Lauda rimes with Alpina

Niki Lauda is getting ready for qualifying at the Nürburgring 1000 km in 1973 (picture-above). He shares this Alpina Racing BMW 3.0CSL with Australian Brian Muir, but they didn’t start the race because of a crash in practice.

Lauda took out another bank loan to buy his way into the BRM Formula One team in 1973. Niki was instantly quick and his popularity was on the rise after he was running third at the Monaco Grand Prix that year, before his gearbox failed. He also drove in touring cars, like here-above at the Nürburgring, to get some valuable race mileage and to finally make some money.

Brian Muir (1931-1983) was an Australian racing driver. He had a lot of successes in touring cars. He won, for instance, the 1970 RAC Tourist Trophy in a Chevrolet Camaro, making him the first Australian to claim the trophy. Muir also finished runner-up in the European Touring Car Championship in 1973, here-below at Spa.