Fred Willamowski

Fred Willamowski (born March 21, 1935 in Grimmen ; † September 14, 2003 in Wilhelmshorst ) was a German motorcycle racer .

During his career, Fred Willamowski won the International Six-Day Race in 1969 with the GDR trophy team . At the same time, as in 1971, he became the single driver with the highest points of all Six Days participants. In 1970 and 1971 he became European champion in motorcycle off-road racing , and also won several national titles. Fred Willamowski was also GDR champion in motocross as well as in sand and grass track sports.

Athletic career

After completing his apprenticeship as a farm machinist, Fred Willamowski registered with the Society for Sport and Technology (GST) in 1952 and started off-road motorcycle racing on an AWO 425 . A year later he was district master and Rostock vice-district master. In 1954 he was accepted into the GST core team. At his first start abroad, the International Tatra Drive 1955 in Zakopane , he and all his comrades were canceled on the first day. His first Six Days participation in 1957 also ended in failure on the fourth day. The following year he was a member of the first trophy team that the GDR put on an international six-day trip. His record was a fall and failure in the final race. A similar fate befell him in 1959 with a stuck crankshaft in the final race. His fourth Six Days in Austria in 1960 finally brought him a well-deserved class win.

In 1957, Fred Willamowski switched from GST to Werner Rosenbrock at ASK Vorwärts Potsdam . With the victory at Rund um Zschopau in 1958, he had become GDR champion on the 350 MZ . In 1960, Fred was drawn to motocross . In eight years he drove in three displacement classes with the MZ as well as the Czech ESO and ČZ three makes. Before returning to off -road racing in 1968, Fred Willamowski had won four GDR motocross titles in duels with Walter Knoch, Ernst Wolff and world champion Paul Friedrichs . In the off-road championship he continued for the ASK - which had moved to Leipzig - and was GDR vice-champion again behind Werner Salevsky . For the international six-day race, Fred Willamowski was again appointed to the trophy team. After finishing fourth in 1968 , a year later he too was able to take part in the great trophy victories of the GDR in the 1960s. At the Six Days 1969 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , he was the single driver with the best points in the entire field on his 500cc MZ. Fred Willamowski was able to repeat this single success in 1971 on the Isle of Man . Until 1974 he was a member of the trophy team with which he was third at the official team world championship in 1971 and vice world champion a year later. Fred Williamowski intervened in the European Championship in 1969. Extremely unfortunate, he came in second behind Erwin Schmider . At the end of the next season he was European champion for the first time. In 1971 he won each of the five European Championship races and flawlessly defended his continental title. He was also successful again within the GDR championship. Between 1970 and 1974 he was able to book another four titles in the largest displacement class on his account.

At the age of 40, Fred Willamowski said goodbye to off-road sports. His motorsport career did not end there. From 1975 he was in the quarter liter class on the sand and grass tracks and after decades fought again with Ernst Wolff. In fact, he was once again GDR champion in this discipline in 1978.

Fred Willamowski went down in sports history as one of the world's best off-road motorcycle riders.

literature

• Steffen Ottinger: Around Zschopau . The story of an off-road motorcycle ride. tape 1 . Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft Marienberg, Marienberg 2004, ISBN 3-931770-49-4 , p. 24-81, 103, 158 .
• Steffen Ottinger: Around Zschopau . The story of an off-road motorcycle ride. tape 2 . HB-Werbung und Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Chemnitz 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-036705-2 , p. 21, 72 .
• 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. 40 ff .