Masaryk ring

The original route, which was operated from 1930 to 1937.

All variants of the Masaryk Ring or Brno Automotodrom .

Racing car near Ostrovačice , around 1935.

The Masaryk-Ring ( Czech Masarykův okruh ) was a motorsport racetrack that existed in different lengths and versions from 1930 to 1986 on the western outskirts of Brno in the Czech Republic .

It was named after Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , the first president of Czechoslovakia .

history

The original route of the Masaryk Ring was opened on September 28, 1930 with the automobile race for the Grand Prix of Czechoslovakia , which was held for the first time . It consisted of public roads that were closed for the races and had a length of 29.194 km. Start and finish were at Bosonohy , from there the route ran counter- clockwise on state roads between Ostrovačice and Žebětín through the Podkomorské lesy forests. The first winners were Heinrich-Joachim von Morgen and Hermann zu Leiningen in a Bugatti T35B . In 1932 and 1933 Ernst Günther Burggaller won the race in the class up to 1500 cm³. The Masaryk Grand Prix regularly took place on the slopes until 1937 .

After the Second World War , the route was shortened to 17.8 km and now traveled in a clockwise direction. In 1949 the first race, the Automobile Grand Prix of Czechoslovakia, took place on the new circuit. In front of 400,000 spectators, the Englishman Peter Whitehead won in a Ferrari . In 1950 the Czechoslovakian Grand Prix for motorcycles was held on the track for the first time. From the 1950s onwards, motorcycle racing dominated as the government viewed car racing as bourgeois . In the years from 1956 to 1958, the German Hans Baltisberger , the French Michel Mouty, the Swede Valle Lundberg and the French-German team duo Jacques Drion / Inge Stoll-Laforge suffered a total of five deaths in motorcycle races.

For the 1965 season, the Masaryk Ring was completely rebuilt and shortened to 13.9 km. In this year for the first time has appeared motorcycle world championship as part of the Grand Prix of Czechoslovakia. Later, in addition to the motorcycle world championship, the European touring car championship , Formula Junior (later Formula 3 ) and thus Formula 1 greats such as Jochen Rindt , Niki Lauda and Denis Hulme used the route, which now passed through the western foothills of Brno and therefore numerous local passages included.

From 1975 the Masaryk-Ring was shortened again, this time to 10.925 km, and only the western part of the previously traveled route was used, which resulted in a significant increase in route safety by avoiding the dangerous through-town traffic. Up to and including 1982 , the motorcycle world championship took place on the slopes. After that it no longer complied with the stricter safety regulations of the FIM , which is why the Czechoslovak Grand Prix also lost its World Cup status and from then on only counted for the European Motorcycle Championship .

The time of the old Masaryk Ring ended in 1986. In June 1987, the Automotodrom Brno, a permanent race track within the old street circuit, was opened, which is about 10 km from the pits of the old ring.

Today most of the public roads that made up the route are still passable.

Web links

Commons : Masaryk Ring  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the Brno Motor Show
• Masaryk-Ring at racingmemo.free.fr (French)
• Masaryk-Ring at eggersdorfer.info
• Leif Snellman: CZECHOSLOVAKIA. www.kolumbus.fi, April 3, 2014, accessed on March 14, 2015 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Zavrel, Zdenek: Historie automobilovych zavodu 1930-2002 . Computer Press, Brno 2003, ISBN 80-7226-643-8 , p. 1 .