- TALLY HO HERO -
HANS HEYER
V
intage motorsport anoraks will almost certainly already know of
sent to boarding school in Adenau as a child, smack bang in the middle
a passion for racing. He went on to drive for various marques such as Merc’s
built Ford Capris. And while all this is very interesting his obvious success
his only previous single-seater experience being just one race in F2 during
was happy to oblige. The thing is, his lack of single-seat experience meant
that even qualifying would be a colossal challenge and at Hockenheim he
fought with the back markers trying to hit a quali’ time that would put him
0.4 of a second off the pace and was doomed to miss out. His best hope was
that, as reserve driver, someone would cock-up and hand him a slot. As the
grid lined up he sat disconsolately in his car in the pit lane. Then there was
some confusion. The starting lights failed and the race had to be started by
Ragazzoni and Alan Jones had a hefty shunt. As the marshals scurried to put
to the track. The home crowd, realising what had happened, went wild. Hans
ran for nine glorious laps before his transmission gave out.
that those nine audacious laps were the most thrilling of his life. This brazen
month.