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Heading up the field, of course, was Ascari. Clearly on a mission, Alberto would end up turning the fastest lap in practice. However, his time wasn’t that much faster than Giuseppe Farina, another former World Champion. Driving the Formula 2 cars, a lap around the 14 mile Nordschleife would end up taking Ascari ten minutes and four seconds. Farina’s best would end up being just three seconds slower, which was rather incredible when considering how long the circuit was, and when considering the gap between Ascari and Maurice Trintignant who would qualify 3rd.
The Equipe Gordini team had brought its new Gordini T16 chassis to the race. The small Gordini chassis was quite nimble and had excellent handling, but it still lacked power and acceleration when compared to the Ferrari 500. Therefore, Equipe Gordini’s cars handled the twisty portions of the Nordschleife quite well, but just weren’t able to reach the speeds Scuderia Ferrari’s drivers were able. Nonetheless, Trintignant and Robert Manzon would fight hard and would end up starting on the front row in 3rd and 4th place. However, Trintignant’s time, when compared to Ascari’s best, would end up being over fifteen seconds slower.
As the race got underway, it would become abundantly clear the main race was against attrition, and many would not end up being able to keep it behind them. Trouble started on the very first lap of the race. Gino Bianco wouldn’t even really make it out of the starting gate before he would end up out of the race. Then, Trintignant would go off the course and would end up retiring. Felice Bonetto would end up spinning off course. He would be narrowly missed by Hans Klenk in his Veritas-Meteor. In all, eight would end up not making it around to complete one lap.
While it seemed the field was being swallowed up by attrition, Ascari was out front streaking away. Farina was taking up the pursuit but was not really succeeding. Another that was cruising right along was Fritz Riess. His Veritas RS had managed to make it through the first lap pitfall and was looking quite good. In fact, a number of cars that failed to complete the first lap had qualified ahead of him. Therefore, after just one lap, Riess was looking really good. Things would look even better before 6 laps had been completed.
Another eight entries would be out of the race before the 6th lap of the race had even been started. While many of these retirees came from drivers behind him on the road it meant Riess had just that much less pressure on him from behind. Therefore, he could concentrate on keeping his car together and chasing down those ahead of him on the road.
Were it not for the fight against the Nordschleife and attrition there really would not have been any racing at all. Ascari was out front and pulling away from Farina who was desperately trying to stay in touch. The boring procession; however, would go away on the very last lap.
Out of the thirty that had started the race, by the time the last lap was coming around, there were only twelve still running out on the circuit. Up until the last lap, it had seemed that Ascari was the only one out there. He just kept going around and around, while Farina appeared to be nothing more than an ‘also ran’. That would all change.
Ascari was not entirely happy with just two laps to go. His car, which had been pushing hard, was running ill. Ascari knew it didn’t have much chance of finishing if he did not pit to have oil added and the rest of the car checked. Therefore, with just one lap remaining, Ascari would pull into the pits. Farina, who had seemed like an outcast throughout the whole of the race, came into view. The lengthy stop was about to cost Ascari the lead. Sure enough, Farina would go through into the lead of the race. After a long time in the pits, Ascari was back out on the circuit in 2nd place. Finally, the race was on.
Just ten minutes ahead awaited Ascari’s World Championship. However, he now had another former World Champion ahead of him on the circuit. While Ascari had proven he definitely had the pace, he now had a car that wasn’t quite running at peak. On top of it all, while he may have been able to catch Farina before the end, getting by him was a wholly different issue. Farina was known to be ruthless with back-markers, he couldn’t be expected to move aside when his championship hopes also rested on the result.
Sick car or not, Ascari wasn’t going to be stopped. In only a matter minutes, Alberto would manage to catch Farina, and in a car not quite running up to par. Once he caught up to Farina, Alberto wasn’t just willing to stalk Farina and try to pop out at the last moment to take the win. Instead, he wanted the lead, and right at that very moment. Ascari had run the entire race with Bliztkrieg tactics. The Juggernaut was too much for Farina to hold back. Alberto would retake the lead. However, he wouldn’t just win by a tenth or two. No, Ascari left the crowd with an indellable memory of what a champion truly was and is. Alberto would come through to take the win, and by fourteen seconds. The title was his!
Lost in all of the emotion and exuberance of the moment was what happened behind Alberto. Rudolf Fischer, the gentleman racer from Ecurie Espadon, would manage to finish 3rd behind Ascari by some seven minutes. Further back came one that Fischer employed for a previous race at the Nurburgring. Two laps down to Ascari came Riess. Riess had performed well and helped to hold his RS together over the course of the 18 lap race. After starting the race 12th, Riess would drive a beautiful race and would finish 7th. He would miss out on a points-paying position by just two places. However, he would end up the best placed German.
Once again, Riess showed his abilities as a racer. He had taken on the best in the world in a hostile environment like the notorious Nordschleife and he had performed well. This would end up just being one of many good results Riess would score over the course of the remainder of the 1952 season.
After scoring a victory at Munchen-Riem one week after the German Grand Prix, Riess would travel to Wegberg, Germany for the 5th DMV Grenzlandringrennen. Located about an hour and a half up the road past Cologne, Wegberg was just one of a couple small villages surrounded by the 4.68 mile egg-shaped Grenzlandring.
Held on the 31st of August, the Grenzlandringrennen was the third of four rounds that made up the West German Championship. Coming into the event, the race for the championship was tight. Fritz Riess and Toni Ulmen seemed destined to fight it out for the title.
Although a lap around the Grenzlandring wasn’t all that short at a little more than four and a half miles, the race would be relatively short-lived. The race consisted of just 12 laps around the ultra-fast circuit. Due to its shape, the average speeds around the circuit were high. Average race speeds around the circuit would tend to be in excess of 125 mph. A single fastest lap tended to run as high as 130 mph plus.
By far and away, the most numerous chassis in the field would be the Veritas. Drivers would enter either the Meteor or the RS. Riess would end up being one of seven RSs entered in the race.
