The race on the 14 mile long Nordschleife was 18 laps and totaled over 255 miles. Ferrari teammates Ascari and Farina qualified one-two for the race. Ulmen had just won a race on the course earlier, and therefore, was quite knowledgeable of the twists and turns of the long course. Unfortunately, Ulmen wasn’t able to achieve the pace possible to challenge the Ferraris at the front. The best the German could do was 15th.
Thirty-two would qualify for the race. However, only thirty would start the race. When the race did start, it was over. Ascari pulled away in the lead and would be untouchable throughout the eighteen laps. The only moment of drama at the point came when Ascari had to stop for oil. The lengthy stop cost him the lead going into the last lap. However, Ascari had more than enough pace over his Ferrari stable-mate and would pass him to take the victory by fourteen seconds.
The real battle was behind the top-three. Only twelve would be running by the end. All of the attrition enabled lower qualifiers to come up and battle it out for top-ten, even top-five finishing positions. Toni moved up well from his 15th starting position. Toward the end of the race he was locked in a battle with another BWM-powered Veritas driven by Fritz Riess. Though lapped by Ascari by the end, Ulmen would finish his second Formula One World Championship event in 8th place. He had only missed out on the points by three places. Nonetheless, it was a very good top-ten result for the German.
While the World Championship season, for Ulmen, had come to an end, another championship would just be heating up. The 8th place promoted Ulmen up in the standings in the West German Championship. The championship consisted of four rounds. The first had been the Eifelrennen.
At the end of May, Ulmen had finished 5th at the ADAC Eifelrennen. This had been the first round of the West German Championship. The second round of the championship had been the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring at the beginning of August, which was also counted toward the Formula One World Championship. The third round took place at the end of August.
On the 31st, the 5th DMV Grenzlandringrennen was set to take place. Hosted in Grenzlandring, the egg-shaped course was 5.7 miles in length and featured some high average speeds.
Over twenty drivers and cars prepared for the 12 lap race. Right from the start, Ulmen was on the charge. He would end up setting the fastest lap of the race with a lap of the 5.7 mile course in two minutes and thirty-one seconds. Over the course of the lap, Toni averaged over 132 mph!
Battling a field full of Veritas chassis, Ulmen would prevail. He would finish the 12 laps in thirty-one minutes and twenty-two seconds. His margin of victory was just under twenty seconds over Hans Klenk in another Veritas Meteor. This splendid victory helped Ulmen climb up amongst the leaders in the West German Championship. Three races down, one to go.
In between the third and fourth round of the West German Championship, Ulmen was able to take part in the final round of the East German Championship. Unfortunately for Toni, he had been unable to take part in any of the other rounds. And then, his result at the fourth wouldn’t have helped any.
Toni took part in the 4th Sachsenringrennen at the beginning of September. The race was only 12 laps of the 5.41 mile road course. It mattered not that Ulmen hadn’t taken part in any of the other rounds, for it was almost as though he hadn’t taken part in the last round either. After only a few laps into the race Ulmen suffered from a crash and was out of the running.
Although Toni suffered a disappointing result at the Sachsenring, he had the opportunity to become champion of the West German Championship at the end of the month.
On the 28th of September, Toni was at AVUS preparing to take part in the fourth and final round of the West German Championship. All that stood between him and the championship was 25 laps of the 5.13 mile road course and Fritz Riess’ performance in the race.
Fritz was Toni closest rival for the championship. However, for Fritz to take the championship he would have to take the victory. It was good for Toni that Fritz had to come up with such a performance because he would need every little bit of help he could get.
Ulmen couldn’t help his own cause in the race because it came to an end after only 1 lap of the 25 scheduled. This meant all of his hopes for a second championship rested upon Riess being unable to score the victory. Thanks to Rudolf Fischer and his Ecurie Espadon Ferrari 500, he had no chance. Fischer lapped the field in his victory run. Hans Klenk finished 2nd and Riess finished 3rd. This gave the West German Championship title to Toni Ulmen!
