Herbert Schultze (racing driver)
Herbert Schultze (born January 23, 1931 in Berlin ; † July 12, 1970 on the Nürburgring ) was a German racing driver who was German touring car champion in an Alfa Romeo three times in a row in the mid-1960s .
Life
Schultze was born in Berlin as the son of the political scientist Georg Schultze and Margarete Bielenberg, a daughter of the architect Richard Bielenberg . In the early 1950s he completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk. In 1958 he started his own used car dealer in West Berlin and specialized in English sports vehicles of the brands MG , Triumph and Jaguar , which he soon began to import as new cars. With this, Schultze quickly made a name for himself in Berlin society as a car dealer for exclusive and sporty cars; his customers included Götz George , Klaus Kinski and Toni Sailer .
In 1961 Schultze took over the commercial agency for Italian Alfa models from "Henne" Wax and in 1961 moved into the Kant garage on Kantstrasse, where he ran a car repair shop parallel to his car dealership on Kurfürstendamm. In 1965 he took Wilhelm Heckel into his business as a co-owner in order to devote himself more to car racing. From then on, the company operated as "Herbert Schultze Automobile OHG".
Career
Beginnings in touring car racing
In 1953, Schultze began to take part in cross-country and orientation drives and in his first year on a VW 1100 he won the DMV winter drive. In 1956 he became a Berlin wagon master. From 1957 he drove in a DKW F91 in several national touring car races. From 1958 onwards, Schultze was supported by the Berlin Alfa dealer “Henne” Wax, who provided him with a Giulietta Sprint Veloce Coupé with a Zagato body. After setting up his own circuit championship for touring cars and GT vehicles, Schultze took part in this new racing series and, from 1961 onwards, achieved first respectable successes with a Giulietta limousine prepared by Karl Foitek in Switzerland. In addition, he also used cars from other brands and drove in the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring in 1963 together with Jochen Neerpasch in a Volvo P1800 and in 1964 with Günther Selbach in a Porsche 904 .
In the 1965 season, Schultze took part in touring car races with a Giulia TI Super and in sports car races of the circuit championship with a Giulia TZ. As an Alfa dealer, the German Alfa headquarters in Frankfurt provided him with a GTA prototype for the 1000 km race . After completing the homologation process , Schultze used the GTA for the first time in the circuit championship at the last race of the season in Wunstorf and won the race straight away.
Successes in the German Circuit Championship
In order to promote the sale of Alfa models, Schultze and Alfa Germany decided to complete a full season program with the GTA in 1966. For this he received a car built by Autodelta , which he prepared for the races in his own dealership. He finished all eight races in his class as the winner and became German champion, tied with Josef Schnitzer in a BMW. In 1967 he was able to repeat this success, this time he had nine wins in ten runs. When he won the championship again in 1968, he was the first German racing driver to celebrate a title hat trick . In this way, Schultze made a decisive contribution to promoting the sporty image of the Alfa Romeo brand and increasing sales figures in Germany.
Alfa factory driver
Thanks to his success, Alfa’s Schultze were provided with Autodelta works cars for major racing events outside of the circuit championship as early as 1966 . For the 1000 km race in 1968 he started for the first time in the new sports car prototype Tipo 33 . From 1969 he concentrated on the increasingly popular sports car races and refrained from defending his touring car title. In 1970 he was finally appointed an Alfa factory driver. At the touring car GP at the Nürburgring, he started on a GT Am , with which he had an accident on the last lap of the race due to a puncture and hit a tree. Schultze died at the scene of the accident.
souvenir
In memory of Herbert Schultze, the Scuderia Avus awards the Herbert Schultze Memorial Cup every year. His memory is also honored by the monument of the Berlin Avus by the Berlin artist Joachim Matz, which was erected in 2005 and on which Schultze's name is highlighted with gold letters and a small Alpha Quadrifoglio .
statistics
Individual results in the sports car world championship
literature
- Michael Heine: Alleggerita. Herbert Schultze Dingwort Verlag, Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-87166-115-0
Individual evidence
- ↑ - Report on Herbert Schultze's fatal accident on the Nürburgring
- ↑ - Description of the Avus memorial plaque
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schultze, Herbert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German racing driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 23, 1931 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 12, 1970 |
| Place of death | Nürburgring |