90 years Nürburgring - Part 6: How Stuck Lauda helped

D he Nürburgring celebrate birthday. The Green Hell is 90 years old. Thousands and thousands of drivers have experienced some hair-raising things on the world's most difficult race track. We congratulate the Nürburgring on the anniversary with anecdotes from racing drivers who wrote many chapters on the north and south loop of the Eifel piste.

In episode 6 there is the Lauda accident from a different perspective. Hans-Joachim Stuck talks about the rescue operation in the mine.

'Just drive against the direction of the race'

'When Niki Lauda had the fire accident at the German Grand Prix on the Nordschleife in 1976, I came to the scene of the accident a few seconds later. I was relatively far behind because I got off the start very poorly with a broken clutch. I stopped of course. I did not actively help with the recovery. There were already enough people standing around fumbling with the seat belts. I couldn't do anything anymore. So I stopped the rest of the traffic. In the film you can see me waving upright and warning the others. There were also a few cars behind me. When the ambulance came, Niki was available. Then it turned out that the paramedics from Bergwerk wanted to drive up to the start and finish and then back down the country road to Adenau.

The accident site was just two kilometers away from Adenau. And it wasn't even a kilometer to the exit of the route in Breitscheid. So I said to the boys: go back against the direction of the race. There's no racing car around. This saves the Niki an hour's drive. Maybe that was his luck. Because that's how you could start suctioning in the lungs in the hospital. By the way, Niki later gave me a Rolex for this.

I can still remember another story. It happened during a driving course at Scuderia Hanseat. In the evening there was a lot of drinking in Nürburg, and everyone was already a little tipsy. Just not me. I have never drank alcohol in my life. In any case, the boys had the idea of ​​stealing a steamroller that was standing around in Nürburg. They shorted the ignition and I was chosen to be the driver. Sure, I was the only one sober. It wasn't long before the police came shot. The sergeant didn't find this amusing. “Actually shouldI'll arrest you all, 'he said. 'But unfortunately we don't have enough space in the cells in the Adenau area.' So we got away with it. '