Rudolf Caracciola was one of the greats during the early days of Motor Racing prior to World War II. He started racing at the age of 22 while working as a salesman at the Mercedes factory. After three years of being a “weekend racer” he decided to enter the first German Grand Prix at the banked Avus track in Berlin, To the amazement of the 500,000 strong crowd after starting dead last and spending time in the pits repairing a misfiring engine he won the event. Caracciola fast developed a reputation for his prowess in the rain and soon earned the title of Regenmeister (Rainmaster).

He soon became famous throughout Europe for his skill behind the wheel of his white SSK Mercedes. As well as Grand Prix racing he also scored major victories in legendary sports car races such as the Tourist Trophy and the Mille Miglia (the first non-Italian to win the event). He also won the European hillclimb championship in 1930.

During the 1933 Monaco Grand Prix he was involved in a major accident which left him with permanent injuries and a pronounced limp. Yet he returned to racing and won several more Grands Prix as well as the “European Driving Championship (the precursor to today’s modern F1 World Championship) three times between 1935 and 1938.

During the War he stayed in exile in Switzerland but couldn’t resist the racing bug and after the end of hostilities he tried to qualify for the Indy 500 in the late 1940s but crashed during practice. He was still racing in the Mille Miglia as late as 1952 but age and injuries took their toll and he retired after breaking his leg during a Swiss sports car event.

Rudolf Caracciola eventually succumbed to his various injuries and died from a bone disease on September 28th, 1959 at the age of 58.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 28th, 2006 at 4:57 pm and is filed under Drivers, Racers Past. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.