40th international six-day trip

Isle of Man venue for the 40th International Six Day Voyage

The 40th International Six-Day Ride was an off-road motorcycle competition held on the Isle of Man from September 20-25, 1965 . Due to the weather conditions, the competition is one of the toughest six-day rides in history. The national teams of the GDR were able to win the trophy evaluation for the third time and the silver vase evaluation for the second time in a row.

competition

organization

300 drivers from 18 FIM motorsport associations took part in the competition. In addition to the GDR teams, the drivers from Great Britain , the ČSSR and the Federal Republic of Germany were among the favorites. Teams from eight nations competed for the trophy standings.

Former motorcycle racer Geoff Duke was responsible for choosing the route .

1 day

The route led from Douglas to the north of the island and had to be crossed twice. The total distance was around 320 kilometers.

Of the 300 drivers who started, 271 reached the finish. 211 drivers received no penalty points. The 2.5 km long mountain test had to be canceled later. The driving conditions on this section had deteriorated so much that the conditions were not largely the same for all drivers.

In the trophy evaluation, the teams from Great Britain, the Federal Republic of Germany, the GDR, the ČSSR and the Soviet Union were free of penalty points.

In the silver vase evaluation, the ČSSR B team led ahead of the A team. Then came the B-team from the GDR and the A- and B-team from the Federal Republic of Germany. All of these teams were free of penalty points.

2 day

On the second day the same route was driven as on the first day, but in the opposite direction.

3rd day

On the third day it started to rain heavily. There was also heavy fog . The route led to the western side of the island and had to be crossed twice. In addition, strong winds caused further disabilities. The total distance was 317 kilometers. Among other things, it led through heavily boggy terrain. Here it was necessary to follow the marked route exactly. Even minor deviations meant that the drivers drove into swamp holes from which it was difficult for them to free themselves.

256 drivers started in the morning. Only 129 drivers were rated at the end of the day, of which 44 had no penalty points.

The trophy team of the Federal Republic of Germany had to cope with the second retirement with BMW driver Sebastian Nachtmann . From the US silver vase team, u. a. with Budd and Dave Ekins , at the end of the day no one was in the race.

In the trophy standings, the GDR team was ahead of the ČSSR team and the British team.

4th day

On the fourth day the bad weather continued. The route was the same as the day before, but had to be traveled in the opposite direction.

95 drivers finished the stage in classification, 22 of them had no penalty points. Only the trophy teams of the GDR (11 penalty points) and the ČSSR (139 penalty points) were still complete. In third place was Sweden with a failed driver and 394 penalty points. This was followed by Great Britain (3 canceled drivers, 395 penalty points), the Federal Republic of Germany (4 canceled drivers, 803 penalty points), the USSR (4 canceled drivers, 823 penalty points), Poland (4 canceled drivers, 1067 penalty points) and Spain (4 canceled drivers , 1120 penalty points)

In the silver vase evaluation, the GDR A-team took the lead with 79 penalty points. It was followed by the A team of the Federal Republic of Germany (103 penalty points), the ČSSR A team (139 penalty points) and the GDR B team (200 penalty points).

The GST team from the GDR led the club teams .

5th day

The rain and fog were also decisive for the competition on the fifth day. The route, again around 320 kilometers long, led to the south of the island. Of the 82 drivers who finished the day in the ranking, only 19 were free of penalty points.

In the Czechoslovak team Jaroslav Pudil had to give up because of appendicitis .

The GDR team led with 14 penalty points in front of the ČSSR team with 240 penalty points and the Swedish team with 761 penalty points.

In the silver vase ranking, the GDR A-team led MZ with 86 penalty points, ahead of the German A-team with 203 penalty points. Gottfried Pohlan had to give up the B-team of the GDR because of an electrical defect on his Simson GS 75.

In the club teams, the GST team from the GDR was with 130 penalty points ahead of the Czechoslovak team from Dukla Prague with 278 penalty points.

6th day

It also rained heavily on the last day. A 128-kilometer route had to be completed. The final test was a street race .

Of the 300 drivers who started, 81 were still rated on the last day.

Final results

World Trophy

space	team	Penalty points	Good points
1.	German Democratic Republic	14th	3404.04
2.	Czechoslovakia	344	2977.83
3.	Sweden	1061	2606.53
4th	United Kingdom	1195	2734.74
5.	BR Germany	1603	2195.71
6th	Poland	1906	1821.26
7th	Soviet Union	1943	2062.10
8th.	Spain	1968	1817.13

Silver vase

space	team	Penalty points	Good points
1.	German Democratic Republic (A-Team)	86	2129.44
2.	BR Germany (A-team)	303	2113.91
3.	Czechoslovakia (A team)	374	2032.67
4th	Sweden (senior team)	548	1932.24
5.	Czechoslovakia (B team)	554	1738.93
6th	German Democratic Republic (B-Team)	600	1827.96
7th	United Kingdom (B team)	712	1781.59
8th.	BR Germany (B-team)	974	1453.51
9.	Netherlands (A team)	983	1616.07
10.	Soviet Union (A team)	1013	1491.72
11.	United Kingdom (A-Team)	1409	1212.62
12.	Netherlands (B team)	1418	1200.09
13.	Soviet Union (B team)	1562	1003.83
14th	Poland	1591	956.07
15th	Finland	1600	1026.83
16.	Sweden (B-team)	1642	972.38
17th	Belgium	1642	952.29
18th	United States (A-Team)	1739	685.16
19th	Austria	1776	815.93
20th	Ireland	1782	531.65
21st	United States (B-Team)	2068	538.09

18 drivers also received a gold medal.

literature

• Steffen Ottinger: International six-day race 2012 . The story since 1913. HB-Werbung und Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Chemnitz 2012, ISBN 978-3-00-039566-6 , p. 47 ff .

Web links

• Shell Oil Company film: Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3
• Photos on Speedtracktales
• Overall results , accessed November 5, 2018
• New Germany, September 27, 1965, p. 5

Individual evidence

1. ^ New Germany September 16, 1965
2. ^ New Germany September 22, 1965
3. ^ New Germany September 23, 1965
4. ^ New Germany September 24, 1965
5. ^ New Germany September 25, 1965
6. ↑ US Team listings for International Six Day Trails ( Memento from January 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive )