At the weekend of May 20th – 22nd this year the Nürburgring Classic took place at the Nürburgring. After a long break due to the Corona-Pandemic the race event was back on track. And the 12. Vintage Meeting of pre-war cars was located in the old square paddock.
Lots of variety – this is the theme of the Nürburgring Classic
For the year 2022, the Nürburgring Classic brought again many race series and special runs to “The Ring” to delight the public, professionals and fans.
In addition to the races, there were again regularity runs/GLPs and experience runs on the Nordschleife and the Grand Prix circuit. The Nürburgring Classic thus remains the only historic motorsport meeting at which there will also be extensive driving on the Nordschleife on all three weekend days. The Prewars – the pre-war starters – were also expected again in large numbers and yes the old paddock was really crowded. The Vintage Meeting could once again attract national and international participants to the old paddock of 1927 in true style.
There were the following highlights:
- more than 20 races with more than 800 starters
- the Force Formula One Legends
- German Touring Classics with historic DRM and STW cars
- Ferrari Club Germany Racing Series / Round 2
- Pre-War Vintage meeting with Elephant race and Le Mans start
- Youngtimer Trophy
- „Kampf der Zwerge“
- Genlte-Drivers pre 1965
- CAN-AM and Super-Sports-Cars
- Historic Endurance and HTGT-Races
and a lot more. The „Kampf der Zwerge“ race was one of the highlights, Touring-Cars with less than 1100 cc could be raced in this class like NSU Prinz, which were the most on grid; but also some other cars like Fiat 500, Simca and my favorite, a french-blue Renault R8. The race was very thrilling, I was watching it at the Veedol-S-curve.
Another highlight was the appearance of some classic Formula One cars. Uwe Meissner’s Modena Motorsport brought four classic Ferrari’s to the Nürburgring. A Ferrari 312B2 of Jacky Ickx, a 312 T5 of Gilles Villeneuve, a F92A of Jean Alesi and a F93 of Alain Prost. But the most special and impressing performance came from a lady driver. She drove an ex-Schuhmacher Benetton B192 and she was very fast.
Another great Formula One car was a 1983 ex-Marc Surer Arrows in original livery from Austrian Arthur Bruckner. It was just the forth time that this car appeared on track and the first time in Germany. I had a little chat with his wife, and she told that Mr Bruckner wanted to buy a Formula 3 or a Formula 2 car, but she said to him, why not directly a Formula One car, which he agreed to. So he was there, driving his dream-car and he was so happy over the weekend.
The grid of the CAN-AM and Super-Sports-Cars was very small indeed which was a bit sad. But at the same weekend the Spa Classic of Peter Auto took place in Spa Francorchamps. Not the best date to present an event like this at the Nürburgring.
But overall it was an outstanding event with so many things to watch, so save the date for 2023.
The website nuerburgringclassic.de is very good with a lot of information and history, take a look there, if you like. Find out more about our photographer Ralph Lüker.
