1977 | Rd.07 - Int. 10. ADAC-Flugplatzrennen Diepholz - DRM

"Division 1 Rumpfkeil, director of the Diepholz track, had taken some measures to improve safety on the track: oil drums filled with water secured the dangerous spots. Already in practice, Stommelen nearly wrote off his car, and he had to practice in Schenken’s sister car. He qualified second, but had to take fourth on the grid since that was the place his original car qualified. For seven laps, Wollek looked the winner but he spun on oil. Stommelen went through, and was challenged by Schurti until the latter damaged his oil cooler and had to retire. After another spin by Wollek, the victory was secure for Stommelen. Division 2 Neerpasch, BMW race manager, ordered his Juniors to take a pause after the Norisring mayhem - and presented three gentlemen instead. The idea backfired a little, we will learn. Another new face was Rupert Keegan, replacing Obermoser (who drove a sportscar race in France) in the GS car. Practice proved that touring car racing wasn’t easy at all; hardly a lap was finished withour a detour of some sort. But in between, he managed 7th on the grid, higher than the GS car had ever been this year. Heyer was fastest in qualifying, followed by gentlemen Peterson and Stuck, then Krebs with the BMW 2002 turbo. Like Division 1, it was very wet on race day. Stuck had practised the rolling start in the warm-up; others had not. Hahne went straight on in the first corner, rammed an oil drum, took off like an airplane and landed nose-down. A write-off, but Hahne was unhurt. Peterson led for a few laps, then Stuck took over but Ronnie wouldn’t have anything from that and passed Stuck again - way too fast, he too went straight on at exactly the same spot were Hahne had been - and Hahne had opened a way into the spectator area. He spun, and managed to miss all of them. Stuck: “I was reckoning the race would be red-flagged at that moment since many spectators must have been killed...” So the gentlemen could continue. The next victim on the flooded track was Heyer: he too went of in the same corner, but could continue. Krebs, Hennige and Keegan met on top of some tire piles; both Krebs and Keegan continued with damaged cars, were black-flagged and came in - Krebs retired, while the GS mechanics removed a few parts from Keegan’s car so he could continue. While Grohs, Hohmann and some others all used the grass once in a while, Heyer passed Hezemans to finish second behind Stuck - who was lucky to finish after he had hit a drum too, damaging the radiator. His engine expired in the last lap, Hans freewheeling over the finish line. An eventful race by any standard..." -Frank De Jong, March 4th 1959 - March 10th 2018