Long track.
The first Motorcycle meeting on the beautiful 950 meters long Charlottenlund horse trotting track was the Danish long track Championship held on August 15 1948. 86 riders in seven different classes joined the event.
Gating in the Danish Long Track Championship 1948
Not surprisingly the programme cover looks the
same as that from Gentofte speedway.
The organizer was the same.
Champions:
500 cc. Special: Bent Jensen, Aarhus.
350 cc. Special: N.V. Jensen, Odense.
500 cc. Standard: Agner Hansen, Copenhagen.
350 cc. Standard: Peder Staal Jensen, Randers.
250 cc. Standard: Sv. Aa. Sorensen, Copenhagen.
Sidecar under 600 cc. E.V. Mathiesen, Copenhagen.
Sidecar over 600 cc. David Axelsson, Copenhagen
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The Nordic Long Track Championship got in 1951 won by Leif “Basse” Hveem from Norway:
Watch a movie clip from the final here:
http://www.danskkulturarv.dk/dr/nordisk-mesterskab-i-jordbanel%C3%B8b/
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The Elektrol Cup was sponsored by Alfred Olsen & company for the oil company ”Elektrol Oil”. It was a handmade very prestigious genuine silver cup that should be won 3 times to become the winner’s property. Before WW2 the events were in 1936 and 1937 staged on the Amager trotting track and in 1938 held on the Frederiksund Track, where Sv. Aa. Engstrøm had won a share in the cup.
The Frederiksund track did not open after the war. Instead the meeting in 1949 went to Charlottenlund.
Orla Knudsen claimed a share for himself in the Elektrol cup in 1952.
The Elektrol race in 1954 was eagerly awaited. Both the Swede Göte Brester and Dane Svend Aage Engstrom came with two shares each in the cup, and with a win either could claim the cup as their own.
It was not to come out so. Irving Irvinger was the fastest man of the day, but suffered ignition trouble in the final. Hence Leif Bech claimed the victory.
The 1954 event was the end of a near 30 years long career of Svend Aage Engstrøm who had a lot of engine trouble and did not reach the final.To the press he explained his retirement with lack of time and that he would not like to end up as a riding oldtimer.
Also Göte Brester had engine trouble. A broken valve forced him to retire.
In the first heat of the day an accident occurred that could have been fatal. Out of the last bend of lap 1 the rider Poul Hansen lost control over his bike, which plunged directly into and through the safety fence.
Hansen flew several meters over the terrace and hit some people standing there. He and six spectators got rushed to hospital, while the race doctor treated others for minor bruises. The race was stopped for one hour.
Afterwards the examinators found that the reason for the accident was a bad welding of the frame that broke. Actually the bike was parted in two.
The Elektrol cup through the years:
17. maj 1936: Amager Trotting Torsten Sjöberg, Sweden.
30. maj 1937: Amager Trotting Torsten Sjöberg, Sweden.
28. August 1938: Frederiksund Svend Aage Engstrom.
14. August 1949: Charlottenlund Svend Aage Engstrom.
13. August 1950: Charlottenlund Göte Brester. Sweden
5.. August 1951: Charlottenlund Kiehn Berthelsen.
3. August 1952: Orla Knudsen.
9. August 1953: Charlottenlund Göte Brester. Sweden.
8. August 1954: Charlottenlund Leif Bech.
14. August 1955: Charlottenlund Kiehn Bertelsen.
12. August 1956: Charlottenlund Arne Pander.
11. August 1957: Charlottenlund Arne Pander
10. August 1958: Charlottenlund Arne Pander.
Arne Pander made a clean sweep and won the Elektrol cup for good.
The series of ”Gold bar” races began on August 9 1959 in Charlottenlund and continued through many years with great success. It was sponsored by the chocolate company “TOM’s Fabrikker”.
The prize which should be won 3 times to become property was a bar of genuine gold with a said value of 85.000 DKK. resembling the chocolate bar after which the series was named.
14. August 1966. TOMS factories Trophy.
TOMS Factories Ltd. donated in 1965 the above coffee set to a value of 10,000 DKK to the Motor Clubs’ Track Foundation.
The set, which was designed by Sigvard Bernadotte and manufactured by Georg Jensen Silver Forge was exposed to 500 cc. Expert class as a trophy in the Goldbar race first time in 1966, and should be won three times to become the winner’s property. It was a fierce duel between Kurt W. Pedersen and Swedish Björn Knutsson, before the set found its winner for good.
14/8 1966 Kurt W. Pedersen.
13/8 1967: Björn Knutsson.
11/9 1968: Kurt W. Pedersen.
10/8 1969: Björn Knutsson
9/8 1970: Kurt W. Pedersen
A brilliant view with 8 motor cycles closely cornering the Charlottenlund track.
Unfortunately the track on August 1 1976 got hit by a fatal accident in which the sidecar pilot Jan Jorgensen lost his life. After having passed the finish line the motorcycle for unexplained reasons went over the infield grass where it hit a lamppole. The passenger escaped unhurt.
After the accident the Goldbar races did not continue at Charlottenlund. In 1977 the race was held at Selskov Speedway. Then a couple of years at Korskro Speedway before it finally ended up at Vojens speedway.
Gold Bar Race returns.
For once the Gold bar race returned to Charlottenlund. The well known boxing promoter Mogens Palle joined a venture with Amager Motorcycle Club, assisted by the 2 other clubs FAM and MSM to organize the race on a Tuesday night in floodlight.
In the days ahead of the event there was a fierce discussion in the press, whether it was acceptable that a boxing promoter could be allowed to arrange a motor cycle event. That may have affected the public to attend in a number not larger than approx. 2.500.
Nevertheless the racing was fine and very tense. After the final heat, the West German Alois Wisböck and English Simon Wigg tied on 22 points. Alois Wisböck won the race off after being pressed all the way by Wiggy. Karl Maier from West Germany took third place. Best Dane was Hans Nielsen as no. 5. Ivan Mauger got excluded in the final heat for tape touching.
Sunday August 19. 1984
Again a Goldbar meeting was staged at Charlottenlund and again with Mogens Palle as promoter in cooperation with the Amager Motorcycle Club.
The programme was overwhelming including no less than 4 world champions, a 6-nations team match – in fact 7 as the World team was 2 German and 2 Swedish riders, an attempt to set a new world speed record on long track, an international expert class and an international sidecar class.
The results:
Nations match:
No. 1. Denmark 56 point. No. 2. England 54 point. No. 3. Australia 48 point.
Finn Rune Jensen 20 p. Simon Wigg 18 p. Ivan Mauger 18 p.
Erik Gundersen 14 p. Chris Morton 14 p. John Titman 14 p.
Hans Nielsen 13 p. Peter Collins 12 p. Larry Ross 10 p.
Bo Petersen 9 p. Phil Collins 10 p. Mitch Shirra 6 p.
No. 4.World team 42 point. No. 5. USA 32 point. No. 6. Czechoslovakia 6 point.
Alois Wisböck 13 p. Shawn Moran 11 p. Emil Sova 3 p.
Anders Michanek 13 p. Bobby Schwarz 8 p. Pavel Karnas 2 p.
Josef Aigner 12 p. Lance King 7p. Zdenek Schneiderwind 1 p.
Erik Stenlund 4 p. John Cook 6 p. Petr Kubicek 0 p.
Gold Bar final:
No. 1 Finn Rune Jensen,
No. 2 Simon Wigg,
No. 3 Ivan Mauger.
Expert class:
No. 1 Peter Ravn 14 p.
No. 2 Tommy Knudsen 12 p.
No. 3 Kym Mauger 6 p.
Sidecar:
No. 1 Michael & Rosamund Datzmann 14 p.
No. 2 Niels Munk Nielsen & Jens Petersen 12 p.
No. 3 Jan Rasmussen & Remi Kruse 10 p.
Record attempts:
Shawn Moran 132,83 kmh = 82,606 mph. New World speed record
Erik Gundersen 131,71 kmh.= 81,91 mph.
Simon Wigg 131,54 kmh = 81,803 mph.
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Few years ago some test rides on speedway bikes were made to sort out whether this famous track might be reopened for Motorcycle racing. But here as well as on Gentofte Stadium it proved impossible due to the noise emission.
The satellite picture shows clearly how close to the track the residential areas are
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