Oskar Steinbach

Oskar Steinbach (born May 29, 1913 in Mannheim ; † March 10, 1937 there ) was a German motorcycle racer .

Career

Beginnings

In the 1930s, Oskar Steinbach was considered one of the greatest talents in German motorcycle racing. In September 1932, at the age of 19, he won the main race of licensed drivers at the Nürburgring on a Norton . In 1933 he was in a cast for six weeks after falling while training on an open street. In 1934, the Mannheim won on a 500 cc - NSU at Hockenheim motorcycle racing . In the half-liter run of the Hamburg city park race , he had to admit defeat to the Nuremberg DKW factory pilot Otto Ley after 20 laps . After crossing the finish line, he fell, sustaining a leg injury and a concussion .

1935 season

Oskar Steinbach started the 1935 season on NSU with a victory in the 500cc race on the Solitude in Stuttgart . A short time later, he traveled to the Isle of Man with the German representation to take part in the Tourist Trophy , the most difficult and important motorcycle race in the world at the time. In the lightweight class (250 cm³), in which he represented Kurt Mansfeld , who had fallen in training, in the DKW works team , he retired due to a radiator damage . A similar fate befell him in the junior run (350 cm³). In the supreme discipline , the 500 cc race for the Senior TT , Steinbach took fifth place on his NSU behind the local works drivers Woods , Guthrie , Rusk and Duncan . As a 22-year-old newcomer with no prior knowledge of the route on the 60-kilometer Snaefell Mountain Course, he was over seven minutes faster than his experienced NSU brand colleague Ted Mellors , who came in seventh. In the further course of the season Steinbach won both the 350 and the 500 run in the Schleizer triangle race. At the last event of the season for the German championship , the Feldberg Mountain Prize on the Großer Feldberg im Taunus , Steinbach also won the 350s and 500s and was thus German motorcycle road champion in both classes on one day.

1936 season

In the 1936 season, Oskar Steinbach was supposed to start for DKW. On the first weekend in April, the German championship traditionally started at the Eilenriederennen in Hanover . Since NSU claimed that he also had a valid contract with them for 1936, Steinbach was banned from these races by the stewards because of a double contract. A short time later, the ONS decided that the Mannheimer should drive in the 350 class for NSU and compete in the 500 cc class for DKW. He made his debut as a works driver with the Zschopau riders , finishing fifth in the half-liter run at the Swiss Grand Prix in Bremgarten . At the Isle of Man TT, Steinbach retired from both the 250s and 500s on DKW. In the junior race of the 350 cc, he finished sixth on NSU behind Frith , White , Mellors, Thomas and Guthrie. On July 5th, on the 8.7 kilometer long Badberg square in Hohenstein-Ernstthal, the XI. Grand Prix of Germany took place, in which the European motorcycle championship in 1936 was held at the same time that year . Oskar Steinbach finished second behind Freddie Frith (Norton) in the 350cc race, which ran over 346 kilometers. On the same day he contested the 500cc race for DKW, but dropped out shortly before the end due to a fall after problems with the tank of his machine. Two weeks later Steinbach clinched his first victory on DKW in Rund um Schotten in the half-liter race ahead of Heiner Fleischmann . The following weekend he only had to give way to British Norton works drivers Jimmie Guthrie and “Crasher” White in the 500cc race of the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps . At the beginning of September the man from Mannheim achieved his first victory in a championship run for the Saxon manufacturer DKW on the Schleizer Dreieck ahead of his Bielefeld team colleague H. P. Müller .

Deadly accident

Oskar Steinbach died on March 10, 1937, at the age of 23, in a traffic accident during a test drive on Seckenheimer Landstrasse in his home town of Mannheim.

statistics

title

• 1935 - German 350 cm³ champion on NSU
• 1935 - German 500 cm³ champion on NSU
• 1936 - 350 cc vice European champion on NSU

Race wins

year	class	machine	run	route
1934	500 cc	NSU	Hockenheim motorcycle races	Hockenheimring
1935	500 cc	NSU	3rd International Solitude Race	Solitude
	350 cc	NSU	13th Schleizer triangle race 1	Schleizer triangle
	500 cc	NSU	13th Schleizer triangle race	Schleizer triangle
	350 cc	NSU	Feldberg Mountain Prize	Feldbergring
	500 cc	NSU	Feldberg Mountain Prize	Feldbergring
1936	500 cc	DKW	10. All about bulkheads	Schottenring
	500 cc	DKW	14th Schleizer triangle race	Schleizer triangle
	250 cc	DKW	Grand Prix de l'Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse	Mettet

¹ ex aequo with Werner Mellmann

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. 55-85, 114, 121 .

Web links

• Photos: Oskar Steinbach's funeral at www.meisterdinger.de: [1] , [2]
• Photo: Oskar Steinbach at www.motoags.com
• Oskar Steinbach on the official website of the Isle of Man TT (English).