Eckhard “Ecki” Schimpf
to attend the Grand Meeting 2026

The bright orange cars of the Jägermeister Racing Team, most of them also bearing the Porsche emblem, were a familiar sight at almost every racetrack around the world from 1972 to 2000. They were driven by some of the finest names in motorsport, such as Graham Hill, Niki Lauda, Stefan Bellof, Hans-Joachim Stuck, Jochen Mass, Derek Bell and Jacky Ickx. Over the years, every one of these champions was under contract to Eckart ‘Ecki’ Schimpf. For over thirty years, the team – which was financed at the time by the entrepreneurial foresight of Günter Mast, Schimpf’s cousin and owner of Jägermeister – contested thousands of races and secured hundreds of victories – 80 of them with Schimpf himself at the wheel.

Eckhard Schimpf is not only the team’s founder, a racing driver and a widely read author, but also the man who ensured that the rare cars from Jägermeister’s racing history were brought back together in time – at least a very large proportion of them; indeed, one might say: the most significant part, comprising the most legendary cars.

An enthusiastic and outstanding journalist and author of over 20 books, Schimpf loved the camaraderie in the paddocks, even after he hung up his helmet for good in 1982. From then on, he devoted himself entirely to managing the team. In recent years, Schimpf, together with his son Oliver, managed to track down, purchase and restore over 20 of his old racing cars to launch ‘72 Stagpower – The Spirit of Jägermeister Racing’.

This initiative aims to successfully bring the spirit of this famous team back to life through demonstrations and exhibitions at historic events around the world. Selected racing cars from the collection have already been on display at the Classic Days on several occasions – on one occasion, the 72 Stagpower team thrilled fans at the festival with an unprecedented exhibition in 2018, whilst on another, Autostadt, as a partner, brought a large number of Jägermeister Racing cars, driven by the Schimpf family, to the starting line. And they provided a breathtaking panorama of orange racing cars.