Report & Gallery: the Nürburgring Classic 2023

By Marcel Hundscheid / Speed-O-Graphica

The fifth edition of the Nürburgring Classic took place on the last weekend of May. During the three-day event, fans of historic motorsport enjoyed iconic racing cars from seven different decades. Around 20,000 spectators attended the event featuring over 800 participants. We were on site to capture the action for you.

For three days exceptionally good weather conditions ruled above the Nürburgring. Truly an exceptional situation, as the weather in the Eifel mountains can be particularly erratic regardless of the season. The organisation created a varied program with former DTM and STW touring cars, Youngtimers, CanAm cars and historic GTs and touring cars. Fans of historic Formula 1 cars were treated with the Force F1 Legends.

Amongst the crowd favourites were the historic touring cars originally run in the DTM Championship in the eighties. The presence of a number of former DTM icons such as Kris Nissen and Roland Asch guaranteed spectacle. Kris Nissen was Volkswagen’s motorsport director and raced between 1986 and 2001 in the DTM championship. He was also active in the STW championship between 1995 and 1999 and participated twice in the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1987 & 1988). Roland Asch raced between 1984 and 2000 in the DTM championship. From 1997 to 1998 he was active in the STW championship.

The Force 1 F Legends demonstrated a number of 1980s Formula 1 cars, amongst others an Arrows A11, Fittipaldi F5a, Hesketh 308E , Eurobrun 188B, Ferrari 312B and Ferrari 643.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the interesting cars that could be seen over the three-day event.

Zakspeed Ford Capri Turbo Gr. 5 (ZAK-G5C-002/79)

With this former Group 5 car, Harald Ertl won on his debut for Sachs Sporting in the DRM race Bergischer Löwe in Zolder, Belgium in 1979. Zakspeed used a Ford Cosworth BDA/Zakspeed 4 cylinder turbo engine with 1427 cc as its power source.

Jürgen Hamelmann Team then raced chassis ZAK-G5C-002/79 from March 1981 in the colors of Pentosin. After its entry into the DRM Championship, the Capri appeared in hill climb competitions.

Rüddel Racing from Germany has subsequently completely restored this very beautiful car. During the Nürburgring Classic, the Capri competed against a number of former CanAm-McLaren’s that were completely lost.

Hesketh 308E

Frank Dernie and Nigel Stroud were responsible for the design of the Hesketh 308E that entered the 1977 World Championship for Formula 1 cars. At the same time, it was the very last F1 car to be built by Hesketh as the team was disbanded in 1978.

Despite the conservative design, Rupert Keegan managed to qualify the car for every race in 1977. His best result that season was a 7th place at the Australian GP. In addition to Keegan, Harald Ertl, Hector Rebaque and Ian Ashley also drove a number of races for Hesketh in 1977. In the following season however, the Hesketh 308E proved to be remarkably less reliable and during the six races in which the team took part, the team even failed to qualify.

EuroBrun ER188B

Mario Tolentino designed the EuroBrun ER188B for the 1989 Formula 1 season. In fact, it was an interim version of the 1988 ER188. Just a single chassis of the ER188B was built and was driven by the Swiss Gregor Foitek. The car was basically the same as the ER188. The only differences were the Judd CV engine and Pirelli tyres, as opposed to the Cosworth DFZ engine and Goodyear tyres used on the ER188.

It soon became apparent that the ER188B was outdated and anything but competitive. This resulted in the very last place for EuroBrun in the world championship that year. Foitek only managed to place the ER188B during the pre-qualification for the Grand Prix of Brazil.

However, he dropped out during qualifying. In all other competitions that year up to the Grand Prix of England, Foitek did not even make it to the pre-qualification. After the team parted ways with Foitek, the ER188B served as a replacement chassis from the Grand Prix of Belgium.

Unfortunately, a tragic accident took place on Sunday afternoon in which Dutch driver Willem van der Veen died. Most likely it wasn’t the crash itself that was fatal, as he suffered a heart attack driving his Mini in The Battle of the Dwarfs. We express our condolences to his family and relatives for this tragic loss.

The Nürburgring Classic has now earned a well-deserved place on the annual calendar of historic motorsport enthusiasts. We are already looking forward to the 2024 edition.