Helmut Niedermayr

Born in Munich, Niedermayr was an ambitious sports driver and took part in numerous events from the late 1940s onwards with a racing car from the East German brand Reif, which could be used in both sports car and Formula 2 races. In doing so, he often achieved top rankings and thus attracted the attention of Alfred Neubauer. The race director hired Niedermayr for an assignment at the 24-hour race in Le Mans in 1952. There, alongside Theo Helfrich, the Munich native took second place in the 300 SL racing sports car behind team-mates Lang/Riess and was thus able to celebrate the biggest victory of his career.

He then returned to sports car and formula racing with Veritas and Reif. A few weeks after his success at the Sarthe, Niedermayr suffered a catastrophic accident at the Grenzlandring near Wegberg on the Lower Rhine. For reasons that are not entirely clear, he drove his Formula 2 racing car off the track and crashed into the spectators lined up at the side of the track. While he himself was only slightly injured, there were at least 13 dead and over 40 injured racegoers. This most serious accident in German motorsport history meant the final end for the Grenzlandring.

After a longer break, Niedermayr once again competed in sports car races and achieved further good results in 1954 with Porsche and Glöckler-Porsche. After that, he slowly wound down his active career.