Danube Ring

**Donauring**
*Danube Ring Race - All around the Schanz*
	Ingolstadt , Bavaria
Route type:	temporary racetrack
Operator:	Ingolstadt Motor Club in the ADAC eV
Opening:	1949
Decommissioned:	1954
Track layout
	Route data
Route length:	3.95 km (2.45 mi )
Audience capacity:	approx. 100,000
	Line for revival events since 1999
	Route data
Route length:	1.60 km (0.99 mi )
	www.donauring.de

48.7675 11.417222222222Coordinates: 48 ° 46 ′ 3 ″ N , 11 ° 25 ′ 2 ″ E

The Donauring was a temporary race track for motorcycles and automobiles in Ingolstadt . It was a street circuit . Championship races took place on the Donauring four times between 1949 and 1954. Races in different cubic capacity classes were announced for motorcycles with and without sidecars as well as for Formula 3 automobiles . A Danube Ring Revival has been taking place at irregular intervals since 1999. This is a classic car event in which a shortened version of the historic route is driven.

Events, participants, vehicles

The Danube Ring Race - up to 100,000 spectators came around the Schanz . This enormous response is due, among other things, to the fact that, as a result of the Soviet occupation of East Germany, Auto Union with its motorcycle brand DKW had settled in Ingolstadt and from then on it contested its home races on the Danube Ring. Several well-known drivers with Saxon roots had made the same change and now competed as local heroes in Ingolstadt. In particular, Ewald Kluge and Siegfried “Sissi” may be mentioned . The performances by Gustl Hobl from Ingolstadt on a DKW factory machine with a Roots fan are legendary . Due to the unusual engine noise that resulted, the vehicle was also known as the “ singing saw ”. In addition, other Bavarian racing drivers became crowd favorites, especially on BMW machines , which is particularly true of Schorsch Meier .

From the field of automobile sport, Formula 3 competed in Ingolstadt. At the time, their vehicles were technically related to motorcycles: the displacement limit was 500 cm³, so it made sense to take over the drive train from a motorcycle - including air-draft-cooled cylinders, sequential gears, chain drives (naturally not on the BMW base) and that No differential gear.

Historical route

Formula 3 car, as it was also used on the Danube Ring in the 1950s.

The Danube Ring was and is being driven on in a counterclockwise direction. The start and finish of the historic racetrack was on the elongated right-hand curve of Zehnerstrasse (today Auf der Schanz ), roughly at the level of Kavalier Hepp , today the city museum . The subsequent right-left combination was formed by Harderstraße and the northern lane of the Esplanade . Here the Danube ring led directly past the facade of the peace barracks. This building, which today houses the Ingolstadt tax office and the Upper Bavaria North Police Headquarters , was used from 1953 by the then Auto Union GmbH , which built DKW motorcycles in Ingolstadt. Then, as now leads from the Esplanade , the Rechbergstraße out in a curve to the left. This road meets the North Station on the Northern ring road , in which the route of the Danube ring einschwenkte in a sharp left turn. He followed the North and West Ring Roads in a west and south direction, then it went in a 90-degree curve to the left into Friedhofstraße in the direction of Kreuztor . A final hairpin to the left led back to Zehnerstrasse ( Auf der Schanz ) and thus back to the start and finish. This route had a length of 3.95 km.

Danube Ring Revival

DKW racing machine ( RM 350 , nickname “ Singing Saw ” ) by Gustl Hobl. The exhibit from the museum mobile was used both in the Danube Ring race itself and as part of the revival.

Donauring revival events have been held in Ingolstadt at irregular intervals since 1999. For this purpose, the route will be shortened to 1.6 km. It only consists of four straight lines or arcuate sections and four left-hand curves. The northern part of Harderstraße serves as the start and finish straight, thus forming a short connection between the historic sections of the Zehnerstraße / Auf der Schanz and Nördliche Ringstraße . The second shortcut between these is Von-der-Tann-Straße , which crosses the gateway of the Kavalier Hepp as a narrow point. Demonstration runs with historic motorcycles and automobiles are held on this route. A valuation and an official timekeeping do not take place. Nonetheless, and in spite of the significantly reduced proportion of full throttle on the short route, lap times in the region of one minute are achieved with fast solo machines from the 1950s. This corresponds to an average speed of almost 100 km / h and comes close to the pace that was driven in the races at the time. Unlike in competitive sport, the vehicles at the Donauring Revival are not divided into classes according to their cubic capacity. Instead, it starts according to year of construction periods.

The demonstration runs with automobiles are regularly used by Ingolstadt-based Audi AG, the successor company of Auto Union, to present vehicles from the historical inventory. In the past, an Auto Union Type C , Audi 200 quattro Trans-Am , Audi 90 quattro IMSA GTO and various Group B rally vehicles were shown . On the driver's side, Audi’s marketing relies on the pulling power of well-known names, so that the vehicles were driven by Harald Demuth , Walter Röhrl and the late Michele Alboreto , among others . It should be noted that the vehicles shown in this context have no connection to the historic Danube Ring. The use of Grand Prix racing cars such as the Auto Union Type C on the street circuit was never planned; many of the other historic racing cars shown were only built decades after the last Danube Ring race.

Web links

Individual evidence

[abgerufen_am_5._Februar_2012-1] www.donauring.de, accessed on February 5, 2012

[2] Page no longer available , search in web archives: Audi-Mediaservices.com, accessed on February 5, 2012@1@ 2

[3] Stadtmuseum Ingolstadt, bundle of the Donauring race 1950, page 39

[4] Stadtmuseum Ingolstadt, bundle for the Donauring race 1950, page 53