Niki Lauda put Austria on the international motor racing map when he won the 1975 Formula 1 World Championship for Ferrari. During the same decade other talented Austrians began to emerge, such as Markus Höttinger and Jo Gartner. While Lauda went on to claim two more Formula 1 titles before retiring, both Höttinger and Gartner paid the sport’s ultimate price.
Early Racing Career of Markus Höttinger
Höttinger was born on May 28th, 1956. He was a gifted scholar, as may have been expected of a judge’s son. Höttinger also showed promise as a skier, but motor racing soon became his main passion.
Höttinger’s career began in saloon car racing, and in 1977 he won the Renault 5 Cup. One person he certainly impressed was the retired Formula 1 driver Dr. Helmut Marko, currently a talent spotter for Red Bull’s racing team. Marko’s own racing career ended in bizarre fashion during the 1972 French Grand Prix when a stone thrown up by another car pierced his visor, resulting in the loss of sight in one eye.
Markus Höttinger and BMW
With Marko’s help Höttinger was soon a BMW driver, after impressing in a one off drive towards the end of 1977 at Kyalami. He drove for the BMW satellite touring car team GS Tuning before coming to prominence in the Procar series, where identical examples of BMW’s M1 raced against each other.
The Procar series ran as support races during the course of Grand Prix weekends. Throughout 1979 Höttinger scored several podiums in the M1, against some Formula 1 drivers and in front of the Grand Prix teams.
Höttinger also dabbled in Formula 2 during 1979, before committing to the European series full time in 1980 driving for Maurer. The opening race of the year was a huge disappointment, as Höttinger’s BMW engine failed early on.
The Death of Markus Höttinger
The second round of the 1980 European Formula 2 Championship was staged at Hockenheim in Germany. During the race Andrea de Cesaris attempted to pass Manfred Winkelhock at the first corner, only for both cars to crash out.
One lap later Mike Thackwell and Derek Warwick approached the same corner. Thackwell dived past Warwick on a track surface made slippery by dropped oil. Warwick lost control on the exit of the corner and spun before crashing into the armco. A wheel which had detached itself from Warwick’s car then flew back across the track into the path of the hapless Höttinger.
Höttinger’s Maurer finally came to rest some distance away after further contact with Bernard Devaney’s March. The wheel had inflicted massive head injuries and, although he was airlifted to hospital, Höttinger was pronounced dead.
His death was a huge blow to Austrian motor sport as Höttinger had been expected to make his Formula 1 debut that year in his home Grand Prix. The Formula 2 series eventually disappeared, before being re-launched in 2009. In a tragic coincidence 18 year old Henry Surtees lost his life at Brands Hatch due to an accident similar to the one which befell Höttinger.
