Eliška Junková

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Eliška Junková

Eliška Junková-Khásová , actually Alžběta Junková ; born Pospíšilová (born November 16, 1900 in Olomouc ; † January 5, 1994 in Prague ) was a Czechoslovakian automobile driver . In international races she started as Elisabeth Junek . Eliška Junková was one of the most popular personalities in the first Czechoslovak Republic.

Life

Junková on the 1928 Targa Florio route
Signature of Eliška Junková
Eliška Junková together with Vincenzo Florio at the Targa Florio 1928
Grave of Čeněk Junek and Eliška Junková in the Vinohrady cemetery

Alžběta Pospíšilová was the daughter of a blacksmith. During her training at the Olomouc branch of the Prague Creditbank, she met the banker Vincenc Junek in 1917 . Junek was a passionate racing driver and also enthused his lover for his sport. In 1921 Alžběta Pospíšilová got his driver's license. The following year she married Junek and also started racing. Ettore Bugatti sold the couple one of the streamlined type 32 "Tank" racing cars used in the 1923 French Grand Prix . First, she accompanied her husband as a passenger and mechanic during his races in the Bugatti Type 30 . In 1924 Junková started himself for the first time in Pilsen . In 1925 she was one of the 216 women who had a driver's license in Czechoslovakia.

At the Zbraslav – Jíloviště hill climb , she achieved her first victory in 1926 with a new course record , and left her husband behind. In 1927 the Junek started together at the Targa Florio in Sicily . The Bugatti, driven by Eliška Junková, was in the lead before retiring due to a defect. In the same year she won the Grand Prix of Germany at the Nurburgring behind the Mercedes-Benz - works drivers Otto Merz , Christian Werner and Willy Walb fourth place overall and won in the sports car class up to 3000 cc with a new course record. Their victory came so unexpectedly that the music of the Czechoslovak national anthem was missing at the award ceremony of the band.

In the Targa Florio in 1928 she won on Bugatti T 35 B fifth. After her husband's fatal accident on July 15, 1928 at the Nürburgring at the 1928 German Grand Prix , Eliška Junková stopped racing and sold her racing cars. After that they made trips, worked for Bugatti in international business in Ceylon and the commencement of tire production by the Bata Corporation, she worked for the Bata tire plants. She was also one of the organizers of the Brno Grand Prix . After the Second World War she married again and was named Junková-Khásová . After the Communists came to power, she was banned from traveling abroad from 1948 to 1964.

Eliška Junková and Čeněk Junek are buried in the Vinohrady cemetery in Prague.

successes

Publications

  • Má vzpomínka je Bugatti. Olympia, Praha 1972 (autobiography).

Web links

Commons : Eliška Junková  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Junková, Eliška
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Junek, Elisabeth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czechoslovakian racing driver
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Olomouc
DATE OF DEATH 5th January 1994
Place of death Prague