Wednesday, 11 September 2024 11:20

The 51. Belmot Oldtimer Grand Prix 9-11 August 2024 ^Featured

Written by Guus Docen

Last year the Oldtimer Grand Prix celebrated it’s 50th edition and the organisers realized that it was the moment to reshape the future of the event. That was clearly visible this year with the new main sponsor Belmot (a classic car insurance company), which is bringing a lot of motivation and fresh ideas. It all started on a sunny Friday-morning for all participants with the qualification sessions at the Nürburgring Grand-Prix circuit. But there’s also the traditional track day on the Nordschleife for the owners of vintage sports cars to experience the most beautiful race track in the world, free from any competitive pressure. For visitors there’s the possibility to watch all these beautiful cars close to the track free of charge.

Almost 600 historic racing cars ranging from the late 1920s until the 1990s were competing from early Saturday morning when the weather was even better than Friday. The new organizational approach is also visible in the paddock. Aspen, a manufacturer of high-performance fuels, is involved, which is presenting a new specialised fuel for vintage cars at the Oldtimer Grand Prix. Some selected teams were able to use this fuel for all races over the weekend in order to give direct feedback from practice. The newly developed high-performance fuel from Aspen has a 33 percent admixture of fossil-free components. Aspen’s ambition is to gradually increase the fossil-free mixture up to 100 percent in order to further reduce the environmental footprint.
Vintage Cars
The oldest racing cars of the weekend took part in the "Vintage Sports Car Trophy", a pure driving event without any competitive ambitients. There were four supercharged Mercedes-Benz SSKs from 1929-1930, several MGs, Bentley’s, Alfa Romeo’s but the cars which got the most attention from the visitors were four American La Frances with 14.5 litre engines and enormous vehicle dimensions. These massive cars were originally built as trucks for fire departments. The oldest La France was from 1918 and all four cars were driven by their owners from the South of Germany to the Nürburgring, that’s almost 500 kilometres !
Historic Grand Prix Cars
The Saturday-races of the historic Grand Prix cars from the British Historic Grand Prix Cars Association were devided in a race for front-engined cars and a race for rear-engined cars. Winner of the front-engined cars race was Mark Shaw in the Scarab Offenhauser. The rear-engined cars race was won by Rüdiger Friedrichs in a Cooper T53. Winner of the combined race on Sunday was also Rüdiger Friedrichs.
Two-seater racing cars and GTs
The two-seater racing cars and GTs up to 1965 are an absolute racing jewel: these sports cars appeared on the starting grid over 70 years ago at legendary long-distance races like Le Mans 24hrs., the Targa Florio and the Sebring 12hrs. The Maserati’s, Ferrari’s, Lotus, Elva, Mercedes, Porsches and two impressive Bizzarini 5300 GTs had a 65-minutes evening race on Saturday with a fireworks display after crossing the finish line. On Sunday another 65-minutes race was held. Winner of both races was Oliver Hartmann in an Elva Mk 7S.
Crowd pullers at the weekend - Touring cars, GTs DRM Revival
In the field of touring cars of the “Golden Era”, the focus is particularly on former German touring car drivers such as Kris Nissen, Roland Asch, Harald Grohs, Kurt Thiim and many other drivers, who are bringing a great era back to life in these touring cars from the 80s and 90s like the BMW M3, Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth and Mercedes 190E EVO 2.5-16. Forty-one cars were on the grid for two races. Overall winner was Ronny Scheer in a Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500.
The vehicles of the German Racing Championship (DRM Revival) are almost even more legendary, where Group 5 cars like the Ford Capri Turbos, BMW 2002, Porsche 934/5 and even six BMW M1s set the tone.
CanAm Cars & Sportscars
The race for the Historic Championship CanAm Cars & Sportscars was quit sensational with three black UOP Can-Am cars from Shadow. These black monstrous machines with their heavy V8 engines were a real feast for the eyes and ears. But also the 8.1 Litre McLarens (driven by Germans Harry Schmidt and Peter Schleifer) and two 5.8 Litres McLarens M1B and M6B were something special.
FHR Historic Championship races
With around 600 members and around 300 active drivers, the Drivers' Association for Historic Racing (FHR) is Europe's largest racing club in historic motorsport. Two race series were held at this meeting, the Historic Championship ’65 and the Historic Championship '81. Both series are a feast for the eyes for spectators and a challenge for the participants. In the ’65 championship cars like the Jaguar E-Type, Austin Healey 3000, Lotus Elan, Alfa Romeo GTA, Ford GT40 and Porsche 911 are competing. Fifty cars were starting in the pre ’81 championship like BMW 2002, Ford Escort RS1600, Alfa Romeo 1750 GTAm, VW Golf GTi Mk1, Porsche 911 Carrera and even two Lola’s T210.
With the new main sponsor Belmot, the Oldtimer Grand Prix attracked almost 42,000 spectators at the Nürburgring. The next edition of this event is already being planned and is expected to take place during the first weekend of August 2025. Pictures by Guus Docen