Roskilde Ring
The Roskilde Ring was the first permanent motorsport racetrack in Denmark . On the track, which opened in 1955 and closed in 1969, two Formula 1 races were held in 1961 and 1962 that were not part of the official Formula 1 World Championship.
history
After the desire for a Danish racetrack had been discussed in motorsport circles since the 1940s, the Danish entrepreneur Poul Tholstrup, after talks with the Automobil-Sport-Club Copenhagen (ASK), acquired a disused gravel pit in Roskilde in the summer of 1953 to make room for a racetrack to accomplish. The financial means for the reconstruction of the pit were generated by the ASK forming a fund , from which shares in the route were sold: the shareholders received a contribution of 50 kroner u. a. free entry to the ring and the events.
Construction work began in the winter of 1954/1955 with the support of the Danish military , who prepared the area of the gravel pit with bulldozers and bulldozers .
The opening race took place on June 5, 1955 in front of about 30,000 spectators.
The disadvantage turned out to be that the racetrack was unusually short with a length of 670 meters: initially only the kettle-shaped gorge of the former gravel pit was used for the route. To gain space for larger events, the ring was extended to a length of 1,400 meters in 1957 by adding an additional loop.
In addition to various national and international events, Formula 1 also made guest appearances on the Roskilde Ring in the following years. Although the races in 1961 and 1962 were not part of the Formula 1 World Championship , renowned drivers such as Stirling Moss , Jack Brabham , Graham Hill , Jim Clark and John Surtees took part in the events. Moss, winner of the 1961 race, described the ring as "A most peculiar raceway" ("An extremely peculiar racecourse").
As the track was located near the center of Roskilde in a densely built-up area, the infrastructure and the noise from the races caused increasing problems. Since the residential development had moved up to the racetrack in the course of time, the responsible authorities refused to permit further events after a final race on September 22, 1968. The ring was therefore finally closed in 1969; the line and the associated structures were removed in the 1970s.
In the following years, the area was converted into a public park, which is now used by a hotel and a Frisbee club for disc golf . In the deepest part of the former racetrack in the area of the former Pirelli curve there is now a pond.
route
The route was located in the basin of a former gravel pit, which is why all the curves on the outer side had an incline of at least 5 degrees. The fast Pirelli curve in front of the start and finish, which was designed as a steep curve with an angle of up to 11 degrees, exhibited the greatest incline .
Because it was embedded in the topography of the pit, the route, initially laid out as a 670 meter long, pear-shaped oval, had no real straight line. After adding an additional loop northwest of the original route, the length increased to 1,400 meters in 1957. In the course of one lap, the vehicles overcame a height difference of 14 meters despite the short distance. The track width varied from 13 meters on the western loop to a width of 23 meters at the start and finish.
The last lap record of just 42.0 seconds was set in 1968 by Reine Wisell in a Tecno-Ford Formula 3 . The most successful driver was the Dane Julius Voigt Nielsen with a total of 27 victories in different classes.
The appearance of the route was characterized by the fact that sponsor lettering was applied directly to the lane in white: In addition to the double Pirelli lettering in the curve of the same name, the names of the Danish newspaper Politiken , the companies Ford , Luxol and Philips were also found directly the route noted.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Roskilde Ring (accessed February 8, 2009).
- ^ Roskilde Ring, a most peculiar raceway. (accessed February 8, 2009).
- ↑ 240 vindere på Roskilde Ring ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) (accessed on February 8, 2009).
- ^ Tiny Danish delight revisited (accessed February 8, 2009).
Web links
- Race results
- film records
- Map of the route ( Memento from December 3, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- Aerial view of the route
Coordinates: 55 ° 37 ′ 55.8 " N , 12 ° 4 ′ 55.3" E