To me, the Avus numbers among the world's
most important racetracks. It was a highlight, the Avus because of the geographic location
in the city, in Berlin. Hardly any other racetrack has a history like this one. To drive on it
and achieve success here was part of being a good race car driver. My name is Hans-Joachim Stuck. I've been active
as a race car driver for 50 years now, quite a long time, but I'm proud of it, and for
me, of course, the Avus turning one hundred years old will be a very important milestone
in my career. That's my father. I recognize him by his bearing,
by the cap, the glasses and shape of his face. He always stood out. But what was he driving
back then? What the guys achieved back then with those
cars I can only say it again and again: it was incredible! I take my hat off to them.
And given the bad ergonomics how badly you sat in there. You couldn't stretch your legs
out; you had your arms bent; you had no safety belts, no ABS, no automatic transmission,
no power steering. And then, at that speed: they drove at 400 kilometers per hour in those
things and on those skinny tires just imagine! And, if you flew off, you might've ended up
dead. Yes, I can still feel the blisters from the
shaky steering wheel on my hands today when I dream about it at night and my feet got
burned on that hot brake pedal. I'll never forget that. It wasn't always easy to keep
the fishtailing under control. They really drove at nearly 400 kilometers
an hour back then. There were no guardrails, and the Grunewald forest was right there.
Not to forget the banked curve, of course, where you had considerably more downforce
on the car and greater stress on the car and on the driver, as well. So, physically, it
was an incredible achievement. One of the purposes it was built for was to
be used as a test track, because there weren't any other stretches where you could drive
straight ahead for so long and put the cars to the stress test. That was one of the main
reasons for building the track. Ladies and gentlemen, a warm welcome to the
opening race on the Avus here in Berlin in 1921. Fritz von Opel is at the starting line
in his red Opel 8 - 25HP. We're actually down here in the racing paddock. At the time of the
German Touring Car Championships that I personally experienced, they used to set up all the trucks
for the major racing teams here. They set the tents up here. You could walk around here
as a little boy and meet the great racing legends in person. One function of the Avus was to be a test lab, a field lab for asphalt. At first, they
had different surfaces on the track, to try to them out. For road building, too. What
we know today about recycling materials and how road building works was tested here on
the Avus. Later, that flowed into highway- and road construction across Germany and worldwide.
At the very least, the Avus is the founder of the Autobahn, the inspiration for it, and
played a big role in roads as we know them today. In principle, it was the road to freedom. Sure you still had the transit route ahead
of you, but once you passed that, you were in West Germany. That's why I call it the
"road to freedom". You drove right in Berlin. If I could choose
today, I'd race on the Nürburgring. It's a special location. That's clear. But it was
great to live in the city and spend time there. You met up with people and had fun. Those
were really great times. That flat curve was quite hard to negotiate, since the cars tended to oversteer. There
was that wreck with Dieter Quester, who rolled coming out of the curve and slid over the
finish line on his roof. Pretty heavy-duty stuff! Especially for traditional reasons because my father won there before. It's family history.
I mean, there aren't so many families in which father and son are race car drivers. And achieving
a certain success and knowing your father, who's up there in heaven, might be watching
and be happy. A great feeling. It's too bad you can no longer race on it.
But honestly, I must say that, due to the traffic situation and given that in normal
life it's an autobahn, it's clearly a tough call. I hope parts of it can be kept. That's important, as it s a symbol for Germany. I'm proud to have driven on the Avus. Happy
Birthday!
