Hermann
Lang

Hermann Lang was born in 1909 in Cannstatt, near Stuttgart. He worked as a motorcycle mechanic and began with amateur races on two wheels before moving into sidecar racing. At the age of 22 he won the German sidecar hillclimb championship. At Mercedes he worked as a mechanic and became a driver in the company's Grand Prix team.

Lang took his first major victory at the 1937 Tripoli Grand Prix and went on to win the race three years in a row. In 1938 he won the Coppa Ciano at Livorno. In 1939 he won five of the eight Grands Prix he started, including the races in Belgium, Pau, Switzerland and Tripoli again. The German motor racing authority declared him the 1939 European Champion. The title is regarded as unofficial, however, because it was not awarded by the competent body, the AIACR.

After the war, Lang won the first post-war race in Germany, at Ruhestein, in a BMW in 1946. In 1952 he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Fritz Riess in a Mercedes 300 SL. In the Formula One World Championship he made one start for Maserati in 1953, finishing fifth in the Swiss Grand Prix, and ended the year 15th in the standings. In 1954 he drove for Mercedes in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, starting 11th and spinning out after ten laps. He then ended his racing career and went back to work at the Mercedes factory. Lang died in 1987.

Source: Wikipedia, “Hermann Lang”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.