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by Unknown

  Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to do that, and completed the ten-lap race just over 10 seconds behind Lang, who had driven a brilliant race. On July 23, the teams assembled at the Nurburg-Ring for the German Grand Prix. Nuvolari was way off the pace in practice, finding himself on the third row of the grid with a time of l0 mins 11.2 secs, whereas Hermann Lang had got his Mercedes around the 14.2 miles in an astonishing 9’ 43.1” and the fastest four drivers - Lang, von Brauchitsch, Caracciola and Muller - had all lapped in under 10 minutes. Tazio was not helped by the fact that his Auto Union caught fire on the last lap of practice, thanks to a broken fuel line. All-night work by the mechanics ensured that the car was ready for the start. As in the Eifel GP it was von Brauchitsch who made the best getaway, only to be overtaken by Lang before they reached the North Turn. Lang completed the opening lap an astonishing 28 seconds ahead of his team-mate. After three laps his lead was 57 seconds and he seemed set for a runaway victory, only to suffer a seized piston on lap four. He pulled into the pits to retire. Remarkably, Paul Pietsch in his Maserati now took the lead, but Nuvolari soon passed him and then so did Caracciola and Muller. Nuvolari led for five laps before stopping for over a minute while mechanics looked at his engine without apparently doing anything to it. He rejoined the race in fourth position, only to stop next time round for fuel and new rear tyres. All this cost him some 2 mins 30 secs in the pits. By now the Mercedes team was virtually out of the race, as von Brauchitsch, Lang and Heinz Brendel had all retired, and Caracciola’s car was not sounding at all healthy. At the halfway mark (11 laps) the Auto Unions of Rudi Hasse and HP Muller were first and second, Caracciola third and Nuvolari fourth. After a stop for new plugs Caracciola’s Mercedes began to behave itself and he drove faster and faster, overtaking the Auto Unions in the next few laps. Hasse then spun into a ditch, leaving Muller in second place and Nuvolari in third, but on lap 19 Tazio’s engine blew up and he coasted into the pits, the Auto Union steaming like a kettle. And that was the last race at the NurburgRing for the man they called Maestro.

  BERND ROSEMEYER

  1935 - 1937

  The career of Bernd Rosemeyer is the most remarkable in the history of Grand Prix racing. That is quite a claim, but it is justified by the facts, the first and most extraordinary of which is that in his first real motor race - at the Nurburg-Ring, of all places - young Bernd caught and passed Rudolf Caracciola, the acknowledged Ringmeister, to lead the 1935 Eifel Grand Prix. Caracciola eventually won the race, but only by a whisker and Rosemeyer had made a Grand Prix debut the like of which has never been approached, let alone equalled, before or since. He began his career on motor bikes, in 1930, racing on grass tracks for two years before moving on to road circuits. In 1933 his Sports BMW was swapped for a 500 cc NSU competition machine and in his very first race, in Hannover, he caught the eye of Walter Moore, the Team Manager of NSU. Moore immediately signed him up and he scored an impressive six wins that season, which prompted DKW to poach him for 1934. DKW was part of Auto Union, the company formed in 1932 by the merger of DKW, Audi, Horch and Wanderer. Auto Union was the name given to the mid-engined racing car designed by Professor Ferdinand Porsche for the new, 750 kg Grand Prix Formula, which began in 1934. The A-type was a revolutionary machine which proved difficult to handle. In that first year of competition, only Hans Stuck mastered it properly, winning the German, Swiss and Czech GPs. Stuck would have been European Champion, had motor racing’s governing body had the sense to inaugurate such a Championship to go with the new Formula, but they only got around to it in 1935 and Stuck never won the title he deserved. None of Auto Union’s other drivers was up to scratch, so Team Manager Willy Walb started looking for new talent for 1935. The great Italian rivals Nuvolari and Varzi were both interested and Varzi got his name on a contract first, keeping Tazio out. This strengthened the team considerably, but more than two drivers were required, so 12 of Germany’s best car and motorcycle racers were invited to the Nurburg-Ring on October 24, 1934, to see what they could do with the 4.4-litre, 295 bhp V16. Among the dozen was Bernd Rosemeyer, who had celebrated his 25th birthday just ten days earlier. That day the hopefuls were confined to the 6 km Sudschleife, and fastest was Paul Pietsch, who had been racing an Alfa Romeo for the past couple of years. Second fastest was Rosemeyer, just 1.6 secs in arrears. The next day the fastest five were let loose on the 22.8 km Nordschleife and once again Pietsch was at the top of the list, with a lap in 11 mins 14.6 secs. Rosemeyer was third, with a time of 12 minutes exactly. To show what they were up against, in the recent German GP, Hans Stuck has set fastest lap in 10 mins 44.2 secs. As a result of these tests, Walb signed Pietsch and Rosemeyer to be Auto Union’s junior drivers in 1935. Early in 1936 Bernd described his early days with Auto Union in a German magazine: ‘To talk about racing experiences isn’t easy, especially when someone like me has only one year of racing and the first race of the second year (the Monaco GP) behind him. Each race, even each part of a race, is an experience which is exciting enough to fill several pages of a long novel. When a racing car starts dancing at a speed of 200 kph; when a tyre bursts at 180 kph; when a stone shatters the windscreen and half the Nurburg-Ring flies into your eyes; when two wheels inadvertently slide up over the embankment - these are all experiences which, although they often last for a split second, you will never forget. ‘I had already had my first and also very amusing experience with the Auto Union racing car before I raced it. It was in the autumn of 1934 that my long-standing dream was fulfilled and I was called up from the Auto Union-DKW racing stable to have a trial drive on the Nurburg-Ring as an aspiring junior driver. On a warm afternoon in late summer I stood there on the most famous racing circuit in Germany in a circle of many comrades (who were already experienced and wellknown) who were to have their first trial drives in the Auto Union “Silverfish” at the same time. “I didn’t feel very confident, “The others will embarrass you,” I thought, “What do you think you can prove against these grownup drivers, you poor baby? They will probably all laugh at you as your car walks around the Nurburg-Ring.” My courage, usually so steady, threatened to disappear, until I finally sat in the car with which my comrade Hans Stuck had already won seven races that year. For the first time the powerful motor growled behind me; for the first time I pushed the short gear stick into first and seconds later I turned into the first curve. ‘I was careful to begin with and was delighted to find that the butterflies had gone. «Just show what you can do!», was the one thing on my mind. Lap after lap my confidence grew; I tried harder, took more risks and drove faster and faster until the critical moment arrived. At a difficult bend, just where our Team Manager Willy Walb had set up an observation point, my car slid a little and I could not get into third gear. The curve came ever closer and I tried harder and harder, but the gear wouldn’t slide in. «Damn,» I thought, «now you will skid to a halt and everyone will laugh at you,» but, at the very last moment, when I was all crossed up and sideways in the curve, I felt the gear go in and «Rosemeyer’s youngest» roared off. At the end of this test drive my greatest wish had been fulfilled; together with my comrade Pietsch I had the best time of the junior drivers and I was taken on by the Auto Union racing stable.’ It is interesting to note that Rosemeyer refers to the Auto Unions as ‘Silberfisch», or Silverfish. Happily this description of the racing cars of Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz was soon forgotten and they became known forever more as Silver Arrows. Which is just as well, for ‘Racing the Silver Fish’ lacks a certain something! Bernd also refers to his car as ‘Rosemeyer’s youngest’, because the Auto Union drivers named their cars after themselves. Later in the piece he wrote, ‘I like my «Bernd» -that’s the name of my racing car - very much, just as Stuck likes his «Hans» and Varzi his «Achille» and we hope we can win often for Germany.’ Bernd would fulfil that hope much better than his teammates but, meanwhile, he could not believe his luck. After just three seasons on motor bikes, he was about to go racing in one of the most powerful racing cars yet built. He wa
s impatient to get started, but Willy Walb made him wait. Auto Union did not enter the first race of 1935, the Monaco GP, but they raced at Tunis and Tripoli - without Bernd Rosemeyer. Next up were the AVUS races, on the autobahn just outside Berlin, and Walb thought that it would be asking for trouble for the totally inexperienced Rosemeyer to make his debut on what was the fastest circuit in the world. The man himself had no such qualms. In 1933 Bernd’s very first race for NSU had been at AVUS and now he was determined to drive the Auto Union there, so he set about changing Walb’s mind. One morning Walb looked at his office calendar to find that Bernd had written on it, ‘Will Rosemeyer race at AVUS?’ This went on for several days and always the answer was ‘No’ so, a week before practice was due to begin, Bernd changed his tactic and wrote ‘Rosemeyer will race at AVUS’, every day until finally he found that an exasperated Walb had written ‘Yes!’ on the page. He was as good as his word and on May 26 Bernd Rosemeyer took part in his very first car race. Auto Union entered four machines for Stuck, Varzi, Prinz Hermann zu Leiningen and Rosemeyer, the latter two having semi-streamlined machines with enclosed cockpits. The attempt at streamlining was because the AVUS circuit entailed a flat-out blast down a six-mile stretch of autobahn before tip-toeing round a hairpin bend and another six miles flat-out in the other direction. It called for very little skill from the drivers, being designed as a showcase for the power and speed of the cars. And what speed! Hans Stuck stunned all present in early practice by recording a time of 4 mins 37 secs from a standing start, an average of 158 mph. No-one had previously reached this time with a flying start! The Auto Unions were doing 190 mph for mile after mile and Achille Varzi excitedly announced that he had never been so fast in his life! Willy Walb’s initial reluctance to let Rosemeyer race is understandable when one looks at the power and speed of what he was used to and what he was about to drive: the 500 cc NSU he had raced at AVUS two years previously had produced around 35 bhp, giving a top speed of approximately 100 mph; now Bernd was about to race Auto Union’s latest machine, the B-type, its engine enlarged to 4.9 litres, producing 375 bhp and capable of propelling him to a maximum speed of more than 190 mph. No wonder Walb was hesitant! However, Bernd Rosemeyer was about to show that he was possessed of no ordinary talent. In the final practice session Stuck was again fastest, with a sensational lap in 4 mins 31.3 secs to average 162 mph, the fastest ever recorded at AVUS. This was a remarkable 16 seconds faster than Varzi and Manfred von Brauchitsch (Mercedes-Benz), both of whom recorded 4’ 47”. Next, and just as astonishing, was Rosemeyer, with a time of 4’ 49”, which put him ahead of three of the greatest and most experienced drivers in the world: Tazio Nuvolari (Alfa Romeo) and Rudolf Caracciola and Luigi Fagioli (both in Mercedes-Benz). Sad to report, Rosemeyer’s brilliance in practice was not rewarded in the race, which was run as two heats and a final. He was drawn in the first heat and recalled: “My first start came in 1935 with the AVUS race and that really brought me down to earth with a bump. Just after the start of the first heat I attached myself to Fagioli, my Mercedes comrade, and we were chasing each other at full throttle. On the straight I always passed him, but in the curves he always caught me with his superior skill. Then, all at once it was over: there was a “bang” at the North Curve as one of my tyres freed itself from the wheel, but I had survived my baptism of fire.’ Among the spectators who saw the incident was Elly Beinhorn, the world famous aviatrix, and she and Bernd would become better acquainted before the year was out. Despite failing to finish, Bernd had made an impressive debut as a racing driver and had imprinted his name on the minds of the 150,000 spectators. The AVUS weekend included races for motor bikes, but apart from the two-wheel enthusiasts present, the public had never heard of Bernd Rosemeyer till now. However, they would hear of him again very soon, for just three weeks later he would make his debut at the Nurburg-Ring, and with a performance that would become part of Grand Prix racing’s folklore. The AVUS and Nurburg-Ring circuits were similar in just one aspect: length, the former being 12.16 miles/19.57 km per lap and the latter 14.17 miles/22.8 kms. That apart, the AVUS was to the Nurburg-Ring as simple arithmetic is to calculus, six miles up one side of a Berlin autobahn and six miles back down the other, as opposed to a 14-mile rollercoaster ride through the Eifel mountains. Bernd Rosemeyer mastered both circuits with insolent ease, although he did not shine in practice for the Eifel GP. That was spoilt by rain showers, but not before Manfred von Brauchitsch had set the fastest time of 10 mins 45 secs in his Mercedes W25. Rudolf Caracciola (Mercedes) was next fastest with 10’ 59” and Hans Stuck (Auto Union) third on 11” 04”. The 11-lap race began on a wet track and von Brauchitsch took off like a scalded cat. Some 11 minutes later he fled past the pits no fewer than 22 seconds ahead of Caracciola, who was closely followed by Varzi and Stuck in their Auto Unions. Varzi, however, was in trouble with two very different problems: he was suffering from appendicitis and some sparkless plugs. The latter was caused by the very changeable weather, which varied from bright sunshine to heavy showers and was to play havoc with the combustion in many engines, including those propelling Stuck and Luigi Fagioli (Mercedes-Benz). None of this bothered von Brauchitsch, who was running away with the race. After three laps he was 55 sees ahead of Caracciola, and Fagioli had passed Stuck and Varzi to make it 1,2,3 for Mercedes. Another lap and von Brauchitsch had increased his lead to 66 secs. Meanwhile, Stuck made the first of several stops for new plugs and with Varzi in no condition to fight for the lead, Team Manager Willy Walb signalled Bernd Rosemeyer to put on some speed and see what he could do. He promptly passed Louis Chiron (Alfa Romeo) into fourth place and when Fagioli stopped with plug trouble, moved into third. Not content with this he then, with all the arrogance of youth, went after the Ringmeister himself, Caracciola. He caught him, too! Astonishingly, by the end of the sixth lap Bernd was right on Rudi’s tail and pushing him ever closer to von Brauchitsch, whose lead was diminishing all the time. Rosemeyer’s performance was truly remarkable, for not only was the novice harrying the expert, but he was doing so despite three handicaps, any one of which would have slowed a mere mortal considerably. First of all a flying stone broke his windscreen and the blast of air soon tore his helmet from his head; then a lens of his goggles was also broken and, as if that was not enough, his engine now came out in sympathy with those on the other Auto Unions and ‘lost’ two plugs. However, as none of these problems caused him to lose ground to Caracciola, Bernd continued his pursuit in unabated fashion. After seven laps the two had reduced von Brauchitsch’s lead to 43 seconds and Rosemeyer was less than a second behind Caracciola. It was on the next time round that the race fell into their lap, for von Brauchitsch over-revved his engine while overtaking the Maserati of Balestrero and was forced to tour into the pits and retire. Now Rosemeyer made his move, as Rodney Walkerley reported in The Motor: ‘Caracciola and Rosemeyer pass the stands neck and neck! Rosemeyer just squeezes past before the South Turn. The big throng in the grandstands rise to their feet and watch the Auto Union lead the Mercedes back past the rear of the pits, and so downhill and out of sight!’ The next time round Rosemeyer had extended his lead and the packed grandstands rose to him as he fled past, now seven seconds ahead of Caracciola. Suddenly, a truly extraordinary result was on the cards. As Caracciola roared past the pits in hot pursuit, Mercedes Team Manager Alfred Neubauer somewhat unnecessarily gave him the ‘flatout’ signal. Motor Sport recorded those last, electrifying laps: ‘Round the long, tortuous circuit the two rivals roared, Rosemeyer being slower on the uphill sections, but being just as fast on the rest of the lap. For some time “Carratch” could not make much impression on his young opponent, and they were still seven seconds apart when they started out on the last lap. The splendid system of loudspeakers kept the crowd informed of the progress of the race, and the announcers themselves nearly went crazy with excitement. From 100 metres it came down to 20 metres... 12 metres... 10 metres. It was not until a bare kilometre or so from the finishing line that Caracciola could seize his
opportunity to pass, and he screamed past the finishing post with arm raised in acknowledgement of the tumultuous cheering.’ Rosemeyer himself provided this description of his astonishing performance: ‘The big stars were up and away right from the start, Brauchitsch and Caracciola led the race and I pottered along with the field, still a blooming “baby racing driver”. Then to my dismay, after several laps I noticed that my team-mates Stuck and Varzi were repairing their cars in the pits. Putting my foot on the throttle and getting away from the field was obviously the thing to do. However, it never rains but it pours and suddenly a stone thrown up by a competitor smashed my windscreen and the wind whistled round my ears. I could hardly see, but that didn’t matter - I had to race on. After a fight lasting several laps I scored a big hit - I overtook Caracciola. Now I only had von Brauchitsch in front of me and then his engine gave up. For the first time in my life I was leading a car race! ‘Behind me were men like Caracciola, Chiron and Fagioli. “Careful, Bernd, don’t let them hurry you,” I thought, and continued to drive my own race - right up until the last two laps. Then I noticed that my engine didn’t really want to keep going, that something or other wasn’t quite right. Two plugs quit and now my engine was only running on fourteen cylinders. I know today that I made a mistake then and that during the last lap I should have kept my engine at maximum revs in order to keep Caracciola behind me. But I had too little experience and was reluctant, because of the defective plugs, to use maximum power. So, 100 metres before the finish, Caracciola went by me and won the Eifel race by just over a second.’ The race between the acknowledged Ringmeister and the “baby racing driver”, as Bernd called himself, had had the spectators on their feet and cheering all round the circuit for those final, electrifying laps. Here’s Motor Sport again: ‘When they pulled up at the pits, Caracciola was almost submerged by the crowd, and Rosemeyer received an equally fine ovation. This young driver has “arrived” and the motor-cycle world has provided yet another world class driver. Rosemeyer has raced motor-cycles at every meeting at the Nurburg-Ring since it was opened in 1927, and his great knowledge of the circuit helped him considerably in his fight today. He had the honour of making the fastest lap of the race in 11 mins 5 secs.’ Quite why making fastest lap should be regarded as an honour is anybody’s guess, but Motor Sport’s assertion that Rosemeyer had raced constantly at the Ring is nonsense - prior to the Eifel GP he had only driven there during the Auto Union driver trials the previous October, never on motor-cycles. Which is what makes his performance that June day so extraordinary as to be virtually unbelievable. Bernd Rosemeyer’s only experience of a racing car comprised those few test laps at the Ring, followed by almost four laps of racing at AVUS. Yet such was his genius that not only was he able to master the handling of a wilful 375 bhp, mid-engined racer within a handful of miles but also to catch and overtake Rudolf Caracciola on the 14 miles of constantly changing road that was the Nurburg-Ring, regarded as the most demanding circuit in the world. And Caracciola was acknowledged as der Ringmeister, having already won no fewer than six races there, starting with the inaugural event in 1927. Another astonishing aspect of Bernd’s performance is how little astonishment it aroused in the Press. Both in Germany and England, the fact that a motor-cycle racer in only his second car race had come within an ace of beating the man who, with Tazio Nuvolari, was regarded as the finest racing driver in the world - and on the NurburgRing - was greeted with little more than mild surprise. No-one seemed to grasp the enormity of his achievement. Exactly what Caracciola thought of so nearly being beaten by a novice on the circuit he regarded as his own has not, sadly, been recorded and, in his autobiography he made no mention of it. His silence speaks volumes! He won the Eifel GP by virtue of his vast experience, rather than superior skill. As he and Rosemeyer accelerated through Dottinger Hohe and down the 3-kilometre straight, Caracciola noticed that his inexperienced rival changed into top gear very early with the low-revving Auto Union. So, on the last lap Rudi held his Mercedes in third at that point and overtook Bernd as he changed up too early yet again. Caracciola won by 1.8 secs. Rosemeyer’s remarkable performance that day gave Germany a new motor racing hero, to add to Rudolf Caracciola, Manfred von Brauchitsch and Hans Stuck. The latter were all in their thirties and had been around for some time and although very popular, none had the film star good looks and charisma that was immediately apparent in the 25 year-old Bernd. He was young, irreverent and undeniaby handsome and on top of all that he made the fearsome Auto Union wag its tail like a dog with a new bone. The fans loved him and Europe’s many photo magazines were quick to latch onto him, for they knew a true star when they saw one. So expectations were high when he returned to the Ring for the German GP in July. On the first day of practice he drove very fast in exuberant fashion, wearing shorts and eschewing a wind helmet. Adrian Conan Doyle, son of the novelist, was at the Ring as a guest of Baron Klaus von Oertzen, Auto Union’s Managing Director and he later wrote in Motor Sport: ‘I was interested to hear the many promising remarks concerning the future of Rosemeyer, the new and talented recruit to the Auto Union team. They say that he is the man to watch, a second Hans Stuck in the making, and, as though to put a seal upon these predictions he made, unofficially the fastest lap during practice. Time: 10 minutes 35 seconds - a new record.’ This doubtless raised a few eyebrows, but it failed to give Bernd pole position on the grid, for the main topic of conversation at the Ring was the starting order, as Motor Sport reported: “All day long a great discussion raged as to the best method of deciding the starting positions. The authorities wanted to grade the cars in the order of their acceleration capabilities. The drivers were against this, however, on the ground that the corner soon after the start would complicate matters anyway. Eventually, it was agreed to draw lots.’ As a result, Rosemeyer found himself in 12th spot in the middle of row 5, between Fagioli (Mercedes-Benz) and Varzi (Auto Union). By the end of the first lap, however, he was fourth behind Caracciola (Mercedes-Benz), Nuvolari (Alfa Romeo) and Fagioli. One lap later and he was second, 12 seconds behind Caracciola. After three laps, ‘Rosemeyer had drawn five seconds closer to Caracciola,’ noted Motor Sport, ‘and it looked as though we were going to see a repetition of their duel in the Eifel race. Sure enough on the fourth lap Rosemeyer was now only four seconds behind Caracciola, in spite of the latter lapping in 11 minutes 34 seconds. He hurled his goggles at his pit as he flashed past at 200 kph.’ To the obvious dismay of the 250,000 spectators who lined the Ring it was not to last, for the Caracciola-Rosemeyer duel came to an end on the next lap. Rosemeyer recalled the incident, which was never reported in the motoring magazines: ‘A few laps after the start I am racing along at 200 kph when suddenly my car jumps up high, slides first left, then right, left and right again. I am busy keeping it on the track, but when I lift my foot from the throttle the car races on - the throttle linkage has broken! There is a curve in a few hundred metres and the throttle will not come back, so I have to bend down and pull it back with my hand. With a great effort and using half the earth bank I get through the curve and manage to drive to the pits, where the throttle linkage is sorted out. A little thing has destroyed my big hope.’ After a longish pit stop he rejoined the race and, undaunted, set about the Nurburg-Ring in his usual, tail-out fashion. Tazio Nuvolari, too, was going like the wind and became the first man officially to lap the Ring in under 11 minutes, with a time of 10’ 57.4”, only to have Rosemeyer record 10’ 55.1”. It was to no avail, though, for later Bernd had to spend more time in the pits with engine problems. He finally finished fourth, but hardly anyone noticed, for despite a stunning new lap record of 10 mins 32.0 secs by von Brauchitsch, Tazio Nuvolari defeated the pride of Nazi Germany to score a sensational victory in his out-dated Alfa Romeo. From this point on Rosemeyer was no longer regarded as a junior member of the Auto Union team, having shown that he could hold his own with the cream of Grand Prix drivers. To make the point conclusively, he ended the season by winning the Czech GP at Brno, only the ninth motor rac
e of his career. Better still, he was congratulated on his victory by Elly Beinhorn, the girl who had seen his undignified exit at AVUS. She was in Brno to give a lecture on her flying exploits that evening, and attended the Grand Prix as a guest of Auto Union. Although she was unaware of it at the time, that was the start of their runaway romance, and the beginning of the end of her remarkable flying career. Bernd pursued her relentlessly and in the next few months they would become the most celebrated couple in Europe, as their love affair captured the imagination of the public. Bernd was not yet in Elly’s league as far as public acclaim was concerned, and although he had made an extraordinary impact on the motor racing world, it was as nothing compared with what was to come in 1936. That year Auto Union produced the C-type, changing the rear suspension from transverse leaf springs to torsion bars and increasing the V16’s capacity to six litres and its power to 520 bhp, an increase of one litre and 145 bhp, respectively. Rosemeyer was now dealing with almost fifteen times the horsepower that had been provided by the NSU bikes in 1934, and he took it all in his stride. He took the fog in his stride, too, when it descended upon the Nurburg-Ring during the Eifel GP in June. In what was latterly a virtually unseen performance, he consolidated the legend that had been born twelve months previously. ‘The race for the Grand Prix cars which started after an interval of motorcycle racing might well be described as a racing driver’s nightmare,’ wrote Rodney Walkerley, in The Motor. ‘Halfway through one of the most exciting struggles ever seen in modern racing, huge banks of fog rolled over the circuit and blotted it out. The nerve-racking experience of the drivers may be left to the imagination. The fact remains that, despite a maximum visibility of 150 yards, the lap times remained almost constant. The cars tore round through the fog at over 70 mph, touching 120 mph at several points.’ The race began in wet, but clear, conditions and Rudolf Caracciola (who was not only a Ringmeister, but also a Regenmeister) took the lead in his Mercedes at once, only to have a rear shock absorber break on lap three. He was passed by Tazio Nuvolari (V12 Alfa Romeo) and then by Rosemeyer on lap four. The latter now went after Nuvolari and took the lead on lap six as the cars dived into the North Turn. On that lap he pulled out 19 secs on the Italian and, as he did so, the fog descended. As The Autocar reported: ‘Low clouds have been drifting up, hiding the Nurburg castle, which overlooks the whole of the Ring. Now mist spreads over the entire scene. The pits are scarcely visible, and the scoreboard is lost in the white cloud. It is a weird sight, with vast crowds below the stand just discernable through the obscurity. The signal station is blotted out. ‘Rosemeyer appears suddenly out of the mist and screams by at an extraordinary speed, changing down for the invisible Sudkehre just as he vanishes into the white cloud. Then Nuvolari, not quite so fast. It must be a drive of amazing peril, groping through the clouds, in the mountains... But Rosemeyer, earning the title of Nebelmeister (fogmaster) averages the altogether astounding speed of 72.96 mph for his ninth lap and increases his lead over Nuvolari to 1 min 40 secs. ‘The finish loses something of its usual excitement, for no-one can see the approach of the cars. The staccato bark of the Auto Union is heard at last, and the crowd cheers Rosemeyer to the echo.’ Rodney Walkerley looked back on that remarkable race a week later in The Motor, ‘Well, it does look as if the Mercedes series of triumphs is to be challenged at last - which is a good thing for racing. They definitely fear the 12-cylinder Alfas, and that wizard Nuvolari passed Caracciola fair and square. Then we have to reckon with the thunderbolt known as Rosemeyer, who is one of the gayest persons in racing. He certainly goes through fog faster than one would believe possible. For your entertainment I took the lap speeds of himself and Nuvolari right through the race, and of Caracciola until his retirement after four laps.