32nd AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix at the Nürburgring


Story and Photos by Henk Brouwer ('nJoy Photography)

Scroll down for photo gallery.

The "Automobilclub von Deutschland" (AvD), with some partners, excellently organized also this year this event in the grand manner. Like last year the preliminary time schedule it looked very promising. There were several categories starting with Formula Junior (1958-1963), European Sports Prototype Trophy, Shell Historic Ferrari Maserati Challenge – II, FIA Challenge for Historic Tour cars (1947-1971), Historic race cars (to 1940), Historic Grand Prix cars (to 1960), Shell Ferrari Maserati Challenge – I, Force Classic Grand Prix Cars, FIA Cup for Historic GT-cars, Race- and GT- cars from the fifties, Race- and GT-cars build to 1965. Well, I think you can call this an OLDTIMER GRAND PRIX, written in capitals. The clubs I certainly won't leave out, like Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. And there were of course all kind of memorabilia to buy outside the circuit.

Training a Trainee
The Castrol Curve and the Mercedes Arena is a part of the track that slows down the cars and on the other hand gives a more clear view on that part, I think mainly done for the spectators on the Bilstein and Mercedes tribune. During this event there were plenty of happy spectators on the tribunes, but the newly made changes were closed and the cars went on like they used to do before, which brought some nice pictures. Sometimes there was a need for some acrobatic feats between the fences and tires/crash-barriers and this year I brought a Trainee, so I had much to show him. All of that needed to happen before the first race started. There were of course other thing to show him, but first he wanted to make his own photos with his own camera.

Reading my story of 2003 I still think the Nürburgring is one of the safest tracks for drivers as well as for the spectators, marshals and photographers along the track. We started in the first curve to photograph the Shell Ferari Maserati Historic Challenge – Grid C, with the big guys like the Daytona and 512 BB LMs. That was an awesome start for us.

Where it always starts…
Like always, I picked up my media access in the Hotel "Döttinger Höhe". And also this year everything was explained to me by a nice and friendly young lady, who was very informative. Parking was well taken care of and after less then 10 minutes we were on our first spotting place. Last year I wrote about the bad management around the shuttles for the Photographers and TV-crews, but this year I was amazed how quick the shuttles were there to bring us anywhere along the track and in a very comfortable manor: a very luxury VW Touareg SUV Automatic V6 etc. etc. Magnificent! I think every 15 minutes there passed one to pick up TV-crews and photographers.

Hands on the wheel… Lights on…
We waited for our first race that day sitting on the first curve. It was the Shell Ferrari Maserati Historic Challenge – Grid C and it was worth it. At first I thought that I drove all the way for just a few cars, because there were only 6 or 7 that drove a warm up lap. After the start I saw the others too--a nice grid I have to admit. The 512 BB LMs, the SWBs, a real 250 GTE, and Lusso, it all was there and I just had to push on my camera-button. The finish didn't brought any surprises: 2x BB LM and a Daytona… I really liked #94, the Dino 206 S driven by Lars Wramell. After the race the Touareg brought us to the Dunlop curve and from there we would walk back along the track shooting photos on the places where we thought it was nice. At first we saw all kind of brands, known and unknown. Fast and slow, beautiful and –if you permit me- very ugly ! But they all raced around the track like they weren't used to do anything else and that even made me a bit jealous. Also, I have to admit that I saw some beauties, and again that's why I drove over 200 miles-- to see some classic cars and to get wet--very wet! Not like the rain two years ago. Fortunately the organizers thought of the crews outside and when we were back in the media-center where there was plenty to drink and eat.

Making choices…
Sunday, for me always a bit of a spoiler at an event like this. Don't get me wrong, I don't pray for rain, but the sunlight makes every color too hard and there are to much stars in bumpers and windshields. On the other hand I had to consider that those thousands of spectators probably stayed at home when there was an expectation of any bad weather. Now and then the sun disappeared behind a soft blanket of clouds and that immediately showed its results on the colors of the photographs I checked on my digital viewer. On the outside of the Ford curve we waited with some other photographers for the start of the Shell Ferrari Maserati Historic Challenge - Grid A with the open racers. It's always a nice view to see those oldies come down the hill and disappear in the direction of the Dunlop curve. The roaring was overwhelming and my finger worked overtime. My trainee use one of my digital camera, because he wanted to learn something and his own pocket camera was full. He enjoyed it all very much and he even took some nice photos. Next we have to check the bad ones at home and I hope to explain to him why the are bad and see if he agrees.

I missed the Marathon run on the "Nordschleife" due to some private circumstances, and I again had to miss the Le Mans start of Grid B. At the end of the afternoon -it was 5:30pm- the weather was about to change. It started to rain, there was some thunder over the surrounding mountains and the light didn't look good, so we decided not to wait for the real thunderstorm and the possibility that there wasn't enough light at the start of Grid B. We had to drive a long time to get home and we both were exhausted, also due to the warmth. If we could we only sometimes look into the future… Again I had a wonderful time and I think my trainee now knows what the work of a motoring-photographer contains--it's a hard working job, with much satisfaction though. Looking forward to the 33. AvD Oldtimer Grandprix…

Bugatti Type 37 driven by Christoph Burckhardt leads two E.R.As (English Racing Automobiles).

Peter Heuberger's 250 F Maserati leads two Cooper Bristols.

Chassis number 011, the Dino 246 F1 car of Corrado Cuppellini.

Tony Smith aboard a Maserati Birdcage Maserati.

Slightly off form, the 250GTE driven by Bernd Hahne.

Massimo Sordi's 512 BB LM.

Stunning 206S Dino, Lars Wramell.

275GTB, Remo Lips.

Alexander Boswell taking a turn with the 625 F1, chassis 0482.

Marc Devis in his 250SWB Berlinetta, chassis number 1993 GT.

Another shot of Cupellini's Dino.

512 BB LM of Francois Degand in command of the pack.

GTB4 Comp Daytona, driven by David Franklin, chassis number 15667.