Paul Thiel (racing driver)

Paul Thiel in the EMW R1 / 53 Sport at the Leipzig city park race in 1954

Paul Thiel (1954)

Paul Thiel (born May 12, 1924 in Sonneborn (Thuringia) , † August 11, 2007 in Eisenach ) was a German racing driver.

Life

The trained motor vehicle mechanic Thiel worked from 1947 at what was then BMW's Awtowelo plant in Eisenach , where he was responsible for the procurement of materials for the production of the BMW 321 and BMW 340 . In 1948 he was involved in building racing cars based on the BMW 328 . From 1952 to 1956 he worked as a racing driver in the racing collective of the Eisenach automobile plant . In the EMW R1 / 53 Sport, the vehicle with which Edgar Barth took part in the 1953 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring in the 1953 racing season , he made his racing debut at the Leipzig City Park Race in 1954. In August 1954, Thiel took twelfth place at the Nürburgring at the German Grand Prix, which this time was held as a sports car race as part of the supporting program for the 1954 European Grand Prix , with the 1953 vehicle from the previous year. On September 19 at the AVUS , Thiel achieved seventh place in the newly designed EMW 1.5-liter racing sports car.

At the start of the season on May 15, 1955 in Dessau, EMW drivers Edgar Barth, Arthur Rosenhammer and Paul Thiel achieved a triple victory with the EMW R3 / 55, while Thiel finished second behind his teammate Barth at the Eifel race on the Nürburgring. In the Leipzig city park race in 1955, the Eisenach EMW drivers finished first to fourth.

After the dissolution of the racing collective, he worked in the newly established rallying department of the plant as driver and copilot. In 1968 he ended his active career.

At the invitation of BMW AG, he competed in 1997 with the 1.5 liter AWE racing car, which is part of the stock of automobilen welt eisenach, at the Festival of Speed classic car races on the Goodwood Circuit ( England ). On May 1, 1999, he took part in the farewell drive of historic racing cars at the Berlin AVUS with the vehicle .

statistics

successes

Among the most important successes as a racing driver are among others

1st place at the International Sachsenring Race 1954 in Formula 2
2nd place at the 1955 German Grand Prix on the Nürburgring in the racing car class up to 1.5 liters
3rd place at the 1955 Berlin Grand Prix on the AVUS in the racing car class up to 1.5 liters

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5
1956	VEB	AWE R3 / 55	Argentina BUA	United States SEB	Italy MIM	Germany ONLY	Sweden KRI
1956	VEB	AWE R3 / 55				DNF

Awards

Master of Sports

Web links

Commons : Paul Thiel - collection of images, videos and audio files

Obituary on eisenachonline.de

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Horst Ihling : Auto racing in the GDR: 90 years of racing cars and motor sports, Delius-Verlag, Klasing, October 2006, ISBN 978-3-7688-5788-8 , page 117ff.

personal data
SURNAME	Thiel, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German racing driver
DATE OF BIRTH	May 12, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH	Sonneborn (Thuringia)
DATE OF DEATH	August 11, 2007
Place of death	Eisenach

[Ihling-1] Horst Ihling : Auto racing in the GDR: 90 years of racing cars and motor sports, Delius-Verlag, Klasing, October 2006, ISBN 978-3-7688-5788-8 , page 117ff.