ÖSTERREICHRING
Posted by huskyman49
Österreichring - a short story - funny but true:
It must have been May or June 1970 - at least before the first GP took place, when I drove my 30 hp VW Käfer (beetle) from my home to the nearby ring. In those pre-Ecclestone-times
it has been possible to enter the newly built race track free of charge and test your own car there.
Assisted by my sister and my later wife we stripped the car, removing all unnecessary parts like seats (except the drivers one...), spare wheel and so on. It may not have had much influence but we were sure we could be much faster with these modifications...
So I grasped the momo-steering wheel I had mounted before, engaged first gear with the sawed off gear lever and hit the track. After climbing up the steep ascent to the later Hella Licht chicane (where poor Mark Donohue lost his life in 1975) I speeded up to third and fourth gear nearing the Glatz corner.
Having changed the original diagonal tyres to radial ones I took the curve at full speed (80 km/h in 3rd gear
) and reached top speed for quite a while afterwards on the long and slightly descending Schönberg straight. If I braked for the banked Bosch corner I don't remember exactly (hopefully I did...).
Next challenge appeared - to say 'rapidly' would be a reasonable overstatement - the double left hander (in those days called Texaco-chicane). I braked hard in the first lap but later I tried to go to the limit which resulted in squealing tyres and some oversteer which I mastered at a heart rate far above normal...
But the final proove of my skills was still waiting for me: Jochen Rindt-corner! Not enough that it was rather downhill, there was also a severe bump right in the middle of the braking zone which made the car loosing ground and after some frightening moments I found myself landing at least one meter to the left and a bit too near to the guardrail to feel comfortable any more. Brave and stubborn as I was at 21 years of age and with the audience at the pitlane in mind I went on, trying to improve my driving in further laps. Unfortunately I don't remember my lap time nor do I have photos of that event.
In later years I once tested my 132 hp Alfa 33 on the Red Bull Ring but this experience remains just as a shade compared to the exciting and unforgettable 1970 adventure...
I hope that some of you enjoy this little story -maybe someone wants to tell his own out of other times and from other tracks around the world...
best regards
Karl
It must have been May or June 1970 - at least before the first GP took place, when I drove my 30 hp VW Käfer (beetle) from my home to the nearby ring. In those pre-Ecclestone-times
it has been possible to enter the newly built race track free of charge and test your own car there.Assisted by my sister and my later wife we stripped the car, removing all unnecessary parts like seats (except the drivers one...), spare wheel and so on. It may not have had much influence but we were sure we could be much faster with these modifications...
So I grasped the momo-steering wheel I had mounted before, engaged first gear with the sawed off gear lever and hit the track. After climbing up the steep ascent to the later Hella Licht chicane (where poor Mark Donohue lost his life in 1975) I speeded up to third and fourth gear nearing the Glatz corner.
Having changed the original diagonal tyres to radial ones I took the curve at full speed (80 km/h in 3rd gear
) and reached top speed for quite a while afterwards on the long and slightly descending Schönberg straight. If I braked for the banked Bosch corner I don't remember exactly (hopefully I did...).Next challenge appeared - to say 'rapidly' would be a reasonable overstatement - the double left hander (in those days called Texaco-chicane). I braked hard in the first lap but later I tried to go to the limit which resulted in squealing tyres and some oversteer which I mastered at a heart rate far above normal...
But the final proove of my skills was still waiting for me: Jochen Rindt-corner! Not enough that it was rather downhill, there was also a severe bump right in the middle of the braking zone which made the car loosing ground and after some frightening moments I found myself landing at least one meter to the left and a bit too near to the guardrail to feel comfortable any more. Brave and stubborn as I was at 21 years of age and with the audience at the pitlane in mind I went on, trying to improve my driving in further laps. Unfortunately I don't remember my lap time nor do I have photos of that event.
In later years I once tested my 132 hp Alfa 33 on the Red Bull Ring but this experience remains just as a shade compared to the exciting and unforgettable 1970 adventure...
I hope that some of you enjoy this little story -maybe someone wants to tell his own out of other times and from other tracks around the world...
best regards
Karl
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