Grenzlandring

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Map of the current Grenzlandring

The Grenzlandring, pictured in 2007 from the spot of the 1952 accident

The Grenzlandring (German for "border-region ring") is a former high speed race track oval in the Lower Rhine area of Germany, around the town of Wegberg, located half way between Mönchengladbach and the Dutch town of Roermond.

The Grenzlandring, to many foreigners also known as The Wegbergring, is told to be "discovered" nearly undamaged after World War II when during one dark 1947 night, Dr. Carl Marcus, the town mayor from the nearby city of Rheydt, drove along a more or less straight looking country road. When he passed a bicyle rider more than once, he suddenly realised that this road must be a full circle. In fact, a 9,005 meter long and 6.8 meter wide egg-shaped concrete ring road had been built prior to WWII around Wegberg and the neighboring village of Beeck and completed in 1938 or 1939, at total costs of about 3.3 million Reichsmark. As it was intended for military purposes, the construction had not made been public to a wider audience nor was the road shown in any map.

Initiated by the silk weaving mill owner and keen racing driver Emil "Teddy" Vorster (Rheydt) and his Rheydter Club für Motorsport (RCM) but organised by the Motorsport-Union-Grenzlandring (a co-operation of several motorsport clubs of the Lower Rhine region) the first race was held on September 19 1948, in front of about 250,000 spectators, although "just" 100,000 people had been expected to show up. The all-time average lap record was set in September 1949 by the famous Bavarian Georg "Schorsch" Meier (overall winner of the 1939 Isle of Man TT) on a supercharged BMW 500 motorbike at 216 km/h while Toni Ulmen in September 1951 set the all-time record for cars, driving his Veritas 2000 RS to 212 km/h.

Yet, on August 31 1952, Helmut Niedermayr from Berlin crashed his Reif/Veritas-Meteor Formula 2 in the Roermond bend at a speed of nearly 200 km/h, due to never cleared up reasons, killing at least 13 (some sources even claim a 14th but unknown dead person) and injuring 42 spectators. Although the actual event was not stopped to avert panic among the crowds racing was immediately banned by the government afterwards, after a total of 5 all anti-clockwise driven competition events that had been atended by up to 300,000 people.