Ernst Hiller

An AJS Boy Racer like the one Hiller drove in 1953 and 1954.

1972 Kawasaki H1R racing machine

Ernst Hiller (born November 19, 1928 in Gütersloh ; † February 27, 2008 ) was a German motorcycle racer .

In his career he was six times German motorcycle road champion in the 500 cm³ class and was also known as “the fastest driving instructor in Germany ” because of his job .

Career

Ernst Hiller worked in the Rabeneick test department and was given the opportunity to take part in grass track races , road races and reliability drives in the early 1950s . Between 1951 and 1953 he started on Dürkopp and Rabeneick mainly in grass track races. Hiller contested his first road race on June 22, 1952 on the Kiel harbor circuit . He started on a 250 cc NSU OSL self-made motorcycle owned by licensed rider Hans Joachim Klotz and was able to win the race straight away.

In 1953, Ernst Hiller competed alongside NSU as an ID driver on one of the legendary 350 Boy Racer machines from AJS . From 1954 he held the status of licensed driver. After driving a 500 cc Matchless -G45 in 1955 , Hiller competed in a BMW 500 RS from 1956 onwards. The Gütersloher celebrated his first victory in the first race on the new machine at the Leipzig City Park Race . At the Dutch TT of the same year he made his debut with sixth place in the motorcycle world championship . Until 1961 he took part sporadically, mostly in the races in the Netherlands and in West Germany , in World Cup races. Hiller achieved his best World Cup placement in 1958 when he finished seventh in the 500 cm³ World Championship with eight points.

In the German championship, Ernst Hiller became the most successful private BMW driver in the second half of the 1950s. In 1957, 1958 and 1959 he secured the title in the 500 cc class with his vertical shaft -BMW. In 1960, after a serious fall in Imola , Italy , in which Hiller broke his spine , the BMW was sold. In the German 500 cc championship, the Gütersloher took second place on a Matchless G50. After another 500 DM title in 1962, this time again with BMW, Hiller ended his active career for the time being.

In 1970 Ernst Hiller took part in races for the first time after seven years of abstinence, after Detlev Louis offered him a Kawasaki H1R and finally bought the motorcycle. In the following years he was on the road with his son Reinhard , who was also an active motorcycle racer. With the three-cylinder two-stroke engine he started again in the 500cc class of the German championship and immediately secured his fifth title. After the vice championship in 1971, Hiller won his sixth and last DM title on the Kawasaki in 1972, now at the age of 43 . The Gütersloher competed again in the motorcycle world championship. At the GDR Grand Prix in 1971 he was able to celebrate his first podium finish on the Kawasaki at the Sachsenring with third place behind Giacomo Agostini ( MV Agusta ) and New Zealander Keith Turner ( Suzuki ). In 1973 Hiller on König again achieved third place at his home Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring . Son Reinhard's sixth place in this race meant that for the first time in the history of the motorcycle world championship, father and son won points in one race.

Ernst Hiller competed in national and international races until 1977, and from 1976 he was already working as a trainer in the international driver training course Better drive with BMW at the Nürburgring . From 1998 until his death in 2008 he took part in numerous veteran races and classic demo drives. To this day, Ernst Hiller is one of the few German drivers to have achieved podium placements in the premier class of motorcycle racing .

Sources and web links

• Article on Hiller's death at eggersdorfer.info
• Ernst Hiller on the official website of the Motorcycle World Championship (English).