Length 8.44 km (5¼ mi) Length 11.6 km (7¼ mi) | Length 8.44 km (5¼ mi) | |
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Major events German Motorcycle Championship
Formula 3 Lap record Average speed: 119.1 km/h (Georg Meier, BMW, ) | ||
The Feldbergrennen was an automobile and motorcycle race that took place from 1920-1954 on various courses in the field of the Großer Feldberg (879 m above sea level) in Hesse.
Contents
History and route
Races took place from 1920 to 1928, 1934 to 1936 and most recently from 1950 to 1954 in various motorcycle and automobile classes. The route has been changed several times. The initial hill climb had a length of eight kilometers in 1921 and was later extended to twelve kilometers in 1935.
The winner of the race in 1928 was Hans Stuck on Austro-Daimler. Other winners at the Feldberg in the 1930s included Paul Pietsch on Alfa Romeo as well as Hans Stuck and Bernd Rosemeyer on Auto Union.
Postwar era
Racing activity resumed on 1 October 1950 with a 11.6 km circuit starting and finishing in the east of Oberreifenberg. The height of the Feldberg racetrack was between 500 and height. At that time, almost all top class German riders had set out, inter alia, the DKW-driver Hermann Paul Müller and Ewald Kluge. Walter Glöckler won in a selfmade car with a VW engine the sports car class up to 1100 ccm.
The races from 1951 to 1954 were also runs of the German Motorcycle Championship. Every year, about 100,000 spectators attended the event.
The Feldbergrennen on 18 July 1954 was an internationally announced German Championship race for motorcycles. The team of the NSU did not attend. Even so, NSU dominated with private drivers on the NSU Max (Sports Max) the class up to 250 ccm. Walter Reichert from Ingelheim am Rhein won the race over 13 laps or 150 km in 1:25:56.7 hours (average 105.0 km/h) before Fritz Kläger from Freiburg im Breisgau. In third place followed Hubert Luttenberger on Adler. The class to 350 ccm dominated August Hobl on DKW (112.4 km/h) before three Australians with Norton and the Australian Jack Ahearn won the 500 rotary Solo class on a Norton (112.6 km/h) ahead of another Norton and Walter Zeller on a BMW.
World Champion Eric Oliver from England crashed during the side car race, so that the first four places safely went to BMW, the number one to Wilhelm Noll/Fritz Cron (105.2 km/h), followed by Fritz Hillebrand/Manfred Grunwald, Willi Faust/Karl Remmert and Walter Schneider/Hans Bouquet. Approximately 50,000 spectators watched the Feldberg race in poor weather conditions, starting with the 125-cm³ class and the victory of Horst Fügner from Chemnitz on an IFA, while Karl Lottes on MV Agusta finished second ahead of Erhart Krumpholz on another IFA.
The end
On 1955, the Supreme Motorcycle Sports Commission had demanded the conversion of a part of the track, but this was not built. Thus, the end of the Feldberg race had come. As a result of the 1955 Le Mans disaster many motorsports events throughout Europe were canceled or suspended.
Georg Meier holds the Feldberg lap record on a BMW with an average speed of 119.1 km/h.
Literature
(all books in German)