Rosemeyer in Formula Junior!

Taraschi’s great front-engined early Formula Junior rival Stanguellini notched a notable International victory in the 1959 Eifelrennen on the little-used Sudschleife or South Circuit of the Nürburgring. The distinctive feature there was that the driver was none other than Wolfgang ‘Taffy von Trips, Germany’s works Ferrari and Porsche star. During the 13-lap 100km race Trips beat fellow Stanguellini driver Michael May into second place, with a youthful Gerhard Miffer finishing third in his two-stroke FJ ‘ring-ding’ Miffer-DKW.

‘Taffy’ von Trips was an enthusiastic advocate of Formula Junior as a wonderful training ground for promising young drivers. Just like category founder Count ‘Johnny’ Lurani, he was absolutely right. Through his Scuderia Hanseat connections he put his name to a muchpublicised training day at the NOrburgring in late September 1960.

The press had been invited to see the contemporary European Middleweight Champion boxer the startlingly blue-eyed Gustav ‘Bubi’ Scholz try his hand in an FJ car, instructed by Trips and Porsche team leader Edgar Barth. However on the day Scholz just didn’t arrive it being said he was fulfilling movie film-test commitments instead so Trips and Barth were left to pose with another young German hope (above): in this case the 22-year-old son of a legendary pre-war champion. And this sharpfeatured, blond-haired young man’s name was Bernd Rosemeyer…

Today, not many people know that.

Doug Nye