YOUTUBE REVIEW
On Sunday Stefan Bellof would have turned 65 years old. He was an outrageous talent, with a World Sportscar Championship and a Ferrari Formula 1 contract in his pocket, but was killed in a Spa sportscar race in 1985.
He’s therefore one of motorsport’s big tales of what might have been.
But what had been was remarkable enough in itself. Not least on the Nurburgring Nordschleife on May 28 1983 in the works Porsche 956.
A legendary car, a legendary track and a legendary driver came together, and the number has gone into motorsport legend: 6m11.13s. That’s Bellof’s qualifying mark, some 5.7 seconds under that of team-mate Jochen Mass’s next best.
It stood as a Nordschleife record for some 35 years, when it was taken by the unconstrained Porsche 919 Evo.
And YouTube offers a glimpse of Bellof’s effort, at: youtube.com/ watch?v=4MbSn5rOv38. Sadly the on-track footage is limited, but it’s still a fascinating insight.