Solitude-Rennen

I worked at the castle Solitude in Stuttgart during the spring and summer of 2003 and in the summer was this oldtimer rally named Solitude-Rennen. Between 1961 and 1964 Formula 1 was run on a race track around the castle attracting lots and lots of people. The most popular year however was 1956 when 435 000 spectaors came to look at "Großer Preis von Deutschland WM".

I was working the whole long day, but didn't have that much to do so I had time to look at all the cars. A funny thing happened when I was eating a buffée at the restaurant. As I was fetching dessert a couple took my table for free and sat down, when I got back I sat down with them and found it amusing how they switched between speaking English and German. Eager to get into conversion I realized I was dining with Dan Gurney and his wife, the wife he met at Schloss Solitude as he won the Formula 1 race there in 1962. Just ten minutes earlier I had been reading about him in the program for the race.