How did Wolfgang von Trips get to Ferrari? In 1951 he was living away from home as a student. His parents worried about his diet. He was, after all, a sickly child with a glucose disorder that might well have been diabetes. To make sure their son got enough to eat, the count and countess made a deal with a local restaurateur: they would pay him a flat fee, and in exchange von Trips could go there once a day, at any time, for a complete meal. What they did not know was that their son cut his own deal. Von Trips would take 90 percent of the payment. The restaurateur could keep 10 percent, and he didn’t have to provide any meals. With his cut von Trips bought a BMW motorcycle. A few years later he fixed up an old Porsche and began racing it.
I have been a fan of Grand Prix racing and especially the 1961 season from the earliest days when I was first reading Robert Daly’s “The Cruel Sport” and “Cars at Speed” and watching how some of the 1961 Italian Grand Prix was incorporated into the climactic race in the movie “Grand Prix” (1966). I’ve always been particularly intrigued by Von Trips though.
ReplyDeleteVery much looking forward to your book.
Richard Rothrock
Thank you Richard. It's interesting that Wolfgang von Trips and Phil Hill are largely unknown in America. My hope is to tell their story to a broader audience .
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