It is one of the most familiar liveries and yet an understated one. It may not be as replicated as, say, Gulf or John Player Special colours, but Jagermeister is one of the longest-standing backers and its orange colours have decorated many a racing car, mostly run by Germans or German teams, with over 150 drivers having sat in the orange cars with the stag’s head.
The man responsible for triggering Jagermeister’s involvement was German journalist and competitor Eckhard Schimpf who had fallen in love with motorsport as a 10-year-old. Bitten by the motorcycle racing bug, a career on two wheels never materialised. Instead, he turned his fascination to racing and rallying and co-drove in rallies, on occasion with Kurt Ahrens who brought Schimpf to circuits and allowed him to have a race himself such as at the Norisring in 1961 in a Lotus Cortina.
