of his first eight races. Luck eluded Bellof however, as he finished the race in thirteenth position, while title rivals Frank Jelinski and Franz Konrad finished in first and second places to overhaul Bellof's points total. Eleven points separated Bellof from Jelinski, who claimed his second successive German Formula Three championship. At the conclusion of the season, Bellof contested the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch, but was excluded from the meeting after finishing sixth in his quarter-final heat, for excessive contact. Bellof made a promise to the meeting's clerk of the course, saying that the official had "better watch my career, because I'll be back here next year and I'll win my first Formula 2 race." Formula Two Bellof joined Mike Thackwell and Alain Ferté at a test session with Maurer Motorsport at Circuit Paul Ricard in France at the end of the 1981 season. Eje Elgh, who finished third with Maurer in the 1981 European Formula Two Championship was present at the test and was impressed by Bellof, and recommended him to team boss Willy Maurer to sign him for the 1982 season. After acquiring a limited amount of BMW backing, Bellof assumed a place in the team, with Maurer eventually becoming his manager, having signed an eight-year management deal with Bellof. The first race of the season was the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone, where Bellof qualified ninth on the grid. Sticking to his promise that he made at the 1981 Formula Ford Festival, Bellof drove through the field in showery conditions to win by 21 seconds ahead of Satoru Nakajima and became the first driver to win outright, and second driver to win a race on his European Formula Two début after Dave Morgan won on aggregate at Silverstone in . He followed this win up with a second successive triumph at the Jim Clark Gedächtnisrennen at Hockenheim, having started from pole position and achieved the fastest lap during the race. Two points from the next six races ruled him out of the championship hunt, as he fell to an eventual fourth place classification, scoring 33 points. By comparison to his 1982 season, Bellof's 1983 season was much less successful. He made only one trip to the podium with second at Jarama while he lost another podium when he was disqualified from third place at the Pau Grand Prix, after his and teammate Ferté's cars were