Flugplatz Mendig: three races on an airfield and the TEA test area

On Sunday 29 August 1971, Jürgen Neuhaus covered fourteen laps of a rectangular circuit laid out on the runways of the military airfield in Mendig in 15 minutes and 23.9 seconds. He drove a Porsche 917 spyder, and Teddy Pilette in a McLaren M8E finished 3.9 seconds behind him. According to a 2020 study in the KuLaDig database, the winner's average was around 195 km/h, and this was a runway from which Bundeswehr army helicopters flew. It was the last of three race meetings at the Mendig airfield. Today the same runway is rented out by the company Test Event Area for car testing and events, and an amateur driver comes here in his own car for a licence course.

Location	Mendig, Mayen-Koblenz district, Rhineland-Palatinate; operator's address: Am Flugplatz 48
Type	former military airfield, today a civilian airstrip with a test and event area
Race course 1969–1971	3.59 km, a rectangle with three chicanes, driven anticlockwise
Loops today	small 2100 m, large 5100 m
Runway	about 1.6 km long, 36 m wide
Fastest race of 1971	14 laps (50.26 km) in 15:23.9; Jürgen Neuhaus, Porsche 917 Spyder, 29.08.1971
Race organisers	Automobil-Club 1927 Mayen im ADAC with Motorsportclub Koblenz
Buyer of the site from the army	TRIWO, April 2008
Operator of the test area	Test Event Area GmbH & Co. KG
For amateurs	course for the national A licence (DMSB) at Motorsport Akademie, own car with or without road registration
Status	active

Bocksfeld, the Luftwaffe and the cradle of the Heeresflieger

The airfield's history begins in 1914, when airmen of the Imperial Army were stationed temporarily at Bocksfeld, a field south of Mendig. In 1938, as part of the Wehrmacht's rearmament, an airfield was planned here; construction began in September 1939, right after the outbreak of the war, and until its end various Luftwaffe units were stationed there. On 9 March 1945 American troops occupied the site, and on 13 July the French took it over. It was used mainly by a transport unit of the French army, for which buildings around the so-called Old Fort were put up in 1946–1948.

On 7 January 1957 the French army handed the airfield over to the newly created army aviation of the Bundeswehr, the Heeresflieger. That is why, as the authorities of the Mendig association of municipalities (Verbandsgemeinde) write, the airfield is regarded today as the cradle of that formation. In 1960 the barracks were named after Gunther Plüschow, a naval aviator known as the "airman of Tsingtau". Until 1971 twin-rotor Vertol helicopters, popularly called "bananas", flew from here, and from 1973 the medium transport Sikorsky CH-53 G. The largest unit of the garrison by headcount, Medium Army Aviation Regiment 35, created on 1 April 1971, flew, among other things, in aid during the Oder flood of 1997. At times up to 1300 soldiers served here, alongside about 200 civilians.

A rectangle with three chicanes

The races on the runways were organised by Automobil-Club 1927 Mayen, an ADAC club from nearby Mayen, together with Motorsportclub Koblenz. The club's chronicle says that the neighbouring airfield "tempted" it to hold car and motorcycle races here. The first event had already been planned for 1968, but it did not take place.

The course was laid out on the runways as a simple rectangle 3.59 km long. Three artificial chicanes were placed on the long straights: one on the north straight and two on the south one, where the start and finish line was. According to a period plan described in the KuLaDig database, the race strip was usually 35 metres wide and narrowed in front of the northern grandstands from 40 to 12 metres. The bigger races ran to fourteen laps anticlockwise, that is 50.26 km. The author of the study notes that the surviving plan is simplified and does not show the scale, and after later rebuilding the course can be reconstructed only in part.

The first Flugplatzrennen Niedermendig took place on 4 and 5 October 1969. Alongside professionals, drivers from local clubs lined up at the start, according to KuLaDig often in tuned private cars. In the touring car race for cars up to two litres, Helmut Kelleners in a BMW 2002 ti of the Koepchen team covered fourteen laps in 21:06.7. Second was Heinz Becker in a Porsche 911 in the colours of Automobilclub Mayen, more than 20 seconds behind. The sports car race was won by Barney Barnes in a Porsche 906, and the GT race by Werner Kastner in a Porsche 911 S.

A year later, on 3 and 4 October 1970, the 2nd ADAC-Flugplatzrennen Mendig drew, according to the touringcarracing.net compilation, 6000 spectators, despite a storm and rain. The sports prototype race was won by Hans Schulze-Schwering in a Porsche 910.

The year of the Porsche 917

The third edition, on 29 August 1971, was already called the III. Internationales ADAC-Flugplatzrennen Mendig. KuLaDig reports that the prizes were provided by a Koblenz brewery, hence the subtitle "Um den Königsbacher Goldpokal". The GT race was won by the professional Clemens Schickentanz in a Porsche 911 S, in a time of 18:12.4.

The programme also included a non-championship Formula 2 race. The "Motor Sport" database names Rolf Stommelen as the winner, and the race entry also carries the name of the Eifelland Caravans team. KuLaDig specifies that the Formula 1 driver from Cologne drove a Brabham BT36 with a Ford-Cosworth engine, entered by the Mayen team, and covered the distance in 16:03.4. The sports prototypes known from the world championship were even faster, and according to KuLaDig they were admitted to one of the races for the first time. Neuhaus in a Porsche 917 spyder was almost 40 seconds faster than Stommelen, and third place and the win in the up to two litres class went to Dieter Münch in a Chevron B19.

The end after three seasons

The races announced for 1972 and 1973 were cancelled. The AC Mayen chronicle gives a simple reason: the site had been rebuilt and races were no longer permitted on it. The club returned to the Nürburgring, and in 1974 it came up with the Super-Sprint, short races on the 2.3-kilometre start loop, the so-called Betonschleife. The results compilations from Mendig show how much these races owed to the area: in 1969 and 1970 drivers in the colours of the Mayen club appear in them many times, and in 1971 the Eifelland Caravaning team from Mayen entered at least eight touring cars.

The last flag and the "warm handover"

After the end of the Cold War the garrison in Mendig shrank, and units were moved or disbanded. In November 2004 Defence Minister Peter Struck announced that the army aviation garrison in Mendig would be closed on 30 June 2008. Residents called that day "black Sunday", because Mendig was losing its largest employer. In April 2008, while the Bundeswehr was still there, the site was bought by the Trier development company Triwo; the "Rhein-Zeitung" writes of a so-called "warm handover", because the military and civilian users operated side by side for some time. On 30 June 2008 the federal flag was lowered for the last time. Triwo stated that the conversion site covers about 189 hectares.

From 2008 TÜV Rheinland ran the Vehicle Testing Mendig test area on the former runway for some time; KuLaDig writes that it is what operates today as Test Event Area. The operator itself states that the former military base was converted to civilian use in 2008 and gradually expanded for car testing, festivals and events.

It did not pass without a dispute with the neighbours. The tenant of the airfield received from the Mayen-Koblenz district a permit for a test centre with immediate enforceability, and the owners of two plots about 1300 metres away lodged an objection. The administrative court in Koblenz suspended the enforcement of the decision in January 2012. On 3 April 2012 the Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate, in interim proceedings, restored immediate enforceability. It held that the noise emission limits and their constant measurement protect the neighbours, but ordered that every use of the track be reported to the district at least a week in advance.

Two years of Rock am Ring

In 2015 the Rock am Ring festival for the first time took place not at the Nürburgring but at the Mendig airfield, 30 kilometres from the circuit; nearly 90,000 fans were expected. In the night from Friday to Saturday lightning struck the backstage area of one of the stages and the campsite. Thirty-three people were injured, spectators and festival staff; none was hit directly.

A year later the storms returned. The organisers reported that on the first day more than 80 spectators ended up in hospital after lightning strikes, some with serious injuries. The Mendig association of municipalities, as the local public order authority, in the face of further warnings withdrew its consent for the third day of the festival and ordered the site to be cleared by noon on Sunday. Apart from 2015 and 2016, Rock am Ring has always been held at the Nürburgring.

A loop without barriers

Test Event Area GmbH & Co. KG, run by Manfred J. Sender, rents out the runway and taxiways today for exclusive use or for shared use with other clients. The operator describes two loops, the small one 2100 metres, the large one 5100 metres. In addition there are a runway 36 metres wide, a kilometre-long section with motorway markings and an S-bend built to Euro NCAP procedures, and a sprinkled skid pad of 40 by 10 metres. The track has no protective barriers, the run-off areas are, according to the operator, maximal, and selected sections can be watered. According to KuLaDig the site serves for trials of production cars, racing cars and tyres, and for driver training, and the operator also offers it for testing driver assistance systems and brakes. Television stations and manufacturers shoot material for motoring programmes here, and events are held in the hangars and across 120 hectares of grounds. In December 2023 representatives of the district, the association of municipalities and the town handed Sender the final documents for the indoor kart track Airfield Art Kart in hangar 9, about 300 metres long, with electric go-karts reaching up to 60 km/h.

An amateur driver can enter the loop in his own car on the Motorsport Akademie licence course. The organiser, who gives its length as 2.2 km, praises the wide run-off areas where one can safely practise driving at the limit of grip. After registration at 9:00 the day starts at 9:30 with theory, at 11:30 there is a written exam, from 13:00 the groups practise the driving line, starts, overtaking and lapping on the loop, and at the end they drive freely; the day finishes around 18:00. After passing, one can apply to the DMSB, the German motorsport federation, for the national A licence. Participants' own cars are allowed, registered and unregistered, and one can also hire a car prepared for track driving. A condition of participation is earlier training in safe driving or a track day, a helmet is mandatory, which the academy can lend, and an ordinary car of 100 hp or more is, according to it, enough. As of 4 October 2026 the nearest course in Mendig was set for 17 October, marked "almost full" and priced at 599 euros.

In one of the photos added in 2020 to the track description in the KuLaDig database, a pile of used racing tyres lies next to the Test Event Area site. The author of the caption wrote that the pile is somewhat of a reminder of the races held at this airfield in 1969–1971.

Timeline

• 1914: airmen of the Imperial Army are stationed at Bocksfeld near Mendig.
• 1939: in September construction of the Luftwaffe airfield begins.
• 1945: on 9 March the Americans occupy the site, on 13 July the French.
• 1957: on 7 January the Bundeswehr Heeresflieger take over the airfield.
• 1969: 4–5 October, the first race at the airfield.
• 1970: 3–4 October, the second race, 6000 spectators.
• 1971: 29 August, the third and last race, Neuhaus's win in a Porsche 917.
• 2004: announcement of the closure of the garrison.
• 2008: in April the site is sold to Triwo, on 30 June the garrison ends, in the same year car testing begins.
• 2012: decision of the Higher Administrative Court on the test centre.
• 2015–2016: the Rock am Ring festival at the airfield.
• 2023: kart track in hangar 9.