The Schauinsland hillclimb track was once part of the sports car world championship
News from Schauinsland, the 1.283 meter high local mountain of Freiburg im Breisgau: Due to the current travel restrictions, people in Germany are rediscovering their tourist highlights in their neighborhood. This has recently led to a lot of crowds around the place Schauinsland - and the accompanying chaos in the parking situation. In view of the full parking spaces, many visitors decided to park their animals directly on the street.
Large numbers of visitors and a large shortage of parking spaces on the Schauinsland
Sometimes people even parked their cars in two rows along the Panoramic road. Some even like to rent a car for this excursion by Tuicars have resorted to such. For example, a VW Polo that is recommended for not too long journeys and can be rented as a cheap offer from Tuicars. In the end, the police even had to close some streets to the Schauinsland. The Schauinsland last caused a similar rush, albeit with a smaller number of own cars, in the mid to late 1960s. At that time, the Schauinsland hill climb reached its peak with the interest of the spectators. This hill climb has been a little forgotten after it was discontinued, even by local residents. There were a number of sporting highlights to marvel at at that time. In its best times, it attracted even more visitors than are currently regularly visiting the Schauinsland. This motorsport event, which has been held annually for a long time, is the record number with 100.000 spectators.
Hill climb on the Schauinsland with international significance
The Schauinsland hill climb was held for the first time in 1925, more precisely on August 15 and 16 of that year. The racetrack was a so-called wood removal route, on which the vehicles had to cope with a full 12 meters of difference in altitude over a length of 780 kilometers. The stretch that was barely developed at the time still exists today in the form of the L 124 from Horben to the top of the pass on the Schauinsland. Today's very safe conditions on this road only give an idea of the courage that racing drivers of earlier times had to muster to race through the numerous bends at insane speeds in order to reach the finish line faster than their competitors.
Shortly after it was founded in 1925, namely from 1927, the Schauinsland hill climb was part of the international racing calendar. From 1930 it was Germany's "Mountain Prize" before there was a long break due to the Second World War. From 1949, operations resumed, initially every two years, between 1957 and 1970 even annually. It was at that time that the Schauinsland mountain race was literally at the peak of its popularity.
In order to give an impression of how things went at such a Schauinsland hill climb, the figures for the 1964 edition are mentioned here. At that time, no less than 60.000 spectators lined the race track, which was 11,2 kilometers long. The race was the 11th round of the sports car world championship. The winner was Edgar Barth, the one Porsche 718RS Spyder drove. It took 13: 49,580 minutes for the route, making it the fastest of all 43 cars that reached the finish at the top of the pass on August 9, 1964. Another three participants did not reach the goal at that time. In doing so, Edgar Barth collected important points that ultimately secured him overall victory in the World Sports Car Championship.
