Friday, March 13, 2020

The 100th Birthday of Mercedes Rally Driver Walter Schock




In 2020, Mercedes-Benz Classic commemorates the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of rally driver Walter Schock. He was born on 3 April 1920 in Stuttgart-Wangen, Germany. After leaving school, he began an apprenticeship as a motor vehicle mechanic at Mercedes-Benz and was assigned to the testing department when his training finished. Although only 17 years old, Schock was allowed to take a driving test and worked as a driver and test driver. As a young man, he showed an inclination for motor sports. Then the Second World War broke out and Shock became a pilot in a Luftwaffe night squadron.
Rally successes: After the end of the war, Walter Schock was highly successful as a rally driver with Mercedes-Benz vehicles from 1954 onwards. In 1954, he participated in the Solitude Rally for the first time in a Mercedes-Benz 220 (W 180) and, much to his own surprise, won a gold medal. The following year, Schock teamed up with Rolf Moll at the Rally Monte Carlo – and took third place in the overall standings. In 1956 and 1960, Schock and his co-driver Moll became European Touring Car Rally Champions and also won the International Rally Champion title in 1956.
Victories in Argentina and Monaco: Amongst his greatest success stories were the first German overall victory in the Rallye Monte Carlo in 1960 and in the Argentine Touring Car Grand Prix in 1961 – in both cases driving a Mercedes-Benz 220 SE (W 111). Walter Schock was also drawn to circuit racing, as victories in races at the Nürburgring show. And in 1972, at the ripe age of 52, he finished 2nd in the senior ranking of the Rallye Monte Carlo. Walter Schock died in 2005 at the age of 85 in Stuttgart.

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