Fritz Dirtl
Frederick "Fritz" Dirtl (* 9. January 1928 in Vienna , † 10. June 1956 in Oberhausen ) was a Speedway - and road motorcycle -Rennfahrer and the most popular Austrian - racers of the early 1950s.
family
Fritz Dirtl was the son of Leopold Dirtl (1889-1948) and his wife Anny (1893-1967). The café animal Leopold Dirtl was a successful motorcycle racing driver and one of the pioneers of Austrian track racing in the 1920s. He competed in both sand and road races and won the major Austrian track races of the 1920s at least once. He won several times in the Wiener Krieau and on the Semmering and held, among other things, mountain records on the Riederberg , the Grazer Ries and on the Lower Austrian side of the Semmering . He died on April 4, 1948 in a traffic accident in Vienna. He had collided with a motorbike on his motorcycle and died of serious head injuries at the scene of the accident. Fritz Dirtl's brother Leopold Walter Robert Dirtl (1922–2012) was also a well-known dirt track and speedway driver and a member of the Göls "Gelsenteam"
His aunt, his father's sister, was Risa Dirtl (1902–1989), a solo dancer at the Vienna State Opera . One cousin was the ballet dancer and choreographer Willy Dirtl (a nephew of Risa Dirtl, who promoted him), who was the first solo dancer of the Vienna State Opera Ballet from 1954 to 1970 . His wife Erika Dirtl, b. Biermayer (1935-2010) was a tennis player . Their son Christoph Dirtl was a rally driver and won the Austrian State Rally Championship in 1991 .
Racing career
During the First Republic , in the 1920s and 1930s, sand and cinder track races were very popular with the public and the press in Austria. It was not uncommon for tens of thousands of spectators to come to the respective racing events. Racing drivers like Martin Schneeweiss and Josef "Pepi" Walla were perceived as intrepid warriors and were as well known as today's Formula 1 drivers . An important figure was the factory owner's son , Dipl. Ing. Karl Göls , whose father was the co-owner of the Vienna automobile factory . Göls acted as a patron and brought Austrian rail sports back to life after the end of the Second World War . From 1947 Schneeweiss and Walla competed for his Gelsenteam racing team , as did the young Fritz Dirtl, who took over his motorcycles after Schneeweiss's death in October 1947 on the Graz trotting track .
The Second World War interrupted Fritz Dirtl's schooling. In 1946 he made up his Matura and began to study world trade . He also worked in his father's coffee house on Gumpendorfer Strasse in Vienna , which he took over after his father's death. Today, the former café is home to the Zhong Hua Chinese restaurant . He came to racing in 1946 through his father, the first racing motorcycle was a Moto Guzzi . After some good placings and two victories in road races in Graz, the engine of the Moto-Guzzi broke during a race in Baden . The next motorcycle was a 250cc Terrot , with which he only had to admit defeat to Martin Schneeweiss in front of 70,000 spectators in Vienna's Prater Stadium in 1947. He took the young driver under his wing. The Terrot engine was built into a snow-white chassis and continuously improved. Within a short time, the young Benjamin became a winner.
After eleven victories this season, he was awarded the prominent badge No. 53 of the Austrian Motor Racing Association (Ö.MRV) in 1950. Its clubhouse was the Dirtl-Café, a one-time success for a junior. His father Leopold had already received the celebrity badge no.1 in 1928. Bertl Schneider was the last to receive this award in 1963 (celebrity badge no.86).
From 1948 Dirtl was almost unbeatable in Austrian motorcycle racing, he achieved 73 individual victories that year. The frequent driver - during his eight-year career he had achieved around 1,000 national and international race victories - won his first Austrian dirt track championship in 1948. Another six followed. In 1949 he won his first international championship with the Golden Helmet of Pardubice . In 1951 he was speedway state champion and 1954 road state champion in the 350 cc class.
Death in Oberhausen
Fritz Dirtl died on June 10, 1956. On the cinder track in Oberhausen, an elimination race for the individual speedway world championship was held . In his third run, he collided with his long-time friend and team-mate Josef Kamper when he tried to drive past him on the outside lane. When both motorcycles were tilted, Dirtl's rear wheel hit Kamper's front wheel and both riders fell. While Kamper hit a barrier, the Dirtl lying on the ground was run over on the head by the following Mieczysław Połukard . Dirtl died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. Kamper got away with a severe concussion, bruises, and a crushed kidney.
Dirtl's final resting place is in the Vienna Central Cemetery (grave 12C). His father, mother and brother Leopold are also buried in the same grave.
Fritz Dirtl and Günther Huber
In the early 1950s, the two Huber brothers Günther (* 1942) and Peter (* 1944) were among other things the attraction at the dirt track races in St. Pölten , Wels and Baden near Vienna . Father Friedrich had built the two boys a speedway motorcycle combination with which they were allowed to drive demonstration laps during breaks in the racing in 1950. Their idol was Fritz Dirtl, around the in the Confirmation entwined by Günther Huber 1954 a nice story. Friedrich Huber had asked Dirtl to act as godfather for his boyfriend , which he gladly accepted. However, Dirtl himself was not yet confirmed and, according to church law , could not have taken office. Father Frederick managed to remedy by a day of Confirmation as Göd served by Fritz Dirtl who could then compete now received Confirmation, his position as the godfather of Guenther Huber.
Documents and pictures
Report in the world press of April 6, 1948 on the accident of Leopold Dirtl
Registration slip from Fritz Dirtl 1934
Report on the confirmation of Huber / Dirtl in the Wiener Zeitung 1
Report on the confirmation of Huber / Dirtl in the Wiener Zeitung 2
Report and pictures for confirmation in the Wiener Illustrierte
Fritz Dirtl
Fritz Dirtl's mother Anny Dirtl
Fritz Dirtl after his victory in St. Pölten in 1950, on the speedway team of the two young Huber brothers
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The successes of Leopold Dirtl
- ^ Accident report in the world press from April 6, 1948
- ↑ On the death of Erika Dirtl
- ↑ The Göls racing team
- ↑ Restaurant Thong Hua in an old dirt café
- ↑ Prominent badges of the Ö.MRV
- ↑ Information on the Golden Helmet of Pardubice
- ↑ Race results in Pardubice
- ↑ Fritz Dirtl in the Schneeweiss story
- ↑ Bamford, R. & Shailes, G. (2002). A History of the World Speedway Championship . Stroud: Tempus Publishing. About Mieczysław Połukard
- ^ The buried in the grave of Fritz Dirtl
- ^ Wiener Kurier June 10, 1954 The Huber / Dirtl Confirmation 1
- ^ Wiener Kurier June 11, 1954 The Huber / Dirtl Confirmation 2
- ^ Wiener Illustrierte June 19, 1954 Another report on confirmation
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Dirtl, Fritz |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Dirtl, Friedrich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian motorcycle racer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 9, 1928 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vienna |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 10, 1956 |
| Place of death | Oberhausen |