Gerhard Mitter

An outstanding driver, Mitter was an infrequent Grand Prix competitor who surely deserved more opportunities at the highest level, as he showed with his fourth place in de Beaufort’s old Porsche in the 1963 German GP. As it was, he had to be content with just the annual outing at the Nürburgring, mainly in the Formula 2 class.

Gerhard was a top Formula Junior driver in the early sixties with his DKW-engined Lotus before joining Porsche in 1964. He was to become a mainstay of the German company’s endurance racing programme, winning the Austrian GP in 1966 and the Targa Florio in 1969 and gaining many other fine placings, also becoming three-times European mountain-climb champion between 1966 and 1968.

In 1969 Mitter was also involved in the development of the Dornier-built BMW F2 contender, but he crashed fatally during practice for that year’s German GP when, it was thought, a wheel may have come off the car.