Harald Ertl (31 August 1948 - 7 April 1982) was an Austrian racing driver and motorsport journalist.

Ertl was born in Zell am See and attended the same school as drivers Jochen Rindt and Helmut Marko. In 1969 he bought a Formula 5 car, won six races, but also rolled at the Nürburgring. He was second in the European Cup with a Kaimann chassis in 1970, and started also in Formula 3 with a March Engineering 703.

In 1971 he moved to Touring car racing, driving an Alfa Romeo in the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (DRM) and the European Touring Car Championship.

From 1974 to 1978, Ertl raced in Formula 2 including the ADAC Eifelrennen.

Based on experience with their BMW, Schnitzer Motorsport developed a Toyota Celica LB Turbo for Ertl in 1977. His career highlight was winning the DRM championship in 1978 driving a BMW 320i Turbo for Schnitzer Motorsport.

In 1979 and 1980, he drove successfully for Zakspeed, winning several races with their Ford Capri turbo. They also developed a mid-engined Lotus Europa for the 1000km Nürburgring. Harald Ertl did not race in 1981, but planned a return for the 1982 Renault 5 Turbo Cup.

Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda (born February 22, 1949 in Vienna) is an Austrian former Formula One racing driver and three-time F1 World Champion. More recently an aviation entrepreneur, he has founded and run two airlines and was manager of the Jaguar Formula One racing team for two years.

Lauda was born in Vienna, Austria, to a wealthy family. His paternal grandfather was the Viennese-born businessman Hans Lauda.

Lauda became a racing driver despite his family's disapproval. After starting out with a Mini, Lauda moved on into Formula Vee, as was normal in Central Europe, but rapidly moved up to drive in private Porsche and Chevron sports cars. His career seemed to be going nowhere in particular until he took out a large bank loan, secured by a life insurance policy, to buy his way into the fledgling March team as a Formula 2 (F2) driver in 1971. He was quickly promoted to the F1 team and drove for March in both F1 and F2 in 1972. Although the F2 cars were good (and Lauda's test-driving skills impressed March principal Robin Herd), March's 1972 F1 season was catastrophic and Lauda, in despair and deep debt, briefly contemplated suicide but finally took out yet another bank loan to buy his way into the BRM team in 1973. Lauda was instantly quick but the team was in decline; his big break came when his BRM team-mate Clay Regazzoni rejoined Ferrari in 1974 and team owner Enzo Ferrari asked him what he thought of Lauda. Regazzoni spoke favourably of Lauda, so Ferrari promptly went and signed him, paying Niki enough to clear his debts.

Hans-Joachim Stuck (born 1 January 1951 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen), nicknamed "Strietzel", is a German racing driver who has competed in Formula One and many other categories. He is the son of the legendary Hans Stuck. As a young boy, his father taught him driving on the Nürburgring. In 1969 he started his first ever motor race at the Nordschleife. Speaking about that day he said, "Getting to the grid was extremely exciting. All of a sudden, my wishes to become a racer came true. I just wanted to start the race and give everybody hell!" Remarkably, the following year, at just 19 years of age, he won his first 24 hours race at the wheel of a BMW 2002TI. He won there again in 1998 and 2004, too, each time with a BMW touring car.

The always friendly and funny, tall and blond Bavarian, who is living in Austria, was immediately after his birth nicknamed Strietzel by his grandmother, as she claimed that the newborn baby looked like one of the famous Stollen cakes of her Saxony area. He is also nicknamed "Regenmeister" ("Rainmaster") for his ability to race on wet tracks.