2010.
- ↑ Official result of the ADAC 1000km race classic ( Memento of the original from September 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , PDF file, accessed September 14, 2010.
- ↑ News , accessed September 24, 2012.
- ^ Homepage of the Nürburgring , accessed April 4, 2015.
- ↑ "Yes, there will be a real 1000km race on the Nordschleife!" - Organizer confirms the date 2021 , accessed June 13, 2020.
- ↑ on the death of Herbert Müller
