Rosemeyer's third consecutive Nürburgring victory.

Rosemeyer took the start, only to be passed by Caracciola's Mercedes. Rosemeyer then retook the lead on the third lap. After a tremendous duel with Caracciola Rosemeyer managed to open up a gap after the pit stops. Caracciola tried his best but on this track he could do nothing against Rosemeyer, who took his third Nürburgring victory in a row.

Entries: Both German teams had of course a full five car entry for the Eifelrennen.       Auto Union was much depending on Bernd Rosemeyer with Rudolf Hasse as second driver as Hans Stuck was in South America and Luigi Fagioli was suffering from rheumatism and had to miss the race, spending his time at a spa in Venice instead. He would not race again until Coppa Acerbo two months later. Ernst von Delius was to start but he was in pain and a bit shaken by the test crash one week earlier when he got hit by a sparrow. Motorcycle racer Hermann Müller made his Auto Union race debut.       Daimler-Benz entered five cars to be driven by their regular drivers Rudolf Caracciola, Manfred von Brauchitsch and Hermann Lang and by junior drivers Richard Seaman and Christian Kautz. Kautz made his racing debut with the team in a car fitted with the new experimental suction carburettor supercharger system.       Scuderia Ferrari entered two 12 cylinder cars for Tazio Nuvolari and Giuseppe Farina.       The rest of the entries were also-runners with no chance for a top position. Hans Rüesch entered his Alfa Romeo 8C-35 with the same appearance as it had had at Helsinki, red with a white oval surrounding the radiator. Renato Balestrero was to race his Tipo B/P3 colored with a white front part and dark rear part. Guglielmo Carraroli was to race an Alfa Romeo 2900A sports car.       Lazlo Hartmann was there with his Maserati 8CM painted in Hungarian red-white-green as was Soffietti with his narrow nosed Maserati 6C-34. Mandirola entered a Maserati 8CM painted in the Swiss colors, red with white bonnet, and Hungarian Count Festetics was also to race an 8CM.

Practice: Instead of the usual rain and fog Nürburgring was hit by a heat wave with 35°C (95°F) during Friday practice! Rosemeyer was fastest in practice and took pole position with a time of 9m57s, being 3 seconds slower than during the pre-race test. He was joined in the front row by von Brauchitsch and Caracciola.       There were problems with von Brauchitsch's car and he had to take over Seaman's. A new car for Seaman was sent from Stuttgart and it arrived on Saturday night on a special built fast going lorry.

Race: At dawn the weather did not look too good but it improved with the sun eventually breaking through the clouds. An estimated 300,000 spectators turned up for the event.       The event started off as early as 8 o'clock with two motorcycle races with entries in several classes. It was followed by a five lap sports car race, in which some 31 cars in 6 classes took part. The overall winner was Indian-British driver Alfred Fane (Agabeg) in a Frazer Nash-BMW 328 with an overall time of 1h03m05.6s. Ex-Mercedes driver Henne tried to challenge Fane but he crashed at Hocheichen and injured a shoulder. After the race Fane did a lap of honor with Korpsführer Hühnlein as a passenger.       After that it was finally time for the racing cars. As this was only a ten lap race, less than half the distance for the German Grand Prix, no refueling was needed. Herr Dietrich of Continental, which delivered the tyres to the German teams, expected that doing lap times below 10m20s meant that the rear tyres had to be changed at half distance.       Unlike the sports cars, which had used a 4-3-4 grid, the Grand Prix cars were lined up in 3-2-3 formation:

6 Caracciola Mercedes-Benz 8 Brauchitsch Mercedes-Benz ~10m05.6s 1 Rosemeyer Auto Union 9m57.6s 4 Hasse Auto Union 7 Lang Mercedes-Benz 12 Farina Alfa Romeo 11 Nuvolari Alfa Romeo 2 von Delius Auto Union 5 Müller Auto Union 10 Kautz Mercedes-Benz 16 L Hartmann Maserati 9 Seaman Mercedes-Benz 18 Rüesch Alfa Romeo 15 Soffietti Maserati 24 Carraroli Alfa Romeo 20 Mandirola Maserati 19 Balestrero Alfa Romeo 23 Festetics Maserati

The race was started with red-amber-green lights. On the grid several cars kept moving forward and when the amber light turned to green Nuvolari's Alfa had already almost reached the front line. Rosemeyer took the lead, only to be passed at the back straight between Südkehre and Tribunenkurve by Caracciola's Mercedes. Spectators at the main stand got reports from the Karussel indicating that Caracciola was leading there by two seconds. The last reporting station was at Galgenkopf at the start of the main straight and there Caracciola held on to his lead.       The first lap finished with seven German cars at the top. Caracciola was leading by 5 seconds after having done the first lap with a standing start in 10m13.4s. He was followed by Rosemeyer, von Brauchitsch, Lang, von Delius, Seaman and Hasse. Nuvolari was the first Alfa driver in eighth place.       On the second lap Seaman had to retire at Fuchsröhre with fuel feed problems. Rosemeyer did the second lap in 9m58.8s. Rosemeyer was now challenging Caracciola and managed to pass him for the lead only to be re-passed. Starting the third lap Caracciola was leading by 1.4 seconds. Then after a tremendous duel between the Mercedes-Benz and the Auto Union drivers, Rosemeyer took the lead at Aremberg, passing Caracciola on the outside in the corner, and started to open up the gap to the Mercedes cars of Caracciola and von Brauchitsch. The rest of the cars, led by Lang, were already far behind. Meanwhile Kautz did a low profile race with his new experimental Mercedes. He pitted with his car leaking oil but was sent out again.       After five laps the pit stops started with Caracciola coming in first with his left rear tyre worn down to the canvas and he was soon followed by von Brauchitsch. The Mercedes mechanics worked 38 seconds on Caracciola's car and 35 or 36 seconds on von Brauchitsch's car and then they were away again, holding on to their positions.       Order at half point: 1. Rosemeyer (Auto Union) 2. Caracciola (Mercedes-Benz) 3. von Brauchitsch (Mercedes-Benz) 4. Lang (Mercedes-Benz) 5. Hasse (Auto Union) 6. Nuvolari (Alfa Romeo) 7. Rüesch (Alfa Romeo) 8. Müller (Auto Union) On the sixth lap it was Rosemeyer's and Lang's turn to change rear tyres. The Auto Union mechanics did a record job sending Rosemeyer back after only 25 seconds, Lang's pit stop taking 45 seconds. The Auto Union mechanics were sent out from the pit to receive applause from the spectators. (Note 1)       Because of the fast pit stop and Caracciola's earlier tyre trouble Rosemeyer was now leading Caracciola by 45 seconds. So Rosemeyer could ease up, just concentrating on keeping the gap. Von Brauchitsch was still third, Hasse cruising to save tyres fourth and Nuvolari fifth, making an excellent effort as usual.       On the seventh lap Lang was back in the pit to change his wet plugs and lost two places to Hasse and Nuvolari. All Mercedes cars had plug problems during the race because of the fuel pump, which either gave too much fuel or did not work at all.       Hasse made a late stop on the 8th lap to change rear tyres just in case, but with the car already up on the jack the team, noticing the tyres looked ok, frantically signaled him to continue as Nuvolari was approaching fast. Hasse got off the jack and rejoined the race just behind Nuvolari. On the back straight behind the pits the Alfa Romeo driver waved the faster Auto Union by, a gesture much appreciated by the crowd.       Farina retired around lap 8 with engine trouble. Already gone were Festetics, Mandirola and Balestrero.       Rüesch was the fastest privateer, working hard to keep newcomer Müller behind.       But no one could do anything against Rosemeyer, who after having done 10m10s laps speeded up a bit on the last lap, doing a 10m03s to win by some 50 seconds and receiving an enthusiastic welcome by the team as well as by the spectators. Rosemeyer took his third consecutive Nürburgring victory calmly. The Eifelrennen was after all raced on the 13th of June and 13 was Rosemeyers's lucky number.       The Auto Union success interrupted the line of victories Mercedes had had during the first part of the season. Caracciola and von Brauchitsch finished second and third. Hasse finished fourth, having to save the tyres, and Nuvolari fifth receiving a great ovation, the Mantuan always being popular by the Nürburgring crowd. Lang was sixth having done the later part on the race on 7 cylinders.       Hans Rüesch in his Alfa Romeo was the first privateer to take the flag in a very honorable eighth position before newcomers Kautz, and Müller.       After the race the engine on Rosemeyer's Auto Union was removed from the car and sealed, as it was to be used for a planned speed record attempt.       Fastest laps: Rosemeyer 9m58.4s, Caracciola 10m02.1s, von Brauchitsch 10m02.2s, Lang 10m25.0s, Hasse 10m26.1s, Nuvolari 10m26.2s.

Eugenio Siena scores

Once again it was three private ERAs against a field of Maseratis. This time the Maseratis took command from the start with Severi leading from Rovere and Siena. However, both Severi and Rovene were soon in trouble leaving Siena to win. Marazza once again did a fine job in his old 4CS car.

Parco del Sempione was, as in 1936, used for the Milan Grand Prix, but for 1937 the circuit was straightened out a bit, bypassing four of the tightest 1936 corners. The new circuit had a more simple profile, more or less rectangular in shape, and had been shortened by 200m to 2.4 km. The number of grandstands was increased from six to eight.       Also, an electric timing system with photo cells, similar to the one used at Tripoli in May and Florence a week earlier, was installed.

Entries: The entry list naturally had similarities to the one at Florence. However, there seems to have been no works Maserati entries and their driver Trossi was instead racing for Scuderia Ferrari in the GP class. Rovere had access to the works new 4-cylinder engined independent sprung Maserati that had been introduced at Florence, so it might have been entered under the driver's name.       Scuderia Ambrosiana entered 1.5 liter cars for brothers Emilio and Luigi Villoresi and Scuderia Maremmana cars for Francesco Severi and Franco Cortese, while Nando Barbieri did not appear.       Also there were private 6CMs entered by Eugenio Siena, Vittorio Belmondo, Giovanni Rocco and Gino Rovere and two 1500cc 4CS two seaters were entered by Aldo Marazza and Nando Righetti .       Luigi Castelbarco was to race Luigi Plate´s 8 cylinder Talbot and Sergio Carnivali the "MB Speciale" with Bugatti chassis and Maserati engine.       The works ERA team was not present, and their driver Pat Fairfield was racing at Le Mans, so the British entries consisted, apart from Johnny Wakefield's blue Maserati 6CM, of three private ERAs: Reggie Tongue's dark green R11B, Peter Whitehead's black R10B, and the "White Mouse" stable's yellow-blue R2B "Romulus" for Prince Bira. The Siamese team arrived after much hesitation as it had been seen in Florence, where Bira had retired with brake problems, that the engine of the ERA was in very bad shape. Prince Chula approached Maserati about the possibility of borrowing a 6CM but got the answer that the company's policy was to sell cars, not to lend them. So to keep their promise to the organizers it was decided that Bira should start in the ERA but immediately retire if the engine showed signs of giving up. New brake pads were sent down from England by air.       Apart from the 1500cc cars there were also five 1100cc Maseratis to be raced by "Johnny" Lurani, Pino Baruffi, Giuseppe Gilera , Gianbattista Azzi and Eugenio Minetti (4CS).

Practice: On Friday the voiturettes practiced between the sessions for the larger class. Rovere was fastest setting in a time of 1m25.45s. Then followed Emilio Villoresi, 1m27.8s, Siena, 1m28.40s Cortese 1m28.60s and Tongue 1m29.32s, Luigi Villoresi 1m30.4s, Severi 1m31.1s, Belmondo 1m32.7s and Lurani 1m33.8s.       Bira did not take part in Friday practice with his ERA as it was not ready but he did some laps in Lurani's 1100cc car to learn the circuit.       Paul Sheldon has listed times for the grid positions that then should correspond to Saturday practice results even if some of the times are clearly rounded off: Siena 1m24s, Rovere, 1m25.24s, Severi 1m26.24s, Cortese and Marazza 1m27s, E & L Villoresi, Bira and Rocco 1m28s, Tongue and Wakefield 1m29s.

Race: Race day came with nice and sunny weather. There are no spectator numbers available but in 1936 there had been some 30,000 spectators and the number was hardly less in 1937.       While the dignitaries including Giuseppe Furmanik, who had succeeded Count Vicenzo Florio as president of the Italian Sports commission (CSAI), took their positions on the grand stand the spectators found positions on the stands or on the grass all around in the park. For some reason Gilera did not start so there were 20 voiturettes that lined up like this for the 2 a.m. start:

12 Severi Maserati 50 Rovere Maserati 10 Siena Maserati 52 E Villoresi Maserati 6 Marazza Maserati 42 Cortese Maserati 38 Rocco Maserati 34 "B Bira" ERA 22 L Villoresi Maserati 24 Carnevalli MB 14 Wakefield Maserati 4 Tongue ERA 16 Righetti Maserati 8 Lurani Maserati 36 Belmondo Maserati 32 Minetti Maserati * 40 Castelbarco Talbot 48 Azzi Maserati 54 Whitehead ERA 18 Baruffi Maserati * 26 Gilera (Maserati) DNS

It seems that the flag was dropped a bit suddenly, as some drivers were taken by surprise and had not revved up their engines. Anyway, Severi immediately took the lead followed by Rovere, Siena, Emilio and Luigi Villoresi and Bira with the ERA's brakes not yet bedded in sixth position.       Severi held his lead for six laps but then had to make a pit stop giving the lead over to Rovere. But Siena was in great form and managed to pass Rovere to be the third leader of the race.       Luigi Villoresi, who had to stop for a long time, and Bira were falling back while Marazza, racing the two seater sports car advanced to third. Lurani had used the car to drive in hill climbs and its close ratio box was ideal for the circuit.       The order was now Siena, Rovere, Marazza and Bira. Behind them there was a duel between Cortese and Emilio Villoresi that ended when Villoresi had to make a pit stop, losing a lap. Then on the 29th (or 19th?) lap Bira came into the pits and reported that the oil pressure had disappeared on the ERA.       Now the eyes were on Rovere in the special 4 cylinder Maserati, who held a firm second position following Siena. Would he be able to retake the lead?       No! After 32 laps Rovere retired with engine troubles leaving over second position to Marazza. Cortese was third and Tongue fourth and best of the ERAs, while Luigi Villoresi had car trouble and was falling further back.       There were no major changes of the order during the latter part of the race, even if Cortese was able to close the gap to Marazza to 10 s in the end.       So the race ended with some odd names in the results list. Siena took the flag to take his only voiturette victory. Marazza did a great job in the 4CS to finish second and Cortese third followed by Tongue in fourth place.       Lurani finished 11th overall and first of the 1100cc entries.       Just as at Florence there were problems with the electrical timing during the race as the system got jammed or the photoelectric cell failed to find the cars.

Alfa Romeo gives Auto Union a lesson

On the twisty park circuit Hasse's long Auto Union had no chance against the more nimble Alfa Romeos and Hasse had to see himself beaten not only by Nuvolari's and Farina's Scuderia Ferraris but also by Rüesch's private Alfa.

Parco del Sempione, near the Alfa Romeo factory at Portello, was, as in 1936, used for the Milan Grand Prix, but with a shortened circuit (see the voiturette race). The race was subtitled "Coppa del Fascio Primogero".

Entries: Scuderia Ferrari entered three 12 cylinder Alfa Romeos for Tazio Nuvolari, Giuseppe Farina and Carlo Felice Trossi. Hans Rüesch entered his usual white nosed 8 cylinder car.       Auto Union sent one car for Rudolf Hasse. There have often been speculations why Auto Union, after having been beaten at the 1936 race, decided to enter a car for the 1937 race as well to a circuit that did not fit their car. Mostly the answer has been that they wanted to give Hasse some practice in a minor race. However, Automobil-Revue has an answer. It claims that the entry was the result of a recent agreement between the German and Italian automobile sport authorities to take part in each other's race events.       Initially it was meant that Piero Dusio should drive his 3.7 liter Maserati 6C-34 in the race under the "Scuderia Torino" banner. However, Dusio sold the car to Scuderia Maremmana, which entered an Alfa Romeo P3 for Giacomo de Rham and at a late moment also invited prince Bira to drive the 6C-34. However as Dusio now was out of car, it was decided that de Rham should give over the Alfa Romeo P3 to Dusio for the race and that de Rham would start the race in the Maserati 6C-34 and then give it over to Bira.       The rest of the field consisted of two Alfa Romeos by privateers Andrea Brezzi, and Giovanni Minozzi and two 3 litre Maseratis driven by Hungarians Count Festetics and Lazlo Hartmann, the latter's car probably painted red-white-green.

Practice: First practice started at 2 p.m. on Friday. Hasse was immediately out to learn the new track and soon was down to a lap time of 1m23s. Later he improved to 1m22.2s. Farina was next with a time of 1m22.93s with Nuvolari two seconds slower than his team mate and Trossi also taking it easy concentrating on learning the circuit. Later in the afternoon the Ferrari drivers pushed a bit more, Trossi going down to 1m22.3 and Nuvolari, according to "Il Littoriale" making 1m21 flat, being fastest of the day. However, according to "La Stampa" the fastest Friday times were: Hasse 1m22.3s, Trossi 1m22.3s, Nuvolari 1m22.5s, Rüesch 1m22.8s and Farina 1m22.9s       Practice continued on Saturday morning and afternoon but as usual, because of the newspaper deadlines, there is, apart from the grid positions, no information available about the Saturday practice times.

Race: The voiturette race was scheduled for 2 p.m., the big class for 3:45 p.m. In the interval between the two races reports of the horrible Le Mans accident came through to the teams.       After having had serious problems with the photoelectric cells during the voiturette race it was decided to return to manual timing for the big class.       The 11 competitors lined up for the 70 lap race with Nuvolari in pole position like this:

66 Trossi Alfa Romeo 58 Rüesch Alfa Romeo 88 Nuvolari Alfa Romeo 86 Minozzi Alfa Romeo 78 Farina Alfa Romeo 82 Hasse Auto Union 76 Festetics Maserati 64 de Rham Maserati 56 Brezzi Alfa Romeo 84 Dusio Maserati 74 L Hartmann Maserati (Note 1)

When the flag dropped Farina did the best start, coming from the second row to take the lead, but he had to see himself passed by Nuvolari on the very first lap. Behind them followed Trossi, Rüesch and Hasse. As expected the real race was between five competitors, the three Ferraris and Rüesch's private Alfa vs. Hasse's Auto Union. The rest of the cars were also-runs.       On the sixth lap Hasse, struggling with too much horsepower for this type of circuit, finally managed to pass Rüesch for fourth position but the duo had fallen back from the three works Ferraris. Further back Bira had taken over the Scuderia Maremmana Maserati from de Rham on the sixth lap and was running in 7th position. It was the first time Bira sat in the 6C-34 even if he had experience with the similar 8CM.       Trossi was pushing Farina and passed him for second position on lap 13 and Trossi, good as ever on street circuits, started to close in on Nuvolari. Meanwhile Dusio was the first retirement in the race and he was later to be followed by Count Festetics.       At 20 laps Nuvolari and Trossi had a 40 second advantage over Hasse. Trossi caught Nuvolari and managed to pass him on the 21st lap to the cheers of the emotional crowd, who, while being Nuvolari fans, loved to see him challenged by an underdog.       To their disappointment Trossi had to stop on the next lap to change a sparking plug, falling down to fifth position. On the 24th lap Farina spun out on the grass but managed to rejoin without any car damage. He had however dropped behind Hasse. So the race order was now Nuvolari, Hasse, Farina, Rüesch and Trossi.       Laszlo Hartmann lost control of his Maserati and went spectacularly into the straw barriers at a speed of some 100 km/h, in front of the main grandstand but continued nonstop.       Trossi caught and passed Rüesch on the 31th lap. Rüesch then had to see himself lapped by Nuvolari on lap 36. Farina, who had been attacking Hasse for several laps, found a way past on lap 46, moving up to second.       Meanwhile Bira had to retire with engine problem or fuel starvation. Trossi, again going strong, was closing in on Hasse, but then the steering was not feeling right and he had to make a lengthy stop to check the steering and for front brake adjustments on lap 49.       When Nuvolari put Hasse a lap down on lap 55 the latter seems to have got a bit frustrated by the situation and spun his Auto Union, losing third position to Rüesch. On the 59thlap Nuvolari, showing his superiority, lapped second positioned Farina as well.       And that was the race order that continued to the end. Nuvolari took the flag for his only 1937 race win, followed two minutes later by his team mate Farina. Rüesch was an excellent third, having beaten an Auto Union fair and square. Some early reports seem to have put Trossi in front of Hasse as the Alfa driver had passed the Auto Union late in the race. However, it was soon realized that Trossi was 2 laps behind the German.       This was to be the last prewar Italian "town" event that featured a class racing to the international formula. From now on they would concentrate on the voiturette class leaving the Grand Prix cars to Montenero, Pescara and Monza.

Mays dominates with the works ERA

Final: Four cars from the first heat and five from the second qualified for the final that started at 4:35 p.m.

6 Dreyfus Maserati 22 Mays ERA 18 Hanson Maserati 26 de Graffenried Maserati 4 Du Puy Maserati 24 Wakefield Maserati 28 Gollin Maserati 8 Rose-Itier Bugatti 36 Herkuleyns MG

Dreyfus made the best start only to be passed after only some 50 meters by the better accelerating ERA of Mays. Mays did the first lap from standing start in 4m02s (145.3 km/h) with Dreyfus 3 seconds behind. Then followed in order Wakefield, Gollin, Hanson, de Graffenried, Du Puy, Itier and Herkuleyns.       Mays pulled away with ease. After the second lap, he led by 10 seconds after the third lap with 16 seconds. Further back there was a very tight fight for fourth position between Hanson, Gollin and de Graffenried with only a few seconds separating the competitors.       Mays picked up the pace even more, doing the fourth lap in 3m59s (147.1 km/h). The situation after 5 laps, where Mays had opened up a 33 second gap, looked like this: 1. Mays (ERA) 20m05s (145.9 km/h) 2. Dreyfus (Maserati) 20m38s 3. Wakefield (Maserati) 21m10s 4. Gollin (Maserati) 5. Hanson (Maserati) 6. de Graffenried (Maserati) Dreyfus regularly did 4m04s laps but had no chance against Mays who made the sixth lap in a record time of 3m58s (147.7 km/h) only to inprove the time on the seventh lap to 3m54s (150.2 km/h). After eight laps the gap between Mays and Dreyfus was 47 seconds, after nine laps 49 seconds, and after ten laps 55 seconds. The race order after 10 laps was: 1. Mays (ERA) 39m55s (146.8 km/h) 2. Dreyfus (Maserati) 40m50s 3. Wakefield (Maserati) 42m32s 4. de Graffenried (Maserati) 44m13s 5. Hanson (Maserati) 45m09s 6. Gollin (Maserati) 45m29s 7. Itier (Bugatti) 50m36s Du Puy retired his Maserati on the eleventh lap. After thirteen laps Mays lead has increased further to 1m21s. He was regulary doing sub-four minute laps while Dreyfus's best lap of the race would be 4m02s. Mays did the last lap in 3m56s to win by 1m43s over Dreyfus who was followed to the flag by four other Maserati drivers. Itier could not complete her last lap as the Bugatti broke down on the circuit.