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Well, thanks again everyone - I look forward to participating here!
To post something on the Nurburgring: :-)
A lap with Derek Bell driving a different kind of Porsche (Group-C 956 :-)
And, of course, who could hold less than the utmost respect for the late Stefan Bellof's record lap!
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Costas
Mar 20, 2009 11:48:29 AM
John H:
.... hope you enjoy the banter, the humour and the many pearls of wisdom, which make Rennteam so unique..
Hear, hear!! Couldn't have said it better myself 
Rennteam Moderator - 997S GT Silver/Cocoa, -20mm/LSD, PSE, SportDesign rims, Zuffenhausen collection
Mar 20, 2009 12:21:10 PM
Welcome Aviator
btw my favourite video on the 'Ring is this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6Thomd4BQg
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Forza rennteam 2.0!
Spyderidol, I know what you mean... Bellof was among the few racers who, somehow, you know belong in a different league. Not as a consequence of statistics, or records, but of their character, talent, and stance. I think of him in the company of Jim Clark, Villeneuve, Fangio. This paragraph, from an article on the net, puts it well:
Stefan went through his life with a smile on his lips and I'm sure that he, unlike the drivers mentioned above, was really enjoying the race to its fullest the moment he went into Eau Rouge. So instead of thinking with grief of what might have been, just try to remember with a smile the moments of brilliance we were fortunate enough to see. I think Stefan Bellof deserves to be remembered that way.
Mikigta, your video is of Stefan Roser, RUF test driver! :-) He is driving not for time, but for show - because the video was promotional. Of course, that detracts nothing from the admiration and respect everyone feels while watching the video, for the man's courage and command of that tail-happy monster! :-)
Here is another of Roser, in a RUF 996 Turbo: :-)
Thanks again for the welcome.
Bellof was a great talent definitely and a very exciting driver with lots of bravado. However, he was generally reckless in his approach to racing, something which Derek Bell also stressed in an interview I've read, many years after Bellof's loss . He used to take too many risks some of them totally unnecessary.
Unfortunately, such drivers (I also think of Gilles Villeneuve) while they please the crowds they are often met by their early deaths.
R.I.P. Stefan Bellof
No doubt, Bellof and Villeneuve were reckless, compared to other professional racers of their time. Yet, few people respect senseless disregard for danger, myself included, so I suspect that, in the case of such drivers, there was more at work. There was an element of heroism - which is so missing in contemporary times.
Heroism in the sense of balancing between professionalism, expertise, accuracy in execution, and, on the other hand, an exorbitant and "unacceptable" contempt for death and probability. The price of this contemptuous attitude was, almost inevitably in earlier years, the highest to be paid. I agree that the natural reaction before such loss is to think: "If only they had kept things a notch more patient/conservative/tactical/responsible" - I know I would, for a few more notches, if I ever were in their shoes.
A driver who "executes" and "delivers" while keeping things "reasonable" is no less a racer than those heroes of a time past. But then, he does not inspire in the same way either. Perhaps people, ever mindful of human fragility, inherently respect someone who challenges the odds armed with an unusual amount of talent. We secretly hope that their ability and dedication will see them through the challenge - showing to the rest of us that impossible tasks are performed, that even death can be cheated by a select few :-)
I am becoming sentimental it would seem as I get close to my forties, lol :-) I am sure John H did not have anything like this in mind when he mentioned "pearls of wisdom on rennteam" :-)
Mar 20, 2009 9:46:19 PM
Stefan Bellof was actually my motorsport "hero" when I was a teenager (of course already completely crazy about cars 
). When I watched his famous F1 race in Monaco on TV I was convinced that he would be the next F1 champion and when I heard the terrible news from Spa I had tears in my eyes (though decades ago I still can recall the moment like it would have been yesterday). So far for being sentimental 
: Porsche 997 GT3 Arctic/Black
Mar 21, 2009 9:09:24 AM
I liked Bellof too and I remember watching the Monaco race in a hotel in Munich in 1984 and getting very excited.
However, his risky attitude deprived us fans from his presence in motorsport (Schumacher would have been the "new Bellof" had he stayed alive) and cut his career very short with lots of unfullfilled promise in F1 at least.
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He was a hero of mine at the time. An absolute STAR! What a shame and what I would'nt give to see him race,
