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While the majority of the field consisted of German drivers, there would be a number of drivers from other nations entered in the race as well, including the small Ecurie Richmond team with Alan Brown and Eric Brandon. The race also hosted an American, Rob O’Brien driving a Gordini T15 borrowed from the Belgian Johnny Claes.
The race distance was 67 miles. However, at over 100 mph per lap, the race wouldn’t last that long. For some, it would last even less. In fact, fourteen would end up out of the race by the end.
In the end, it would be the two Veritas-Meteors of Ulmen and Klenk that would be the class of the field. Ulmen would turn in the fastest lap of the race with a time of two minutes and thirty-one seconds and an average speed in excess of 132 mph while en route to taking the victory. Hans Klenk would end up finishing the race in 2nd place behind Ulmen by eighteen seconds. In 3rd place would be Josef Peters. He would end up a minute and forty-two seconds behind Ulmen and only two seconds in front of the 4th place finisher, which would be Riess.
While a good result, the victory for Ulmen only firmed his grasp of the West German Championship title. The title, and the season, would come down to one last weekend at the end of September.
The West German Championship had come down to one last race between two individuals. The race itself would take place in a city that was also divided. The AVUS Circuit was the site for the 8th Internationales Avusrennen, which was the fourth, and final, round of the West German Championship. The 8th Internationales Avusrennen would be just one of a couple of races on the 28th of September.
Located in what was the British sector of Berlin after the end of the Second World War, the AVUS Circuit was practically a circuit in name only as it consisted on mainly just two long straight sections of the AVUS highway running into western Berlin. At 5.13 miles in length, the circuit consisted of two long straightaways interrupted by one larger and one smaller tear-drop shaped corners. The larger of the two tear-drop corners would be banked in the mid-1930s and would end up earning the notorious nickname the ‘Wall of Death’. This reputation resulted from the fact the top of the banking featured no retaining wall or barrier of any kind, just a small curb meant to keep the cars on the track.
As mentioned, there were more than one race held on AVUS on the 28th of September. One of those races would be the fifth round of the German Sportscar Championship. Thirty-five cars would start the race. The field would be broken down into two classes: a 2.0 class and a 1.5 class.
Riess was in good position for the race as he would start 2nd. The end would be better than the start as Riess would go on to take the victory. This was a great confidence builder for Riess heading into the grand prix race.
Right at the start of the 25 lap race things were looking good for Riess. Only one lap into the race Ulmen would retire due to problems. This opened the door for Riess. The question was whether he could take advantage or not. Unfortunately for him, Rudolf Fischer was again present with his Ferrari 500.
Fischer would streak down the not quite AVUS straights pushing his Ferrari to its top speeds. Not far behind though would be Riess in his Veritas RS. Then, Fischer began to draw away from the rest of the field.
Fischer’s margin continued to increase, especially as he was able to turn in lap times of two minutes and thirty-six seconds around the circuit. This meant his average speed over the course of a lap was pushing 126 mph!
The real battle was behind Fischer. A two-way battle ensued for 2nd place between Riess and Hans Klenk. Never more than a couple of seconds would separate the two drivers for most of the race.
While the two battled, Fischer would come by them en route to the victory. After averaging in excess of 115 mph over the course of the event, Fischer would take the victory by a whole lap. The battle would be for 2nd place in the race, and, 2nd place in the championship.
Riess and Klenk would battle all the way around the final lap of the AVUS Circuit. As they came off the banking of the ‘Wall of Death’, Klenk was holding onto a slight margin. At the line, it would be Klenk ahead of Riess by just seven-tenths of a second. Klenk’s 2nd place result also ended up moving him into a tie with Riess for 2nd place in the West German Championship standings. Despite having retired after just the 1st lap of the race, Ulmen would go on to take the title. His title bid had, in no small way, been helped by the victory at the Grenzlandring.
Due to the dominant pace of Fischer and being beat by a very small margin by Klenk, Riess would end up somewhat lost in the shadows once again. One thing did become abundantly clear for Riess after competing in his one and only World Championship race, and a number of other non-championship grand prix, and that was the fact he was much better suited to sports car racing. Unfortunately, he would not experience the results he had during the 1952 season or prior.
Most surprisingly, considering the fact he was only thirty at the end of the 1952 season, Riess began appearing at fewer and fewer races. Then, at only the age of thirty-five, Riess would drive his last major race, the 1000 kilometers of the Nurburgring in May of 1957. In spite of all of his success and talent, Riess just faded away into distant memory. He would end up dying in Samedan, Switzerland in 1991.
