13 replies to this topic

[Herbert]

In found these pictures at flickr from Hockenheim 1970.











Source: www.flickr.com/photos/jimculp/sets/72157594310568947/

According to the captions the race was the premiere of a NASCAR-like European Stock Car Series. One of the entries was former Daytona 500 winner Tiny Lund in a Steinmetz-Opel Commodore.

I never heard about this. Anymore infos about this series? Race results etc.?

Edited by Herbert, 29 September 2009 - 17:50.

[Zoe]

Unfortunately I was too young at the time to follow the series and my Dad wasn't very interested in it neither. *sigh* I still remember the posters he brought home from the Ford dealership with the fire spitting Zakspeed Turbo Capris. Those were the times.

AFAIK the series was called "Deutsche Rennsport-Meisterschaft" and was run in different classes, depending on engine sizes. Thus you had Escorts and BMWs running at the same time as Capris and some US cars like Mustang or Camaros. In that regard it was completely different to NASCAR...

Famous drivers of the era I can remember are Klaus Ludwig, Hans Heyer, Klaus Niedzwidz, Harald Ertl, Hans-Joachim Stuck.

Zoe

[Herbert]

The Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft had it's first season in 1972, the pictures above are from 1970. So they aren't from the DRM.

BTW, by looking at the pictures it's more like Trans-Am than NASCAR ...

[ReWind]

Always look at Frank de Jong's website first!
AvD-Preis der Nationen 1970

[Zoe]

OK, ReWind lapped me so to say ;)


Zoe

Edited by Zoe, 29 September 2009 - 18:37.

[Herbert]

Ah, I forgot about it ...

According to another forum (http://www.forennet....display&num=705) the Wiesbadener Automobilclub developed rules for a Euro-Stock-Car-Series. The race at Hockenheim was the first at which these regulations were used.

So were there really plans to establish a European version of NASCAR or was it just a one-off event?

Edited by Herbert, 29 September 2009 - 19:03.

[Frank de Jong]

I've never seen anything like that again, so apart from ASCAR (late 90's IIRC) that was about it.
The field on that Hockenheim race consisted of group 2 cars (something very different from NASCAR) with a few extra spoilers.

[ensign14]

Always look at Frank de Jong's website first!
AvD-Preis der Nationen 1970

Martin Birrane! I never knew he'd been racing for that long. Of course he ended up in NASCAR briefly as a car owner until he was Carl Longed out.

I always thought Procar was effectively Euro NASCAR, racing cars under stock shapes.

[Dale Harvey]

It looks like Frank Gardner driving the Mustang #2
Dale.

[Batch68]

I've never seen anything like that again, so apart from ASCAR (late 90's IIRC) that was about it.
The field on that Hockenheim race consisted of group 2 cars (something very different from NASCAR) with a few extra spoilers.

Actually, NASCAR was doing exactly this (in some races, at least) at the same time. During the early '70s NASCAR put together a "pony car" series called Grand American and to drum up interest in it they ran a few races with the Grand Am cars running w/ the top-tier Grand National series cars.
Batch

[Andrew Kitson]

Martin Birrane! I never knew he'd been racing for that long.

Martin Birrane was a regular in late '60s British saloon car club racing, mostly with big Ford V8s, Falcon, Fairlane & Mustang, usually orange and black colours.

[Andrew Kitson]

In found these pictures at flickr from Hockenheim 1970.

It looks like Dennis Leech, Yogi Muir and Frank Gardner to me, in the cars they usually raced in British Group 2.

[Frank de Jong]

Andrew, you can check here to see if you're right

[Jesper O. Hansen]

Any surviving quotes of what Tiny Lund thought of the experience? Or, for that matter, how his drive came about. Round 40 (!) of the 1970 NASCAR Grand National series was held at Richmond, VA, the very same date as the Hockenheim race, keeping any other famous NASCAR names away.

Jesper