Fritz Held (racing driver)
Fritz Held (born October 2, 1867 in Mannheim ; † August 2, 1938 in Baiersbronn ) was a German entrepreneur and racing car driver .
Career
Fritz Held is one of the pioneers of the automobile and motorsport in Germany. From the mid-1880s he was closely associated with Carl Benz and his family. He was the owner of the company Fritz Held, Automobile, Mannheim and also acted as a representative of the Benz brand .
At the turn of the century between the 19th and 20th centuries, Held started successfully in automobile races. At the beginning of July 1899 he drove the Benz 8 PS racing car , the first real racing car from Benz & Cie. , together with co-driver Hans Thum on the long-distance journey Frankfurt - Cologne over a distance of 193.2 km with an average speed of 22.5 km / h, the class victory and won the big gold medal . Another 8 hp, driven by Emil Graf, came in second. With a 12 hp version of the “Contra-Motor” invented by Carl Benz , Held achieved second place behind the winner Eugène de Dietrich ( De Dietrich ) in the Innsbruck - Munich run three weeks later . In September 1899 he won the Berlin - Leipzig race together with Carl Benz 'son Richard on the 12 PS .
On May 13, 1900 , Held won the Mannheim - Pforzheim- Mannheim race together with his co-driver, the 25-year-old Benz chief mechanic Mathias Bender, in a 16 hp Benz racing car . The event was held in honor of the first successful long-distance drive in an automobile that Bertha Benz had managed to achieve on the route in 1888 with the Benz Patent Motor Car number 3 .
Fritz Held died in Baiersbronn in August 1938 at the age of 70.
Web links
- Hero, Fritz. In: mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com. Mercedes-Benz Archive, accessed on May 27, 2020 .
- Fritz Held. In: www.driverdb.com. Retrieved May 27, 2020 (English).
Individual evidence
- ^ Long-distance journey Frankfurt-Cologne, 1899. In: mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com. Mercedes-Benz Archive, accessed on May 27, 2020 .
- ^ Benz 8 PS racing car, 1899. In: mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com. Mercedes-Benz Archive, accessed on May 27, 2020 .
- ^ Benz 20 hp racing car, 1900. In: mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com. Mercedes-Benz Archive, accessed on May 27, 2020 .
- ^ Mannheim-Pforzheim-Mannheim, 1900. In: mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com. Mercedes-Benz Archive, accessed on May 27, 2020 .
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Hero, Fritz |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German automobile racing driver |
DATE OF BIRTH | October 2, 1867 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Mannheim |
DATE OF DEATH | August 2, 1938 |
Place of death | Baiersbronn |