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41. Int. ADAC-Eifelrennen

Nürburgring Nordschleife, BRD

Date: 29/4/1978 to: 30/4/1978
Track length: 22.835 m
Attendance: 65.000
Entries accepted:
Starters: 22 (div. 1), 26 (div. 2)
Finishers: 17 (division 1); 21 (division 2)

Pole position: Hezemans in 7.35,1 (div. 1); Heyer in 8.00,6 (div. 2)
Fastest lap: Hezemans in 7.40,5 (div. 1); Winkelhock in 8.02,9 (div. 2)

Distance: 7 laps
Average speed: 173,61 kmh (div. 1); 168,72 kmh (div. 2)
Weather: Overcast
Ruleset: Group 5/76
Car info: 1978 Cars

 

It looked like a completely revised championship, just 4 weeks after the debacle of the 300 km race.
A healthy field in both divisions and some surprise entries. There was the return of Toyota and the works BMW 320 Turbo in division 1 (with Ronnie Peterson), in division 2 some BMW “country” teams were entered, together with a bunch of Group 2 entries - nothing to be ashamed of; courtesy of a separate group 2 and 4 class.
But there were some setbacks: Peterson, Quester and Grohs all destroyed their cars. Peterson crashed in free practice on Wednesday when a tire came off; Neerpasch ordered a new car from Munich, which duly crashed on Friday, hours after the car had been finished: a part of the rear wing fell off at high speed - another all-nighter for the mechanics, not a single lap completed so far.
Faltz had similar problems; Quester wasn’t happy and had wanted to save the car for Silverstone - his left front tire suddenly collapsed, and the uninsured car crashed heavily. Another uninsured car, of Grohs, had a tire defect as well, rolled seven times - the roll cage broken on three spots, the seat unattached now - a wonder that the three drivers all were more or less uninjured.

In division 1, it was all Loos today; first, second and fourth on the grid, with Wollek third, and Schurti victim of yet more trouble: turbo problems and a broken half shaft, position 5 the result. The Schnitzer Toyota seemed to make progress, but then the rear axle gave up, with more trouble on Saturday with the exhaust and throttle linkage. The works BMW did practice, but a leaking radiator spoilt practice, an all-or-nothing approach with an overheating engine ending predictably in tears.
Los took command after the start, Wollek and Schurti followed - but soon the latter retired with a broken turbo hose, while Wollek had a misunderstanding with team mate “Winter” when he tried to lap the ailing car - with a battered car he could continue but no longer he was a threat to the Los trio, who won in the order Hezemans-Fitzpatrick-Ludwig. Jöst retired, while Stommelen retired as well, but after an encouraging ride.

No turbo on pole in division 2, but therefore the Escort of Heyer, with Höttinger a fine second - the young man full of confidence after 10.000 km test for Alpina at the Nürburgring. The turbo cars of Ertl and Winkelhock had a bad practice, Ertl having a blown turbo, Winkelhock blowing a head gasket; an experimental engine for the latter had a very different feeling, enabling Winkelhock only 12th on the grid - but the engine survived.
The division 2 race was more spectacular than the Porsche brigade, with Ertl having a perfect start from fifth, he was in the lead soon in front of Heyer, Höttinger and the rest. Höttinger, Heyer and Cheever had a big fight with Eddie finally pulling a trick to Heyer while Höttinger had a slight gap. While Ertl lost all gears besides the fifth, Höttinger won the race in front of Cheever and a furious Heyer, with Ertl only fifth after a fine drive.


Division 1
Pos Pos in class # Team / Entrant
Car- Engine
Drivers, Nationality Engine
vol. (cc)
Engine
Type
Group Distance,
time
Qualifying position Qualifying time Fastest lap Reason out,
remarks
1 1 6 Weisberg Gelo Team
Porsche 935-77A
Toine Hezemans, NL
2994 tc B6 Division 1 7 laps, 55.14,5 1 7.35,1 7.40,5  
2 2 8 Weisberg Gelo Team
Porsche 935-77A
John Fitzpatrick, GB
2994 tc B6 Division 1 7 laps, 55.14,8 4 7.41,2    
3 3 9 Weisberg Gelo Team
Porsche 935-77A
Klaus Ludwig, D
2994 tc B6 Division 1 7 laps, 55.15,1 2 7.35,9    
4 4 2 Vaillant Kremer Team
Porsche 935-77A
Bob Wollek, F
2994 tc B6 Division 1 7 laps, 56.41,1 3 7.38,1    
5 5 10 Konrad Racing
Porsche 935-77A
Franz Konrad, A
2994 tc B6 Division 1 7 laps, 57.22,9 7 7.53,6    
6 6 16 Konrad Racing
Porsche 935
Volkert Merl, D
2857 tc B6 Division 1 7 laps, 57.35,8 8 8.08,8    
7 7 19 Meccarillos Racing Team
Porsche 935
Claude Haldi, CH
2857 tc B6 Division 1 7 laps, 58.14,6 9 8.18,7    
8 8 5 Jägermeister Max Moritz Team
Porsche 935-77A
Manfred Schurti, FL
2994 tc B6 Division 1 7 laps, 59.03,1 5 7.46,1    
9 9 18  
Porsche 935
Klaus Drees, D
2857 tc B6 Division 1 7 laps, 1:00.40,8 13 8.46,4    
10 10 3 Porsche Kremer Racing
Porsche 935-77A
Dieter Schornstein, D
2994 tc B6 Division 1 7 laps, 1:02.31,7 12 8.40,3    
11 11 22 Porsche Kremer Racing
Porsche Carrera RSR
Jürgen Konrad, D
2994 B6 Division 1/Gr. 2+4 7 laps, 1:04.15,2 17 9.15,6    
12 12 23 Norddeutscher Automobilclub
Porsche Carrera RSR
Gerhard Happel, D
2994 B6 Division 1/Gr. 2+4 7 laps, 1:04.20,5 16 9.10,9    
13 13 27 Renngemeinschaft Martini Nürburgring
BMW 3.0 CSL
Heinz Becker, D
3498 L6 Division 1/Gr. 2+4 6 15 9.08,6    
14 14 21  
Porsche Carrera RSR
Karl-Josef Römer, D
2994 B6 Division 1/Gr. 2+4 6 18 9.21,9    
15 15 29 AC Rübenach
Opel Commodore GS
Axel Sonntag, D
2998 L6 Division 1/Gr. 2+4 6 19 9.44,7    
16 16 24 Sports Car Club of Stuttgart
Porsche Carrera
Hans Grossmann, D
  B6 Division 1/Gr. 2+4 6 20 9.46,6    
17 17 28 Norddeutscher Automobilclub
Porsche Carrera
Matthias Loerper, D
2994 B6 Division 1/Gr. 2+4 6 22 9.59,7    
DNF   1 Toyota Deutschland
Toyota Celica 2000 LB Turbo
Rolf Stommelen, D
2090 tc L4 Division 1 4 10 8.23,0 7.52,7 Rear axle
DNF   11 Equipe Liqui Moly
Porsche 935-77A
Reinhold Jöst, D
2994 tc B6 Division 1 4 6 7.50,4   Engine
DNF   30 Hahn Sportwagen GmbH
Porsche Carrera RSR
Klaus Utz, D
2994 B6 Division 1 4 14 8.56,3    
DNF   25  
De Tomaso Pantera
Jürgen Karich, D
5763 V8 Division 1/Gr. 2+4 2 21 9.59,6    
DNF   4 Minolta Kremer Racing
Porsche 935 K2
Louis Krages ("John Winter"), D
2857 tc B6 Division 1 1 11 8.31,8   Gearbox
DNQ/DNS   17 BMW Motorsport GmbH
BMW 320 Turbo 2.1
Ronnie Peterson, S
2100 tc L4 Division 1     no time   Water loss

Division 2
Pos Pos in class # Team / Entrant
Car- Engine
Drivers, Nationality Engine
vol. (cc)
Engine
Type
Group Distance,
time
Qualifying position Qualifying time Fastest lap Reason out,
remarks
1 1 57 Team GS - Fruit of the Loom
BMW 320
Markus Höttinger, A
1990 L4 Division 2 7 laps, 56.50,7 2 8.02,5    
2 2 63 BMW Italia/Osella
BMW 320
Eddie Cheever, USA
1994 L4 Division 2 7 laps, 57.16,1 9 8.20,7    
3 3 52 Mampe Ford Zakspeed
Ford Escort II RS
Hans Heyer, D
1975 L4 Division 2 7 laps, 57.16,7 1 8.00,6    
4 4 53 Mampe Ford Zakspeed
Ford Escort II RS
Armin Hahne, D
1975 L4 Division 2 7 laps, 57.26,0 3 8.04,9    
5 5 55 Sachs Sporting
BMW 320 Turbo 1.4
Harald Ertl, A
1428 tc L4 Division 2 7 laps, 57.32,8 5 8.08,5    
6 6 61 Team Heidegger
BMW 320 Turbo 1.4
Walter Brun, CH
1428 tc L4 Division 2 7 laps, 57.51,2 6 8.10,3    
7 7 62 BMW Sweden
BMW 320
Bo Emanuelsson, S
1990 L4 Division 2 7 laps, 58.17,8 10 8.22,5    
8 8 51 Scuderia Lang Verpackungen/HAT
BMW 320
Helmut Bross, D
1990 L4 Division 2 7 laps, 58.32,5 8 8.17,5    
9 9 89 Rhein-Ruhr Racing Team
BMW 2002
Dieter Hegels, D
1990 L4 Division 2/Group 2+4 6 15 9.22,3    
10 10 77  
BMW 320
Lothar Wagner, D
1990 L4 Division 2 6 17 9.32,8    
11 11 82  
VW Scirocco
Klaus Breitenbach, D
1596 L4 Division 2/Group 2+4 6 19 9.34,9    
12 12 95 IFM Efector
BMW 2002
Peter Kuhlmann, D
1990 L4 Division 2/Group 2+4 6 22 9.45,5    
13 13 109  
BMW 2002
Peter Schumacher, D
1990 L4 Division 2/Group 2+4 6 30 12.16,0    
14 14 81 Zender GmbH
VW Scirocco
Werner Dittert, D
1596 L4 Division 2/Group 2+4 6 18 9.34,4    
15 15 93 Renngemeinschaft Sieglar
Opel Kadett GT/E
Mathias Bungard, D
  L4 Division 2/Group 2+4 6 24 9.57,3    
16 16 94  
BMW 1802
Josef Stockhausen, D
  L4 Division 2/Group 2+4 6 28 10.17,1    
17 17 70  
NSU 1200 TT
Michael Degenhardt, D
1296 L4 Division 2 6 27 10.04,9    
18 18 50 Würth HAT
BMW 320 Turbo 1.4
Manfred Winkelhock, D
1428 tc L4 Division 2 5 12 8.25,9   Halfshaft
19 19 86 MSTC Erbach/DMV
BMW 2002
Hans Weissgerber, D
1990 L4 Division 2/Group 2+4 5 14 9.15,5    
20 20 107  
VW Golf
Konrad Lammers, D
1596 L4 Division 2/Group 2+4 5 29 10.28,9    
21 21 59  
BMW 320
Karl-Heinz Becker, D
1990 L4 Division 2 5 13 8.54,0    
DNF   96 Cavallo Matras
BMW 320
Winfried Vogt, D
1990 L4 Division 2/Group 2+4 4 16 9.24,7    
DNF   101 IFM Efector
BMW 2002
Rolf Rummel, D
1990 L4 Division 2/Group 2+4 4 20 9.40,1    
DNF   105 Kfz. Gebrauchteile RT
Ford Escort II RS
Dieter Alzen, D
1840 L4 Division 2/Group 2+4 3 21 9.40,7    
DNF   56 Team GS - Fruit of the Loom
BMW 320
Albrecht Krebs, D
1990 L4 Division 2 3 7 8.16,4    
DNF   92 Kamei Autoextras
VW Golf
Klaus Assmuth, D
1596 L4 Division 2/Group 2+4 1 26 10.02,7    
DNS   58 Faltz-Alpina Essen
BMW 320
Harald Grohs, D
1990 L4 Division 2   4 8.05,5   Accident
DNS   65 Faltz-Alpina Essen/BMW Austria+UK
BMW 320
Dieter Quester, A
1990 L4 Division 2   11 8.25,5   Accident
DNS   90 Auto Budde Racing Team
BMW 2002
Rainer Zweibäumer, D
1990 L4 Division 2/Group 2+4   23 9.54,6    
DNS   102  
Ford Escort II RS
Werner Boller, D
1840 L4 Division 2/Group 2+4   25 9.59,7