Harald Ertl
Nation: | Germany | ||||||||
Automobile world championship | |||||||||
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First start: | Grand Prix of Germany 1975 | ||||||||
Last start: | 1978 Austrian Grand Prix | ||||||||
Constructors | |||||||||
1975–1977 Hesketh · 1978 Ensign | |||||||||
statistics | |||||||||
World Cup balance: | no World Cup placement | ||||||||
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World Cup points : | - | ||||||||
Podiums : | - | ||||||||
Leadership laps : | - |
Harald Ertl (born August 31, 1948 in Zell am See ; † April 7, 1982 near Gießen ) was an automobile racing driver who had Austrian citizenship , but from 1974 took part in his races with a German driver's license. Together with Arturo Merzario , Brett Lunger and Guy Edwards, he is one of Niki Lauda's lifesavers in his serious accident on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring on August 1, 1976.
Life
Life before motorsport
Born in Zell am See as the son of a civil engineer , Ertl attended boarding school in Bad Aussee . Two other Formula 1 drivers, Helmut Marko and Jochen Rindt , were his schoolmates there.
In 1964 the family moved to Mannheim for professional reasons . After graduating from high school, Ertl studied business administration in Karlsruhe .
Athletic career
Ertl first came into contact with motorsport in 1969. With borrowed money, he bought an Austro Formula Vee. He was able to record six wins in his first year. In 1970 Kurt Bergmann brought him to the Kaimann team. He immediately finished second in the Austrian Formula Vee championship. Until 1975 he was successful in various racing series: Formula Vee European Cup, Formula 3 , European Touring Car Championship , German Automobile Circuit Championship and Formula 2 . From 1975 he drove in Formula 1 . From 1974 Ertl started with a German racing driver license and was therefore a German according to the FIA sports law. In 1979 he opened the “Harald Ertl Racing Show Mannheim”, which was held on the Maimarkt site in Mannheim until his death . In 1981 Ertl took a break from racing in order to prepare for the Renault 5 Turbo European Cup the following year. Parallel to his racing activities, Ertl worked as a freelance journalist and PR man.
formula 1
In 1975 Ertl dared to step into Formula 1 with a Hesketh 308 he had bought himself and immediately achieved great success. In 1977 he stopped in Formula 1 due to dissatisfaction with the material available at Hesketh. In 1978 he still started sporadically with the Ensign and ATS - Ford racing teams , but finally gave up Formula 1 after a total of 21 races in order to devote himself to the German racing championship . In 1980 he contested his last Formula 1 race at Hockenheim with an ATS - without taking the qualification hurdle.
German racing championship
Ertl is considered to be the co-founder of the turbo era in the German racing championship, in which he achieved a total of eleven victories. In 1977 he drove in Division II alongside Albrecht Krebs in the sister car as the first driver with the BMW 2002 Turbo, a Group 5 touring car with turbo engine from Schnitzer Motorsport . In 1978 he became German racing champion in a BMW 320 Turbo from the Schnitzer team, making him the first champion with a turbo-powered vehicle. In 1979 he switched to the Zakspeed team as a Ford works driver alongside Hans Heyer , Klaus Ludwig and Klaus Niedzwiedz and drove a Ford Capri Turbo. In 1979 he developed a Group 5 Lotus Europa with a 1.4-liter Zakspeed turbo engine on his own .
Deadly accident
On April 7, 1982 Ertl was with members of his family on the flight from Mannheim to Sylt , where they wanted to spend the Easter holidays, when the machine crashed in Central Hesse after a technical defect. Harald Ertl died in the rubble of the Beechcraft Model 36 Bonanza (BE36) , his wife and son were seriously injured. His sister-in-law, his brother-in-law who had operated the machine, and his niece were also killed. Harald Ertl was buried in the Mannheim- Neckarau cemetery.
statistics
Individual results in the sports car world championship
season | team | race car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14th | 15th | 16 | 17th |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1972 | Alpina |
BMW 2800 CS BMW 2002 |
BUA | DAY | SEB | BRH | MON | SPA | TAR | ONLY | LEM | ZEL | WAT | ||||||
DNF | DNF | ||||||||||||||||||
1975 | KMW Racing | KMW SP30 | DAY | MUG | DIJ | MON | SPA | BY | ONLY | ZEL | WAT | ||||||||
DNF | |||||||||||||||||||
1977 | Max Moritz car dealership | Porsche 935 | DAY | MUG | DIJ | MON | SIL | ONLY | VAL | BY | WAT | EST | LEC | MOS | IMO | SAL | BRH | HOK | VAL |
DNF | |||||||||||||||||||
1978 | Toyota Germany | Toyota Celica | DAY | SEB | MUG | VALLEY | DIJ | SIL | ONLY | LEM | MIS | DAY | WAT | VAL | ROD | ||||
DNF | |||||||||||||||||||
1979 | Zakspeed | Lotus Europe | DAY | SEB | MUG | VALLEY | DIJ | RIV | SIL | ONLY | LEM | BY | DAY | WAT | SPA | BRH | ROA | VAL | ELS |
DNF |
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Motorsport magazine - website: Harald Ertl. From: www.motorsport-magazin.com , accessed on December 17, 2013 .
- ^ Munzinger website: Niki Lauda. From: www.munzinger.de , accessed on December 17, 2013 .
- ↑ a b Speedweek website: Memories of Harald Ertl. From: www.speedweek.com , accessed December 17, 2013 .
- ↑ Racing Sports Cars - Website: Harald Ertl. From: www.racingsportscars.com , accessed December 19, 2013 .
- ↑ a b Motorsport-Total - website: Harald Ertl (driver). At: www.motorsport-total.com , accessed on December 17, 2013 .
- ↑ Racingsportscars - website: DRM Bergischer Löwe Zolder 1977. In: www.racingsportscars.com. Retrieved May 29, 2020 .
- ↑ Teamdan - Internet site: Race results and overall placements of the DRM 1978. (No longer available online.) In: www.teamdan.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved December 17, 2013 .
- ↑ Teamdan - Internet site: Race results and overall placements of the DRM 1979. (No longer available online.) In: www.teamdan.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved December 17, 2013 .
- ^ Grave of Harald Ertl in the Find a Grave database
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Ertl, Harald |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian-German racing driver |
DATE OF BIRTH | August 31, 1948 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Zell am See , Salzburg , Austria |
DATE OF DEATH | April 7, 1982 |
Place of death | near Giessen , Germany |