BMW: Reminiscence of the Junior Team 🎥
REMEMBERING MARC SURER In 1977, the legendary BMW Junior Team, which included Swiss driver Marc Surer, caused a sensation. With the then race director Jochen Neerpasch as mentor, a new generation is taking to the starting grid. The legendary BMW Junior Team celebrates its comeback after more than 40 years. In 1977, the American Eddie Cheever, who [...]
The legendary BMW Junior Team celebrates its comeback after more than 40 years. In 1977, American Eddie Cheever, Swiss Marc Surer and German Manfred Winkelhock caused a sensation in the motorsport world.
Holistic training
In 2020, a new generation of promising talents will compete under the name BMW Junior Team. Briton Dan Harper, German Max Hesse and American Neil Verhagen will complete a two-season holistic training program designed to set new standards in the development of young talent.
The aim of the completely new training concept is to develop the juniors together in many different areas, to support them individually and holistically and thus to make them better and, above all, more mature racers.
Operations at the Nürburgring
At the wheel of various race cars from Munich - M2 CS Racing, M4 GT4 and M6 GT3 - the BMW Junior Team will contest the Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS) and the 24-hour race in 2020, along with other training elements. The juniors will turn their first race laps on the Nordschleife on June 27 at the opening race of the NLS.
Experienced trio
19-year-old Dan Harper won the British Carrera Cup title in 2019 and received a nomination for the prestigious Autosport Awards for his achievements. 18-year-old Max Hesse celebrated a title win in the ADAC TCR Germany in 2019, and was also an ADAC development candidate. Neil Verhagen, also 18, finished sixth overall in the British F3 Championship in 2019 and was part of the Red Bull Junior program.
Jochen Neerpasch as stirrup holder
One of their mentors will be the man who founded the first BMW Junior Team in 1977 - Jochen Neerpasch.
In the short video, Jochen Neerpasch tells how he, as BMW's racing director at the time, came up with the idea of founding the BMW Junior Team.
Decisive for Marc Surer
For Marc Surer, a Basel native who later advanced to Formula 1, this development program was the decisive step in his career in 1977.
Marc Surer: "If I hadn't joined the BMW Junior Team back then, I wouldn't have had the chance to continue in motorsport. The good thing about those days was that we could drive absolutely freely, without any guidelines. We did sometimes drive into each other's cars, but we still had all the freedom we needed."
In his opinion, the current juniors are much better prepared for racing than they were back then.
Marc Surer: "If only because they started much earlier. In addition, there will be the simulators in the future, which we didn't have back then."
Development with teamwork
The then initiator and mentor of today's BMW juniors remembers those days fondly.
Jochen Neerpasch: "Eddie, Marc and Manfred were among the most promising young riders, and they were also an international team with different characters. With them, you could see how well they worked together as a team and how much faster they developed as a result. From this experience, we took a similar approach when putting together the current BMW Junior Team."
Learn and challenge
The 1977 juniors were notorious for their aggressive driving style. Nevertheless, the race director at the time didn't put the brakes on them. What was the reason?
Jochen Neerpasch: "Because that was the philosophy. They were supposed to drive completely freely. Back then, we even let them compete directly against our experienced drivers in the German Racing Championship to learn from them first and then challenge them. Our aim was not to win the championship with the BMW Junior Team, but to promote young talent. That's how we'll handle it with the current BMW Junior Team as well."
Riot race at the Norisring
The legendary BMW Junior Team - and Marc Surer in particular - went down in German motorsport history, especially in the race at the Norisring in 1977. The man from Basel literally slaughtered Hans Heyer's Ford Escort Zakspeed. Scenes like that, which swept the audience off their seats, are unthinkable today.
A film of about seven minutes looks back on that scandalous race.
The full story about the scandal at the Norisring and the 1977 DRM season is available in this Reminder of the equally legendary journalist and long-time track spokesman Rainer Braun can be read at our colleagues of Zwischengas.
