European motorcycle championship 1927

The Nürburgring.

The titles of the European Motorcycle Championship in 1927 were awarded at the IV. Grand Prix of the FICM , which took place on July 2nd and 3rd, 1927 at the Nürburgring ( Germany ) as part of the III. Grand Prix of Germany was held. The route was used in its original version. This included both the north and the south loop and had a length of 28.3 kilometers.

The European Grand Prix took place for the first time as part of the German Grand Prix . For the first and only time in the history of the European Championship titles were awarded in the classes up to 750 and up to 1000 cm³.

Race courses

On Saturday, July 2, 1927, the races of the three smaller displacement categories took place. They started at eleven o'clock with an interval of five minutes between the different classes.

Over the 175-cc class over 14 laps and a distance of 396.2 kilometers, there was a German triple victory of the DKW - works drivers . The still largely unknown Westphalian Willi Henkelmann prevailed. Second, one and a half minutes behind, was Arthur Geiss from Pforzheim . Third place, 13 minutes behind, went to Arthur Müller . For the Zschopau manufacturer, it was the first title win in the history of the European motorcycle championship.

In the 250cc won Cecil Ashby from the UK on OK-Supreme . At the finish he was about seven minutes ahead of the Chemnitz DKW works driver Walfried Winkler . Third, two and a half minutes behind Winkler, was the Austrian Hugo Höbel on Puch , who was 175 cc vice European champion in 1924 . The 23-year-old Walfried Winkler was only able to get into the starting field through a late registration and entered a 175cc machine with a new, water-cooled engine, which was only finally completed shortly before the race.

In the 350 cm³ class, the Briton Jimmie Simpson on AJS won with over 30 minutes ahead of Frank Longman ( Velocette ). For Simpson it was the third European title in his career.

On Sunday, July 3, 1927, the three big classes started in front of about 55,000 spectators in inconsistent weather.

In the half-liter category, Brit Graham Walker won on Sunbeam ahead of Irishman Stanley Woods ( Norton ) and Cecil Ashby from Great Britain on Rudge .

The races in the classes up to 750 and up to 1000 cm³ became a purely German matter. In the 750cc series, BMW factory driver Josef Stelzer won ahead of his brand colleague Paul Köppen . For the Munich team , as it was for DKW the day before, it was the first European championship title in the company's history.

Josef Giggenbach won both 1000s on a Bayerland with a JAP built -in engine . He drove the race over 18 laps on the entire route ( north and south loop ) or 509.4 km without incidents in 5: 58: 36.4 hours, which corresponded to an average of 85.52 km / h. Werner Huth came second on Harley-Davidson, almost 16 minutes behind, while Heinz Kürten came third on Andrees . Giggenbach had taken the lead from the Harley-Davidson riders right from the start. Paul Rüttchen , who had been second for a long time, dropped out in the ninth round. Paul Weyres fell badly and had to be hospitalized with a knee injury, which ultimately earned Huth second place. Of the twelve machines that started, six drove the race to the end.

Race results

class	winner	Second	Third
175 cc	Willi Henkelmann ( DKW )	Arthur Geiss ( DKW )	Arthur Müller ( DKW )
250 cc	Cecil Ashby ( OK-Supreme )	Walfried Winkler ( DKW )	Hugo Höbel ( Puch )
350 cc	Jimmie Simpson ( AJS )	Frank Longman ( Velocette )	Franz Seider ( Velocette )
500 cc	Graham Walker ( Sunbeam )	Stanley Woods ( Norton )	Cecil Ashby ( Rudge )
750 cc	Josef Stelzer ( BMW )	Paul Köppen ( BMW )	only two starters reached the finish
1000 cc	Josef Giggenbach ( Bayerland - JAP )	Werner Huth ( Harley-Davidson )	Heinz Kürten ( Andrees )

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. 31-32 .

Web links

• Vincent Glon: L'Histoire de la course moto - Palmarès des Championnats d'Europe (1924–1937 et 1947–1948). racingmemo.free.fr, accessed on April 21, 2010 (French). 
• Vincent Glon: L'Histoire de la course moto; 5th partie: Les Grand Prix d'Europe. (1924-1937); 1927. racingmemo.free, accessed on April 21, 2010 (French). 
• Statistics and photos at riutat.suntuubi.com (Finnish)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thora Hornung: 50 years Nürburgring - curve labyrinth for experts. Görres-Verlag, Koblenz 1977.
2. ↑ Vincent Glon: Paul Weyres. (No longer available online.) Www.harleysons.de, archived from the original on February 24, 2015 ; accessed on February 24, 2015 .