Saarlouis street circuit

Racing events, drivers, cars or anything else from the past.
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hollie3sa
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Saarlouis street circuit

#1

Post by hollie3sa »

Hey guys,

Apparently, there's been a street racing circuit in the German city of Saarlouis. It was used for German Formula 3 Championship in the 1970s and other (e.g. touring car) events as well.
Saarlouis is only 15minutes away from my hometown, thus it really surprised me cause I have never ever heard of this circuit before.

A quick google search gives basically the same result

A few race results and a track layout was all I could find
http://www.formel3guide.com/saison/sais ... -1975.html



So, basically, I'm looking for anything there is. Visual media, reports, newspaper articles etc.


Hopefully, you can help me out there. sebbbl... I'm looking at you :wink:

Thanks a lot!
Last edited by hollie3sa 7 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
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#2

Post by Motorsportrace »

I've found this cover. No actual photos, for now:
Image
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#3

Post by sebbbl »

Hi Lucas,

unfortunately I've got no further material on that circuit myself. I mainly concentrate on the street circuits of the 1950s in East Germany...

Here's an extract from Rob Semmelings great website:
Saarlouis – Saarland / 1972, 1975 and 1977-1978 (4) / cars

Auto racing on street circuits became very rare in West-Germany following several dramatic accidents at home and abroad in the
1950s. After the Solitude near Stuttgart was abandoned in 1965, only the Avus in Berlin, the Norisring in Nürnberg, and, briefly, the
fishing harbour course in Bremerhaven remained. Saarlouis was the only new street course for auto racing in the Bundesrepublik
until DTM began racing in Singen in 1991.
Saarlouis, a city in Saarland which from 1936-1945 was named Saarlautern, hosted the Saarland Trophy (later Karlsberg Trophy)
automobile races in the years listed above, each time in May. All meetings included touring cars and GTs, while sports cars and
prototypes, Formula Vee and Formula Ford (all 1972) and Formula 3 (1975) made appearances as well. Further meetings were
announced for June 1973 and September 1976, 1979 and 1980, but for unknown reasons none of these took place.
The 4.94 km circuit was located north of town, partly running over motorways and partly around the Ford factory grounds, which
also housed the paddock. The course was challenging and fast - Günter Kölmel (March-Toyota) clocked the fastest lap of the 1975
Formula 3 race in 1.42,4 = 173.7 km/h - but unfortunately also suffered from poor safety, as it lacked decent run-off areas and
included narrow sections and hazards like bridge pillars. Sadly, the 1972 and 1975 meetings were both marred by a fatal crash.
Must have been a tough circuit to race on. Parts of the A8 were used. In the early 70s the F3 cars were rockets.

Motorsportmemorial:
http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus ... =ct&n=6484 (1975 fatality)
http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus ... =ct&n=1548 (no information on the 1972 fatality)
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#4

Post by sebbbl »

The only really famous driver of the 1975 race is Mark Surer (DNF). Today he is co-commentator at Sky Germany. You should write him an Email.
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#5

Post by hollie3sa »

Amazing stuff! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Thank you very very much!!

sebbbl wrote:The only really famous driver of the 1975 race is Mark Surer (DNF). Today he is co-commentator at Sky Germany. You should write him an Email.
Any suggestions on how to contact him? You seem to have some experience in that regard.

This is his official website/contact address: http://www.marcsurer.com/nebenstruktur/contact/
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#6

Post by hollie3sa »

Image
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#7

Post by PTRACER »

Found the circuit today. It goes around the edge of Ford Werke Saarlouis:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/For ... d6.7661619

And besides a roundabout at one corner, and a car park over the top of another, the layout is completely intact:

Image

http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk/racingcir ... louis.html
Developer of the 1967v3 Historic Mod for Grand Prix Legends: viewtopic.php?t=17429

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#8

Post by PTRACER »

The area in 1969

Image

And more recently:

Image
Developer of the 1967v3 Historic Mod for Grand Prix Legends: viewtopic.php?t=17429

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#9

Post by hollie3sa »

Thank you, Paul!

I actually know this place very well. Ford acts as a sponsor for our Formula Student Team and they allow us to use their parking lot (the bottom one in your first picture) as a test treck for our car. Well, it's a bit bumpy with quite a number of small stones on it. But still the best we can get in the area.

I guess I'm gonna try to contact the Ford Werke Saarlouis to see if they have anything. Would be a logical step, wouldn't it?!
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#10

Post by Andy »

hollie3sa wrote:Thank you, Paul!

I actually know this place very well. Ford acts as a sponsor for our Formula Student Team and they allow us to use their parking lot (the bottom one in your first picture) as a test treck for our car. Well, it's a bit bumpy with quite a number of small stones on it. But still the best we can get in the area.

I guess I'm gonna try to contact the Ford Werke Saarlouis to see if they have anything. Would be a logical step, wouldn't it?!
Another logical step would be contacting the town archives and local newspaper archives and have a look there. I know that the town archive of Peine hosts quite a couple of infos on the road races which were held in the early 50s. Same goes for the Braunschweig road races on the Autobahn and at Prinzenpark.
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#11

Post by hollie3sa »

The town archive of Saarbrücken has.. nothing. But another thing brought this thread back in my mind.



One unknown driver was killed in a 1972 touring car race according to Motorsport Memorial. The driver in question might be Adolf Saal (or maybe Maurice Roger), given that the results are complete and correct.


Here's every driver who is listed as "DNF" and why they are out of the equation:

TC Group 1
Maurice Roger - probably raced in 1973 at the Norisring - uncertain
Herbert Hartge - Founder of Hartge, raced till the late 1970s
Adolf Saal

TC Group 2
Jörg Obermoser - still alive
Wolfgang Kirch - participated in a race later that year in the same car
Fritz Rechberg - participated in a race later that year in the same car
Jürgen Berger - participated in a race later that year in the same car
Rolf Langen - participated in a race later that year in the same car
Hans Musäus - The official Steyr-Puch-Racing website states he died in 1976
Lothar Wichert - participated in a race later that year in the same car
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#12

Post by hollie3sa »

Alright. I've made some progress.


Yesterday, I called the "Kreisarchiv Saarlouis"
The answer: "I have never heard of that track before"

So I called the city library
The answer: "I have never heard of that before" - but Mr. Georg André gave me the advice to call Benedikt Loew of the city archive/museum.

So I called him. And guess what he told me? "I have never heard that story before"

As of his suggestion, I called the Landesarchiv. They have a special section which is called "Sportarchiv". Sadly, a certain Mr. Kraus had never ever heard of the track before. But... he connected with Dr. Paul Burger who is a studied historian and author that works for the Landesarchiv. And Mr. Burger finally told me that he had never heard of the track before. And also that he was going to take a look into the non-digitised photo collection of the Landesarchiv.

So today I called the city archive of Saarbrücken as I know that they are storing a huge part of the archive of the Saarbrücker Zeitung, the local newspaper here. And the very friendly lady on the phone told me that 1. she has never heard of such a track before and 2. the sports section are not included in their archive. (Really?!)

But then I remembered the hint from the fella of the "Kreisarchiv". He suggested I might call the (lower) building control department (Untere Bauaufsichtsbehörde) to see if they have some kind of maps from that era. And what can I say? They don't know anything about that track either. I should write an e-mail.


Ah. Same goes for the ADAC.


tl;dr: NOBODY HAS EVER HEARD OF THE TRACK FOR F***S SAKE



To be continued...
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#13

Post by hollie3sa »

An update will follow soon...
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#14

Post by hollie3sa »

Ok. Not so soon apparently.

I visited a number of archives, made a few (=a lot) phone calls and spoke to many people.

I'll have to sort out a couple of copyright-related issues. Then I'll really give you guys an update.


Cheers
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#15

Post by John »

Tried calling the German auto federation?
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