Karl Lottes

Karl Lottes (born April 29, 1912 in Marburg ; † May 5, 1997 ) was a German motorcycle racer .

The Marburger, who is considered friendly and humble, mastered both two-stroke and four-stroke racing motorcycles and was one of the best and most consistent private drivers in Germany both before and after the Second World War. In his active time he achieved around 100 wins and 50 second places. In the cement railroad races popular in the early 1950s, Lottes fought for 17 victories and three German championships. On the road, he was two times German champion.

Career

Karl Lottes came into contact with automobiles at an early age through his parents. His father was a car mechanic and his mother had had a motorcycle license since 1920, which was unusual for the time. At the age of 21 he began his racing career as an ID driver on a cargo pump DKW .

In 1937 Lottes bought a former DKW racing motorcycle from Siegfried Wünsche and started out as a driver with a license. The machine had considerable success in 1938 and 1939 - in 1938 and 1939 he was “Best German private driver” in the class up to 250 cc. For example, Lotte could as a private driver in 1938 at the Grand Prix of Germany at the Sachsenring to Hohenstein-Ernstthal behind the DKW works drivers Ewald Kluge and Bernhard Petruschke occupy a strong third place in the quarter-liter class. He achieved the same result at the 1939 Swedish Grand Prix in Saxtorp . Then the outbreak of the Second World War and the associated suspension of almost all racing activities in Europe ended his career.

After the war, Karl Lottes built a pre-war DKW from still existing spare parts and was back in the race in 1946. After supercharged engines were banned from racing in the early 1950s , Lottes competed successfully on a factory-supported but privately used 250cc two-cylinder DKW, an Italian 125cc Mondial and from 1953 on a 125cc MV Agusta . Lottes competed with the MV from 1951 to 1955 at the Grand Prix of Germany for the motorcycle world championship and achieved three points in the process. In 1951 (250 cm³) and 1952 (125 cm³ and 250 cm³) he was German cement railway master, from 1953 to 1957 again "Best German private driver".

The culmination of Karl Lottes' career was the 1955 German road championship in the class up to 125 cm³. He won ahead of the IFA factory driver Horst Fügner from Karl-Marx-Stadt . For the following season he received a 125cc works motorcycle from DKW, with which he competed until the end of 1957 and in 1957 again secured the German championship in the eight-liter class. After that, Lottes switched to a two-stroke engine again : he drove a 125 cc rotary valve MZ borrowed from MZ racing boss Walter Kaaden . His best result with it was fourth place at the Hockenheimring in 1958 . In July 1958, the now 46-year-old had a serious crash at the German Grand Prix on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring and had to end his racing career as a result.

Karl Lottes died on May 5th, 1997 at the age of 85 after a long and serious illness.

statistics

title

• 1955 - German 125 cm³ champion on MV Agusta
• 1957 - German 125 cm³ champion on DKW

Race wins

year	class	machine	run	route
1947	250 cc	DKW	Circuit race Hockenheim	Kurpfalzring
	250 cc	DKW	All about bulkheads	Schottenring
1950	250 cc	DKW	All about bulkheads	Schottenring
	250 cc	DKW	Castle ring race 1	Monschau
1953	125 cc	MV Agusta	Halle-Saale loop race	Halle-Saale loop
	250 cc	DKW	Halle-Saale loop race	Halle-Saale loop
	125 cc	MV Agusta	Motorrace Tubbergen	Circuit Tubbergen
1954	250 cc	DKW	International Sachsenring race	Sachsenring
1955	125 cc	MV Agusta	Rhein-Pokal race	Hockenheimring
	125 cc	MV Agusta	International Solitude Race	Solitude
1956	250 cc	DKW	Motorrace Tubbergen	Circuit Tubbergen
	250 cc	DKW	Halle-Saale loop race	Halle-Saale loop
	125 cc	DKW	Schleizer triangle race	Schleizer triangle
	250 cc	DKW	Schleizer triangle race	Schleizer triangle

¹ ex aequo with Hein Thorn Prikker

In the motorcycle world championship

season	class	motorcycle	run	Victories	Podiums	Points	Result
1953	125 cc	MV Agusta	1	-	-	1	17th
1954	125 cc	MV Agusta	2	-	-	2	16.
1955	125 cc	MV Agusta	1	-	-	3	9.
total			4th	-	-	6th

References

literature

• Steffen Ottinger: DKW motorcycle sport 1920–1939 . From the first victories of the Zschopau two-stroke model at track races to the European championship successes. 1st edition. HB-Werbung und Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Chemnitz 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-028611-7 , p. 75, 97-119 .

Web links

• Karl Lottes on the official website of the Motorcycle World Championship (English).
• Günter Geyler: Karl Lottes. www.eggersdorfer.info, accessed on June 24, 2013 .