Helmut Glöckler

Helm Glöckler was born in 1901, his brother, Walter Glöckler, was famous for creating a small Porsche Spyder in 1951 that later inspired the factory to the Porsche 550. In 1949 he won the German 1500 sports car championship in a Veritas before acquiring a French DB which he fitted with a BMW engine to compete in the German championship. Glöckler has the distinction of giving the DB its only international victory at Hockenheim in May 1951, beating the Emeryson of Ted Frost and Cooper Mk IV of Toni Kreuzer. He finished third overall in the 1951West German Championship.

Here are Helm's known results:

Nürburgring 20th August 1950 Grand Prix  5th

 

Hockenheim 14th May 1951, 1st

Nürburgring 3rd June 1951, 6th

Avus 1st July 1951, 9th

Nürburgring 29th July 1951 Grand Prix, DNF

Freiburg 5th August 1951, 12th

Grenzlandring 9th September 1951 13th

Essen 23rd September 1951, 3rd

Sachsenring 29th September 1951, 3rd

Helm in his DB-BMW, probably the German Grand Prix, 1951

After this he reverted back to sports cars set a new class record in the spring of 1952 driving his brother's Glöckler-Porsche at the Nürburgring on his way to winning the 1952 German championship. Helm became Porsche works driver in 1953 and at that year's Eifelrennen, marked by heavy rain, Helm gave the prototype factory Porsche 550 it's debut victory. In the sports car support race for the 1953 German Grand Prix, he retired on the fourth lap. He was entered for the Grand Prix in a Formula 2 Equipe Anglaise Cooper T23, but he blew up the engine in qualifying. Helmut competed at Le Mans in 1953 driving a Porsche 550 Coupé with Hans Herrmann to 16th place and in 1954 driving with Richard von Frankenberg they retired. He went on to win the German Sports Car Championship in 1954 for a second time. In the 1955 race he drove with Jaroslav Juhan driving a Porsche Spyder, finishing 6th overall and 3rd in class. His last appearance at Le Mans in 1956, ended with an accident while sharing a works Porsche 356 Carrera with Max Nathan.

Helmut Glöckler died in 1993, aged 92