Klaus Klaffenböck – A World Championship debut at Spa-Francorchamps thanks to a bit of cunning

Securing a place on the starting grid for the Sidecar World Championship was no mean feat for ‘nobodies’ – as the Austrian pairing of Klaus Klaffenböck and Christian Parzer were in the late 1980s. You had to strike the right balance between self-confidence and humility. And even if you’d struck the right note, you were still at the mercy of the organisers’ arrogance.

As revealed in an exclusive extract from Klaffenböck’s biography *Sterben tun die Anderen* (It’s the Others Who Die), which is due to be published in mid-October but can already be ordered from his website or purchased in person from the world champion at the Sidecar Festival, the two hopeful Upper Austrians suffered a spectacular failure at Assen. Wolfgang Kalauch, a world-class German co-driver, advised them to try again the following week at Spa.

Read here in the second part of the extract how the crafty duo managed to cheat their way onto the starting grid at the Belgian World Championship round:

First of all, we repaired the broken engine in the Assen paddock. We then stayed on for a few more days and made the most of the night leading up to Saturday to party. Assen is legendary; hundreds of thousands of people really let their hair down there on race days. Parzer, in particular, knew how to make the most of this atmosphere. The future sidecar world champion was also a natural with the ladies, and things got really cramped in our Setra coach.

With a proper hangover, we set off for Spa Francorchamps on Sunday on the off chance. At the entrance to the paddock, we were at least allowed to put our names on a waiting list for participants. I asked when we’d hear back. As my English was rather poor (to put it mildly), I wasn’t sure if I’d understood the answer correctly: in two days?

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We waited in the car park outside the paddock. No electricity. No shower. But we were at Spa!

Two days later came the good news: permission to start – our first World Championship race! However, as only 30 of the 36 entered teams were allowed to race, we first had to qualify.

We were crammed into the far corner of Rolf Steinhausen’s pit. The German hero had been a two-time world champion and three-time TT winner in the 1970s – my predecessor, so to speak.

The Spa legend: Eau Rouge, Blanchimont, Stavelot

Famous sections of the circuit that make legends or shatter dreams. This is where the wheat is separated from the chaff. Anyone competing here for the first time faces a mammoth task. The circuit demands enormous precision at very high speeds. A World Championship debut couldn’t be much more difficult.

If we qualified, there was a 1,500 Swiss franc entry fee, and a place in the top 15 would boost our coffers with additional prize money.

We worked our way up slowly in practice, but it wasn’t enough at first – we were outside the top 30. There were only a few minutes left of qualifying. We were in the pits, ready for one last attempt, but deep down I thought: ‘Shit, that’s it.’

That left-hand move on my World Championship debut at Spa Francorchamps

Suddenly I saw Wolfgang Kalauch running towards us at full speed; he must have taken a fancy to us young wild ones. He leaned down towards me: “You’ve got one very last chance. Head out there, pretend you’ve braked too late at La Source, then drive straight into the run-off area, turn the sidecar round and, with a running start, give it everything – absolutely everything – you’ve got; that lap should then be good enough.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. Full throttle. La Source – oh dear, what a blunder – braked too late, and on the very last lap of all! Right then! Into the run-off area as planned, turned the sidecar round, back onto the track and past the start-finish line with plenty of speed to spare. Only a serious driving error could have ruined our plans now. (Unlike in Formula 1, the sidecars didn’t start until after the La Source hairpin bend, from where the track leads straight to Eau Rouge.)

We did it!

26th place and a 1,500 Swiss franc entry fee, paid out in cash on the spot. I’d never had that much money in my pocket in my whole life. Kalauch was really proud of us – and a bit, I reckon, of himself as well. We weren’t the first, however, nor were we the last to pull off such a stunt. Eventually, the race organisers saw through the trick. From then on, qualifying laps from the emergency exit were banned.

In the race, we didn’t manage to get any higher than 19th place. That was the best we could do against the absolute world elite. But we could just as easily have finished last.