Helmut “Helm” Glöckler (13 January 1909 in Frankfurt am Main – 18 December 1993 same place) was a German amateur racing driver.
Glöckler raced a Deutsch-Bonnet in Formula 3 in 1951, and won the sports car racing event at the 1953 Eifelrennen with a new Porsche 550.
He also won the sports car class Alpine Cup trophy in the 1951 Österreichische Alpenfahrt rally driving a highly modified Renault 4CV.
He entered the 1953 German Grand Prix in an Equipe Anglaise Cooper, this being his one and only attempt at a World Championship race, but he blew his engine during qualifying and so did not compete in the race. Had he qualified for the race, he would be the first ever driver to use number 0 in a Formula One race, twenty years before Jody Scheckter became the first to race in number 0 at the 1973 Canadian Grand Prix.
He raced a Porsche 550 in the 1953 24 Hours of Le Mans with Hans Herrmann, and again in the 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans with Richard von Frankenberg. Info from Wiki
Bio by Hans Hulsebos
Helmut ‘Helm’ Glöckler was born in 1901, his brother, Walter Glöckler, was famous for creating a small Porsche Spyder in 1951 that later inspired the factory to the Porsche 550. In 1949 he won the German 1500 sports car championship in a Veritas before acquiring a French DB which he fitted with a BMW engine to compete in the German championship.
Glöckler has the distinction of giving the DB its only international victory at Hockenheim in May 1951, beating the Emeryson of Ted Frost and Cooper Mk IV of Toni Kreuzer. He finished third overall in the 1951 West German Championship. After this he reverted back to sports cars set a new class record in the spring of 1952 driving his brother’s Glöckler-Porsche at the Nürburgring on his way to winning the 1952 German championship. Helm became Porsche works driver in 1953 and at that year’s Eifelrennen, marked by heavy rain, Helm gave the prototype factory Porsche 550 it’s debut victory. In the sports car support race for the 1953 German Grand Prix, he retired on the fourth lap. He was entered for the Grand Prix in a Formula 2 Equipe Anglaise Cooper T23, but he blew up the engine in qualifying.
Helmut competed at Le Mans in 1953 driving a Porsche 550 Coupé with Hans Herrmann to 16th place and in 1954 driving with Richard von Frankenberg they retired. He went on to win the German Sports Car Championship in 1954 for a second time. In the 1955 race he drove with Jaroslav Juhan driving a Porsche Spyder, finishing 6th overall and 3rd in class. His last appearance at Le Mans in 1956, ended with an accident while sharing a works Porsche 356 Carrera with Max Nathan.
Helmut Glöckler died in 1993, aged 92.
