1956 Nürburgring 1000 kms
Internationales ADAC 1000km Rennen |
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Nürburgring |
May 27, 1956 |
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Godfried Koechert |
w/Thieu Hezemans (Koechert/Vogel) |
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Porsche 550 Spyder |
No: 45 |
Q: |
R: 24 (2) |
C: SS15 |
Carel had come to know Mathieu (Thieu) Hezemans during his service in the military. Hezemans had a car dealership in Eindhoven and sold Carel his first Porsche. During practice Carel summersaulted off the track at Schwalbenschwanz and got stuck under his car. He was trapped and after a few minutes started to honk his horn in order to get the attention of somebody to turn the car over and free him. Carel was unharmed and finally was able to start the race.
During the race the Porsche suffered from a leak in the fuel tank and the pit crew was able to stop the leak by plastering chewing gum on it. The gum had to be 'refreshed' every once and a while, so the whole crew was chewing gum constantly. They even got help from other crews which they supplied with chewing gum.
In the end Hezemans and De Beaufort managed to finish their class of production sportscars up to 1500cc in second place behind the other 550 Spyder of Friedrich Kretschmann and Sepp Liebl. Overall the Maserati shared by Piero Taruffi, Harry Schell, Jean Behra and Stirling Moss managed to beat the Ferraris, while Wolfgang von Trips and Umberto Maglioli got their factory-backed Porsche 550 RS home a respectable fourth overall.