Walter Schneider (racing driver)
Walter Schneider (born January 15, 1927 in Weidenau , † March 27, 2010 in Siegen ) was a German motorcycle and automobile racing driver .
In the years 1958 and 1959 he won the BMW together with co-driver Hans Strauss the title in the sidecar class of the Motorcycle World Championship .
Career
Walter Schneider began his racing career in 1949 as a co-driver in the team of Kurt Bäch from Berlin . From 1950 he started on a self-assembled BMW R 66 team with co-driver Hans Wahl and won victories in Dieburg , Lorsch and Recklinghausen as an ID driver . From the following year, the trained auto mechanic started as a licensed driver. After two unsuccessful years, Schneider entered in 1953 with a Norton team and copilot Walter Nüssen and established himself as one of the best private drivers in Germany with fourth place in the German championship .
In 1954 , Walter Schneider switched to a BMW RS 54 team, in which Hans Strauss, born in Nuremberg in 1924, took the place of "lubricant". In the sidecar class of the motorcycle world championship , the two achieved fourth place with second place at the German Grand Prix at the Solitude in Stuttgart as the best result of the season. In the 1955 season , Schneider / Strauss, still racing as a privateer, celebrated their first Grand Prix victory at the Tourist Trophy on the Isle of Man , the “toughest motorcycle race in the world”. In the overall standings, they came in third overall behind their brand colleagues Willi Faust / Karl Remmert and Wilhelm Noll / Fritz Cron .
In 1956 the Weidenau BMW works driver. In the world championship, Schneider / Strauss, plagued by frequent engine problems, only achieved tenth place with three points. At the Tourist Trophy they also retired while in the lead with engine failure. In the following season things went better again. In Germany and at the TT they came second. The Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps achieved the second Grand Prix victory, which brought in second place in the overall standings behind Fritz Hillebrand / Manfred Grunwald.
The 1958 season was the most successful in Schneider's career. Together with Hans Strauss, he won three of the four world championship races and with the maximum possible number of points of 24 points he was the sovereign sidecar world champion ahead of the Swiss- German duo Florian Camathias / Hilmar Cecco. On top of that, with victories in St. Wendel on the Hockenheim and Nürburgring , the two also secured the title in the team class of the German championship.
In January 1959 Walter Schneider was awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf , the highest sports award in Germany, by the then Federal President Theodor Heuss . In the motorcycle world championship in 1959 Schneider / Strauss defended their world title with two wins and a total of four podium places in five races, again ahead of Camathias / Cecco. Walter Schneider failed to defend his title in the German championship due to an accident with Florian Camathias at the Nürburgring, in which Hans Strauss broke his ribs. After the season, Schneider and Strauss ended their active careers.
A short time later, the Weidenauer returned to motorsport on four wheels. After switching to sports cars, Schneider immediately won every race for which the BMW race management nominated him. Just one year later, he justified the hopes placed in him by the factory and became German circuit champion in 1961. With the racing model BMW 700 RS , Walter Schneider also became German mountain champion on the Schauinsland circuit near Freiburg in 1961, and won the Swiss mountain championship in Davos was able to drive out the Austrian mountain championship for the BMW racing team when he took part in the Gaisberg race with his car .
On June 14, 1964, Schneider had a serious accident while leading the European Touring Car Championship while lying down in his BMW 1800 TI at the hill climb on Mont Ventoux in France . Schneider drove too fast into the concreted Estève curve and hit the front of the car. As a result, a tie rod defect probably occurred, which was so enlarged by the constant bumps that Schneider suddenly could no longer control his BMW 1800 TI and in the fourth corner after Chalet Renard, a dreaded dog-bend, came off the road, causing the car rolled over several times on the steeply sloping scree slope. Schneider was thrown out. Schneider said: “I had a serious accident and flew several hundred meters down a slope in my car. After a few weeks in Carpentras hospital , I stopped racing for good. "
After that Schneider was dedicated to his founded in 1958 Aral - Gas Station , 1962 saw the opening of an auto repair shop , which he expanded to a car dealership. His company, which he passed on to his two sons at an early age, now operates several branches in Siegen and Kreuztal , is an authorized dealer for Volkswagen , Audi and Škoda and employs over 100 people.
Walter Schneider died on March 27, 2010 at the age of 83.
statistics
title
- 1957 - Team Vice World Champion in a BMW (with co-driver Hans Strauss)
- 1958 - World team champion in a BMW (with co-driver Hans Strauss)
- 1958 - German team master in a BMW (with co-driver Hans Strauss)
- 1959 - World team champion in a BMW (with co-driver Hans Strauss)
- 7 Grand Prix victories
Isle of Man TT victories
| year | class | Co-driver | machine | Average speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | Sidecar ( carriages ) |
 Hans Strauss |
BMW | 70.01 mph (112.67 km / h ) |
| 1958 | Sidecar |
Hans Strauss |
BMW | 73.01 mph (117.5 km / h) |
| 1959 | Sidecar |
Hans Strauss |
BMW | 72.69 mph (116.98 km / h) |
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 | 18th | 19th | 20th | 21st | 22nd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1962 | Nürburgring racing community | BMW 700 |
 DAY
|
SEB
|
SEB
|
 MAY
|
TAR
|
BER
|
ONLY
|
 LEM
|
TAV
|
CCA
|
 RTT
|
ONLY
|
BRI
|
BRI
|
PAR
|
|||||||
| 8th | DNF | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1963 | Walter Schneider Scuderia Sant Ambroeus |
Martini Fiat-Abarth 1000 |
DAY
|
SEB
|
SEB
|
TAR
|
 SPA
|
MAY
|
ONLY
|
CON
|
ROS
|
LEM
|
MON
|
WIS
|
TAV
|
FRE
|
CCE
|
RTT
|
 OVI
|
ONLY
|
MON
|
MON
|
TDF
|
BRI
|
| DNF | DNF | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1964 | Abarth | Abarth-Simca 1300 Bialbero |
DAY
|
SEB
|
TAR
|
MON
|
SPA
|
CON
|
ONLY
|
ROS
|
LEM
|
REI
|
FRE
|
CCE
|
RTT
|
SIM
|
ONLY
|
MON
|
TDF
|
BRI
|
BRI
|
PAR
|
||
| 21st |
literature
- Top speed. Volume 15 No. 10 / October 2009, pp. 48–49.
Web links
- Double world champion and car dealer went overboard
- Portrait & statistics of Walter Schneider on motorsportstatistik.com
- Website of the Walter Schneider customer center
- Walter Schneider - Hans Strauss - the two-time team world champions briefly presented at eggersdorfer.info
- Walter Schneider on the official website of the Isle of Man TT (English).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Walter Schneider (GER) passed away… burning-out.de, archived from the original on September 23, 2010 ; Retrieved March 29, 2010 .
- ↑ a b history of the association. www.msc-siegerland.com, accessed on October 12, 2009 .
- ↑ Walter Schneider. In: BMW history. BMW AG, accessed on December 4, 2019 (dossier on Walter Schneider in the BMW Group Archive).
- ↑ Werner Bernet: Also Mont Ventoux for Edgar Barth . In: automobile illustrated . No. 13 . Gildeverlag, Alfeld July 5, 1964, p. 33 .
- ^ Gregor Schulz: BMW 700 RS - The Little Unknown . In: Oldtimer Market . No. 9 , September 2009, ISSN 0939-9704 , p. 36-43 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schneider, Walter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German motorcycle racer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 15, 1927 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Weidenau |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 27, 2010 |
| Place of death | Wins |