The foreign contingent would consist of three British and one Swiss driver. The British detachment would include Stirling Moss, Duncan Hamilton and Ken Wharton. The Swiss driver was the restaurant owner and gentleman racer Rudolf Fischer.
Fischer had been to the Nurburgring before. However, in 1952, he had managed to purchase a Ferrari 500 chassis. The car had powered Piero Taruffi to victory at the Swiss Grand Prix the week before. The car had even provided Fischer great success in his home grand prix. He had managed to finish the Swiss Grand Prix in 2nd place. This meant Fischer was sitting 2nd in the World Championship standings. Therefore, as Fischer headed to West Germany for the Eifelrennen he was considered as the obvious favorite to take victory.
In practice, a battle ensued between Fischer and Moss for the pole position. Each of the drivers would record fast laps and would seem destined to sit on the pole. However, in spite of a fast lap by Fischer, Moss would end up taking the pole with a lap time of eleven minutes and two seconds. Fischer would also start on the front row with Moss, but in the 2nd place position. The two would be joined on the front row by neither of the German drivers, but the other two British drivers Duncan Hamilton and Ken Wharton. Driving the old BMW 328, Merkel would start much further down the sixteen car field.
The race distance was 7 laps and would total 99 miles. Fischer and Moss would renew their duel right at the start of the race. While the two would tear away at the front of the field, a number of others would find their race would come to a premature end. Zdenko von Schonborn would burn out his clutch and would be out of the race before having completed a single lap. He would be joined by another famous German racer.
Paul Pietsch had an incredible career. He had earned a drive with Auto Union before the outbreak of World War II. He had even been leading the ‘Silver Cars’ in a privately entered Maserati during the 1939 German Grand Prix before an ignition problem dropped him to 3rd at the finish. Alfa Romeo would even turn to Paul to have him driver one of their 159s in the 1951 German Grand Prix. However, at the Eifelrennen in 1952, Pietsch’s race would come to an end even before completing a single lap. The engine in his Veritas Meteor would let go thereby ending his race.
Another couple of laps would pass. The battle between Fischer and Moss was still raging and another couple of entries would fall out of contention. Adolf Brudes would have the engine let go in his Orley Speciale and Hans Klenk would also fall out of the race due to a failure. Despite his aged machinery, Merkel continued to power his way around the circuit.
About the time Fischer broke free from Moss and began to stretch out a lead, Merkel’s old car needed to retire for the day. The old 328 had had enough and needed a rest. Soon, Merkel would be joined by the other two partners in the association from which he received the now defunct ride.
Krakau would have his engine expire after 5 laps and Fritz Riess would have his Ecurie Espadon Ferrari 212 also expire with only a single lap remaining in the race. This left only five cars still running in the race.
Fischer had broken free from Moss. To widen his advantage, Fischer would record what would end up being the fastest lap of the race. He would turn in a lap time that wouldn’t just edge out Moss’ pole time. It would blow it out of the water. In an attempt to stretch out such an advantage Moss couldn’t overcome, Fischer would record an incredible lap time of ten minutes and fifty-one seconds. This time was eleven seconds faster than Moss’ pole and signaled to Moss that he wouldn’t be able to beat Fischer.
Fischer dominated the rest of the race. Among the twelve Germans that entered the event, only Toni Ulmen was still running, and he was circulating the track in a very lonely 5th place well back from the rest of the field, but still on the lead lap.
Fischer would power his way to another incredible finish. It had been an incredible week for Fischer. He had come in 2nd place at the Swiss Grand Prix. Now, he crossed the line to win the Eifelrennen at one of the most difficult circuits in the world. Fischer would end up beating Stirling Moss by a margin of forty-one seconds by the time Moss crossed the line. Every one of the foreign entries in the race would make it to the end. Ken Wharton would beat Duncan Hamilton for 3rd place and would finish a minute and a half behind Moss. After Hamilton, Ulmen would be the sole German to finish the race in the 5th position. He would end up being over seven minutes down to Fischer by the end.
Merkel’s first foray into Formula 2 racing fared, in some ways, better than could have been expected, but it also failed to meet some expectations. Really, the motor cycle racer really couldn’t have hoped for much better considering the equipment he was using. Unfortunately, there really weren’t too many options. At Merkel’s next race he would have his best option. The question was still, ‘Would it be enough?’
Merkel would at least leave the Nurburgring with some positive results as he would manage to take 4th in class in the Eifelrennen sporscar race, which was the first round of the German Sportscar Championship.
Merkel’s next race would be the biggest race of his rather short racing career. Like many other German racers, Merkel had a great opportunity presented to him. His next race was on the 3rd of August and it was the sixth round of the World Championship.
Over the last couple of years, Merkel had taken part in relatively obscure racing series. The 14 mile long Nurburgring was a fitting stage as the amateur drivers, like Merkel, would find themselves amidst the giant names in grand prix racing. Names like Scuderia Ferrari, Maserati, Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina weren’t vague entities, but very real and threatening competitors.
