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The CLK-GTR was first tested in April 1997 at Jarama, one month before Hockenheim and just 128 days since the first sketches had been committed to paper. Much controversy over the homolgation followed. Unsuprisingly, Mercedes failed to produce a road vehicle on time for type approval. The FIA allowed a change to the entry rules so that the cars could race pending homolgation. This angered competitors who had already completed the process but the FIA felt it could not afford to lose the prestigious three-pointed star from the championship in it's inaugural year. The second CLK was completed and delivered to Hockenheim literally hours before the first practise on Friday where Bernd Schneider duly put the car on pole. The lead car was an early casualty in the race, however. A small screw came loose during a clutch change and jammed in the pedal mechanism and led the brakes to seize. The second car of Alessandro Nannini and Marcel Tiemann was delayed with an alternator failure. At Silverstone in May the car was unfortunate not to win. In atrocious conditions, Schneider took the lead from the Kox/Ravalia McLaren-BMW shortly before the race was red flagged. The result was, however, calculated on the order of the previous lap and the McLaren awarded victory.
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Tantalisingly close to victory in the rain at Silverstone |
The CLK finally won it's first race at the Nurburgring in June. From here on there was no looking back and the AMG squad tallied 5 more wins at the A-1 Ring, Suzuka, Donnington, Sebring and Laguna Seca. With 6 wins from 11 races, the championship was taken by 13 points from the McLaren-BMW. It was clear that the the low-slung and wide CLK had set new standards in GT racing and, for 1998 BMW decided to withdraw it's factory-supported team from the championships rather than build an expensive new challenger. This left Porsche and Mercedes to slug it out and Porsche went back to the drawing board to produce the far more radical 911 GT1-98.
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