Motodrom Insight // Bosch Hockenheim Historic
A feast for motorsport nostalgics
From 6 to 8 May, the Hockenheim Motodrom will be devoted to historic motorsport, paying tribute to one of the greatest motor racing drivers in history – Jim Clark.
No, not everything was better in the past. Not even in motorsport. But like so many other things, racing in the old days exuded a very particular charm. Less complicated, less perfect, less political. It was simply a matter of going faster than someone else. Who was not necessarily an opponent, but rather a like-minded person who shared the same passion. But whom, of course, one still wanted to leave behind.
Of course, time also transfigures certain realities. And so it is surely best to remember the good above all. That is the core message of the Bosch Hockenheim Historic – The Jim Clark Revival, a motorsport festival for connoisseurs that, as always, is dedicated to one of the greatest car racers of all time and that will be held this year between 6 and 8 May.
Two Formula 1 world championship titles in 1963 and 1965 only begin to reflect the exceptional driver who was Jim Clark. It is not least his rivals of the time who still pay tribute to the Scotsman’s extraordinary abilities in their stories. And which lift him into spheres that also include names such as Fangio, Stewart, Lauda, Senna and Schumacher. His death on 7 April 1968 in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim was a tragedy that still resonates today.
Paying tribute to motorsport icon Jim Clark is one of the purposes of the Bosch Hockenheim Historic, but not the only one. This cult event is also quite simply about the pure enjoyment of racing that you used to be able to smell and taste even more than today. With vehicles that on the one hand lacked reliability, but on the other hand could usually be repaired relatively easily. They were far from perfection, but were always marked by the striving to push into new spheres of speed and performance.
Some 500 racing cars from eleven racing series will meet at the Bosch Hockenheim Historic – The Jim Clark Revival , representing the most diverse types of competition of those bygone eras. And speaking of Jim Clark, the first thing to mention is of course Formula 2, which made monumental appearances at the Hockenheim Motodrom up to the 1980s. Big names such as Hans-Joachim Stuck, Clay Regazzoni, Ronnie Peterson, Marc Surer, Mike Hailwood, Jacky Ickx, Manfred Winkelhock and Stefan Bellof left their mark on the Formula 2 European Championship in the years between 1967 and 1984. And at BHH, these great cars will be let off the leash once again.
The same applies to the legendary Group C, which shaped an entire era of sports car racing with its fantastic, lightning-fast prototypes and which also wrote and witnessed many a legend – such as Winkelhock, Bellof, Ickx and Stuck already mentioned and also Jochen Mass, Bob Wollek, Klaus Ludwig, Riccardo Patrese, Derek Bell as Thierry Boutsen, to name a few prominent examples. Even touring car legend Bernd Schneider still raves about the experience of pure power in the Group C cars (see story in brief). As part of the Bosch Hockenheim Historic – The Jim Clark Revival, the Group C Supercup is a real treat.
No less exciting and attractive, however, are the other racing series that will meet on the second weekend in May. The BOSS GP brings together monoposti from Formula 1, IndyCar and GP2, while the Historic Race Car Association is dedicated to the junior formula series from Formula Ford to Formula Vau and Super Vau to Formula 3. The Raceclub Germany is also dedicated to historic formula cars in the various classes up to Formula 1. The Historic Formula Vau Europa concerns one of the most legendary junior formulae of all time, which produced countless world-class racing drivers in the 1960s and 1970s – including subsequent Formula 1 world champions such as Niki Lauda and Keke Rosberg.
Historic racing cars with roofs are also represented in many and varied ways at the Bosch Hockenheim Historic. The fabulously fast CanAm & Sportscars have always been a real crowd puller. The rules of the Canadian-American Challenge Cup (CanAm) were characterised above all by the absence of overly tight regulatory barriers. The results were often downright scary beasts, some of them with significantly more than 1000 hp power. Even back then, not everyone dared to take the wheel of such a monster.
The Lotus Cup Europe and the Youngtimer Touring Car Challenge are a little more civilised. A special treat will be the automotive gems of the Dunlop Gentle Drivers `65, a racing series founded in 2015 and announced for GT and racing sports cars from 1947 to 1965, divided between cars with drum and disc brakes and by engine capacity.
Diversity is one of the hallmarks of the Bosch Hockenheim Historic, while proximity to the fans and family-friendliness are two others. There are no walls to hide the cars behind on this race weekend. And if you can’t make it there in person, you can follow the HP spectacle via livestream. The Bosch Hockenheim Historic – The Jim Clark Revival, 6 to 8 May – a must-attend event for lovers of historic motorsport!
