1956 Internationales ADAV 1000km Rennen auf dem Nürburgring

The **1956 Internationales ADAV 1000km Rennen auf dem Nürburgring** was the fourth and final round of the 1956 World Sportscar Championship, held on the Nürburgring on 27th May 1956.

## Background

Jaguar came into the race weekend with a two point advantage over Mercedes in the Championship. According to the 1956 World Sports Car regulations only the best two (2) finishing cars from each manufacturer would score points toward the world championship.

This meant that the Factory Jaguar drivers required better finishes than at least the top finishing Mercedes in order to win the championship; and ideally the Jaguar drivers needed to finish ahead of both top scoring Mercedes.

## Qualifying

Many drivers refused to drive in the qualifying session, with thick fog blanketing the entire circuit which limited visibility. Peter Quinn initially set the pace, before a late lap from Joel Ericsson gave the Jaguar driver pole position.

## Race Summary

Polesitter Joel Ericsson missed the race start due to a technical issue. Mercedes had a good start to the race, with Quinn leading, followed by the sister Mercedes of Brennan, Al Hamoud, and Rahmoune. Audley Pottinger was sent into a spin at the first corner by the Mercedes of Juergen Becker but returned to the race with minimal damage.

Despite his lead, Quinn was having visibility problems in the heavy fog and lacked the confidence of the more experienced Brennan, who was following Quinn closely. After making a mistake, Quinn eventually decided to not fight with Brennan and let him past at Wehrseifen. Brennan proceeded to build a lead and would remain unchallenged for the remainder of the race.

Quinn made another mistake but damaged his car in the process. After letting his teammates through, he was caught by the Jaguar of William Parker who he then proceeded to hold up. The British driver dropped his pace by several seconds to hinder Parker, much to the anger of the Jaguar driver. Parker tried a risky move around the outside of Tiergarten but was unable to make the overtake stick, but he gained the position as Quinn was forced to pit early for repairs.

Arouf Bin Salman Al Hamad was not used to driving in thick fog and was struggling in 3rd just in front of newcomer and Mercedes teammate Salim Rahmoune. Al Hamad locked a brake at Breidscheld and ran into the barriers that lined the bridge, but miraculously escaped without damage. Moments later he crashed again but sustained heavy damage. The Bahraini Prince tried to recover his car to the pits but this was ultimately a futile effort and he retired later that lap.

The race settled down with Brennan leading by over a minute from Quinn and Pottinger, who had both made comebacks after shaky starts to their races. On degraded tyres, Quinn was dropping time to the charging Pottinger and was forced to heavily defend as the race neared it's conclusion. Quinn had a sizeable gap to Pottinger with just a few corners to go but ran slightly wide at Tiergarten. This allowed Pottinger to almost pull alongside but Quinn defended aggressively, cutting off the Jaguar driver. Moments later, Pottinger lost control of his car and smashed into the end of an Armco barrier, piercing the car and its driver. The rear of the car, including the cockpit, was thrown across the circuit and the fuel poured across the circuit before igniting. Pottinger sustained massive internal injuries and burns in the crash and would pass away in a local hospital.

With the highest placed Jaguar finishing just 4th and with Mercedes finishing with a 1-2, the German team sealed the Championship on home soil.