What goes around... comes around!
The 1920s saw a number of European ovals spring up - including this one at Sitges-Terramar.
Picture: Peter Schömer
The 1920s marked an exciting time for oval racing in Europe, with a host of new circuits springing up around the continent, perhaps inspired by the early success of Brooklands.
In February 1922, an institution was born when plans for a new circuit in Milan were unveiled. The combined 5.5km road circuit and 4.5km oval course were built in a former royal park, on land donated by the local community.
Constructed in just 100 days, the Monza autodrome has become one of the most famous names in motorsport, and although it has been subject to several rebuildings, the circuit survives today as the oldest purpose-built circuit in Europe still in use.
Uniquely, the oval circuit could be combined with the road course, with competitors traversing the start/finish straight twice per lap.
The original speed bowl fell out of use, however, after a calamitous series of accidents on September 10, 1933 - known to locals as the 'Black Day of Monza'. Following the Italian GP, a second race, the Monza GP, was held. In the first heat, Count Felice Trossi's Duesenberg lost oil on one of the banked turns but, fatefully, it was never cleared up. On the first lap of the second race, the great Giuseppe Campari in an Alfa Romeo and Baconin Borzacchini in a Maserati lost control on he oil, skidded and crashed to their deaths. Then, in the final, Count Czaykowski in his 5-litre Bentley was killed on the same bend.
After the war, much work was needed to get Monza back into a fit state for use and it was not until 1948 that racing resumed. However, the banked oval was not rebuilt until 1955, the combined course being used for the Italian GP that year and in 1956, 1960 and 1961. Only twice was it used independently: the best of American racing pitted themselves against the Europeans in the 'Race of Two Worlds' races in 1957 and 1958.
Right from day one, though, there were problems; the soft marshy land on which the circuit was constructed led the concrete slabs to become uneven leaving to tremendous bumps. By 1961, the drivers had had enough and the oval was left to decay quietly.
Motorway madness
While the Italians were pioneering the combined road and oval course concept, the Germans, not to be outdone, had their own take on unusual ovals. Also opening in 1922, AVUS (an abbreviation for the German for Automobile Traffic and Practice Road) was built in Berlin, comprising two enormously long stretches of road joined at either end by curved sections.
Along the 19.7 km lap, the Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union cars could reach speeds of 300 km/h. The original North Curve was a flat and gradual curve until 1936, when it was remodelled with fearsome 36-degree brick banking. The South Curve was also later moved, cutting the course down to just over 8km, but was never banked.
This highly unusual venue was perhaps not in the strictest sense an oval track; but then neither was it a true road course or street circuit! The banking was demolished in 1971, but ever-shorter versions of the circuit continued in use to the end of the 1990s.
Sitges-Terramar
Sensing that the rest of Europe was leaving them behind, the Spanish embarked on a grandiose scheme of road building in the 1920s; a by-product of which was the grand Autodromo Nacional at Sitges.
A Portland cement factory had been built in the town ready for the road-building and the Sitges-Terramar track was constructed in order to prove the processes for the pre-cast sections.
The two-kilometre was built over the course of just 300 days in 1923, designed by Juame Mestres i Fossas at great cost. Unfortunately, while the construction techniques were high-quality (the circuit is well-preserved today) they were also expensive and, after the first event (the 1923 Spanish GP), the creditors for the German construction company moved in.
The Linas-Montlhéry oval.
Recouping the unpaid fees meant no prize money for competitors and a fatally damaged reputation for the track. Drivers began to complain that the circuit was flawed in its design, to the extent that it was downright dangerous. The banking was too severe, they said, (60-degrees at the bottom, 90-degrees at the top) and caused instability.
Inevitably, racing ceased in 1925 and the ownership of the circuit changed too; in 1929 Edgar Morawitz purchased the Autodromo and racing returned in 1932 for the Spanish Motorcycling Championship. The outbreak of civil war finally did for the kidney-shaped circuit, however, with Morawitz signing up to fight Franco and the Autodromo left to its own devices.
Thankfully, the story does not end there. Despite years of inactivity - and the establishment of a thriving chicken farm - Sitges remained largely intact and a rescue could shortly be in order. A Canadian entrepreneur is on the verge of buying the circuit and has plans to turn it into a motorsport resort for owners of vintage racing cars and aircraft.
Other European ovals of the 1920s enjoyed similarly chequered careers: Miramas in France opened in 1926 but its inaugural event attracted only three entrants and it found more success as a test venue, latterly owned by BMW; Linas-Montlhéry near Paris opened in 1925, although it was the road circuit which saw greater use initially. A much reduced-form exists today, with the banked oval now blighted by chicanes. International motorsport last visited in 1995, when the BPR Global Endurance Series held a GT race.
Meanwhile, Glostrup in Denmark held races in the early 1920s and an egg-shaped oval at Russelsheim, constructed by Opel next to their factory in 1913, held races up to WWII.
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