ROLF STOMMELEN

 

7/11/1943, Siegen, Germany

Deceased Riverside, USA 4/24/1983

Starts: 54

Points: 14

Wins:0

Poles:0

Fastest Laps:0

 

Rarely is a driver’s first Formula 1 season his absolute best, especially when a driver hasa long GP career, as was Stommelen’s case. A sports car driver by excellence, who was drafted into the Porsche team after some useful hill climbing performances, Stommelen got a crack in the Formula 1 circus in the F2 section of the German Grand Prix, in 1969. He was 8th in the race and 9th in class, driving a Lotus for Roy Winkelmann. His Formula 1 debut proper took place in the South Africa GP of 1970. Aided by sponsorship from the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport, Rolf was retained by Brabham to run alongside team boss Jack. Rolf normally qualified poorly, save for a 7th place in Belgium, but ended up scoring points in four occasions. The first time was in Belgium, where he finished 5th. He placed 5th in Germany as well, and then had an excellent 3rd in Austria, followed by a third straight points paying position, in Italy. This gave Stommelen a total of 10 points for the year, showing he had some talent as a single seater driver as well. For 1971, Rolf took his magazine sponsorship to the Surtees team, but in spite of racing competitively in the non-championship Argentine race, the relationship with Surtees did not gell. Rolf did score points on two occasions, in Monaco, 6th place, and Silverstone, 5th, and his best qualifying performances were 10th in Holland and France. Not surprisingly, Rolf was not back at Surtees the following year, instead was lured to drive for the newly formed Eifelland team. The car was essentially a March 721 with a novel, if ineffective, body by Lurani. The car was never even close to competitive, however, Stommelen showed reliability finishing 6 races. By the end of the year the team folded, and Stommelen was out of a GP drive. An opportunity arose in 1973, when Andrea de Adamich got injured in the British GP, vacating the third Brabham entry. With the BT42 Rolf had a halfway decent car, in fact qualifying 9th in Monza, however, there were no points scored that year. Still Alfa Romeo’s fastest sports car driver in 1974, Stommelen was hired by Graham Hill’s team after the Austrian GP. He did qualify well for three of the races, certainly pleasing team boss Hill. As a result, Stommelen was retained for 1975. Still using the year old Lola, Rolf finished the first three GPs of the season, placing 7th place in South Africa. For Spain, the team’s car name was changed to Hill, and Stommelen was placed 9th in the grid. The race was very confusing, with an accident right at the start, and several lead changes. Merzario and the Fittipaldi brothers pretty much boycotted the race, retiring after a single, slow lap, on the grounds that the circuit was very dangerous. In the 17th lap of the race, Stommelen suddenly found himself in the lead, which he held for a few laps, until his car left the track, in the 25th lap, hitting the Armco barriers and killing spectators. Rolf himself was sufficiently injured to be out for most of the year, and another German ended up winning the first “half-race” of the year, Jochen Mass. Stommelen eventually came back, doing the Austrian and Italian races, but was not competitive. For 1976 Stommelen was back at Porsche, but certainly due to his Alfa Romeo contacts, got a ride in the Brabham Alfa Romeo at the Nurburgring, after practing in the hopeless RAM Brabham. Rolf did really well finishing the tragic race in 6th place, earning the last point of his Formula 1 career. He was called to race one of the Heskeths in Zandvoort, finishing 12th, and was given another crack at the Alfa engined Brabham, at the Italian GP, replacing the outgoing Reutemann. 1977 was a very successful season for Rolf, but there was no F1. He won the German Championship after a yearlong tussle with Bob Wollek, impressing enough to be hired by the Warsteiner sponsored Arrows for the 1978 season. Rolf was not competitive at Arrows, while teammate Patrese showed plenty of pace on occasion. By the latter part of the year Stommelen was not even qualifying for races, thus bringing to a close his Formula 1 career. Rolf continued to race sports cars for years, in fact meeting his death while driving one of his beloved Porsches in Riverside, in 1983.

OUTSIDE FORMULA 1

Formula 2: Brabham, March, Lotus, Surtees, Chevron

Sports cars: Porsche (904, 906, 907, 908, 910, 911, 917, 934, 935, 935 Mobydick, 936, ) Alfa-Romeo, Lotus Elite, Toyota Celica Group 5, Chevron BMW, TOJ, Rondeau, Lancia LC1

Touring cars: Ford Capri, Alfa-Romeo, BMW, Mercury(Ford NASCAR)

STUCK, HANS JOACHIN

 

1/1/1951, Grainau, near Garmish Partenkirchen (Germany)

Starts: 72

Points: 29

Wins:0

Poles:0

Fastest Laps:0

 

The 30’s seemed to be so far away when young Stuck appeared on the scene. These were the days of German drivers such as Rosemeyer, Caraciolla, Lang, Von Brauchtisch and another man with a familiar name, Hans Stuck. The latter was, of course, Hans Jr.’s father, one of the most effective drivers of Auto Union cars, who raced well into his 60’s. So there was some expectation that Stuck might revive the German flag in GP racing, when he was hired by March for the 1974 season. The first couple of races were rather normal, typical learning curves for a young debutant. By South Africa though, Stuck had qualified a wonderful seventh place and finished 5th, earning his first points. In Spain he finished 4th, so right at the start of the year he had accumulated 5 points, more than the highly rated Jody Scheckter. The rest of the season did not go as well, though. The spark that was shown in these two races seemed to be gone, and spite of three other top ten grid starts, Stuck was not closer to the front the rest of the year, in fact, dnq twice. Above all a BMW driver, Stuck was slated to drive in the USA in 1975, so he was out of F-1, However, he retained his ties to March, and ended up appearing in five races at the end of the year. Again, Stuck showed the hallmark of his GP career, inconsistency. He was extremely fast in qualifying for the German and Austrian GPs, but totally indifferent in his other outings, mostly retiring. Even so, he was called back by March for the 1976 season. Hans did really well in Brazil, finishing 4th, but his performance dropped to the indifferent level, specially after the arrival of Ronnie Peterson in the team. In Monaco, though, Stuck qualified an excellent 6th and finished 4th, proving he was indeed skilful. After other indifferent outings, Stuck found qualifying pace in several of the last races of the year, including a 4th place start in the tragic German GP, the last one held in the Nordschleife. Mostly he failed to turn these scintillating qualifying performances into results, although he managed to score an additional 2 points from 5th in Watkins Glen, a race track where he seemed to excel. So Hans was not back on the grid for 1977, although he was called by March to race one of its by then hopeless cars in South Africa. Then a big opportunity arose. Brabham seemed to be on the verge of a turn around that year, with Alfa Romeo 12 cylinder engines. Lead driver Carlos Pace had led races, and appeared to be one of the favorites for the title, until disaster struck in the form of a light airplane crash. Pace and the other plane occupants died, leaving a spot open in the Brabham team. Ecclestone decided to give Stuck a chance. Again the pattern arose: in certain tracks, such as Monaco, Stuck seemed destined for bigger things; in others, he would qualify midfield and have lackluster performances. He did score points in 2 of the first four races for Brabham, but these were 6th places and nowhere near the form shown by Pace or Watson. The pressure was on Stuck, and he realized he had to perform to save his single seater career. He did well for a stretch, scoring points in three straight races, including two podiums, but by Holland he was off the pace again. Then in Watkins Glen his big day: Stuck qualified 2nd, and come race day, it rained: Hans was a known rain meister. He shot right into the lead and had his fifteen minutes of glory in F-1, however, ended up crashing and retiring. He did not show the same pace in the last two races of the year, and ended up replaced by no other than World Champion Niki Lauda. So Stuck went out looking for work in 1978, and found a berth at Shadow. This did not seem so bad, as Shadow had finally broken into the winner’s circle in 1977, however, the team underwent major upheaval early in 78: many of the top personnel left to form Arrows, including lead designer Tony Southgate. So soon it became clear that this would not be an easy year, and indeed it was not. Stuck barely qualified midfield most of the year, and finished in the points a single time, in Brand Hatch. Again in a spurt o qualifying bravado, he started 8th in Canada, but collided with Fittipaldi, so that was the end of that. For 1979 Stuck did not have many options besides joining the German ATS team. This was obviously a ‘survival” move at best, and besides a heroic 12th place grid spot in Monaco midseason, and improving qualifying pace towards the latter part of the year, it appeared the game was up for Stuck in F-1. He did manage another good performance in Watkins Glen, scoring 2 points in his last GP. He continued a long career driving sports cars and touring cars for several manufacturers (mostly German), avoiding single seaters until a recent appearance in the GP Masters category, where he drove with distinction. Germany would need to wait a few more years for a GP hero, but boy was it worth the wait!

OUTSIDE FORMULA 1

Stuck was runner up in the European Formula 2 Championship, 1974. He won the European Touring Car Championship and the DRM in 1972. He won Le Mans twice,

OTHER CARS:

Formula 2: March-BW, Brabham Ford, Ralt

Sports Cars: BMW (3.0 CSL, 320 Grup 5, M-1, V12), Sauber-Ford, Porsche (956, 962, 911, 911 GT1), Audi, Sehcar (Ford, BMW), Kremer Porsche

Touring cars: BMW, Opel, Ford, Audi