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

The Grenzlandring, to many foreigners also known as "Wegbergring" or "Wegberg-Ring", is told to be "discovered" nearly undamaged after World War II when during one dark night in 1947, Dr. Carl Marcus, town mayor of nearby Rheydt, drove along a more or less straight looking country road. When he passed a bicycle rider more than once, he suddenly realized that this road must be a full circle. In fact, a long and wide egg-shaped concrete ring road had been built before World War II around Wegberg and the neighboring village of Beeck and completed in 1938 or 1939, at total cost of about 3.3 million "Reichsmark". As it was intended for military purposes, the construction had not made been public nor was the road shown on maps. This story today is considered part of a marketing strategy since parts of the ring had been used by US and British military immediately after the war and had in no way been unknown.

Initiated and organised by the silk weaving mill owner and keen racing driver Emil "Teddy" Vorster (Rheydt) and his "Rheydter Club für Motorsport (RCM)" (from 1949 on the organisation was in the hands of the "Motorsport-Union-Grenzlandring", a co-operation of four 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 lap record was set in September 1949 by Bavarian Georg "Schorsch" Meier on a supercharged BMW 500 motorbike at (clockwise driven) while Toni Ulmen in September 1951 set the all-time record for cars, driving his Veritas 2000 RS to (anti-clockwise).

On August 31, 1952, Helmut Niedermayr from Berlin crashed his Formula Two Reif/Veritas-Meteor at the exit of the "Roermonder Kurve" at nearly , for reasons never completely explained, killing at least 13 spectators (some sources even claim an unknown fourteenth) and injuring another 42. Although the actual event was not stopped to avert panic among the crowds racing was subsequently banned from the venue by the government, after a total of four anti-clockwise and only one (in 1949) clockwise driven competitions that had been attended by up to 300,000 people.
Q1777138
race track
Concept
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Lower Rhine
LOC
Q183
Germany
LOC
Q204860
Wegberg
LOC
Q2758
Mönchengladbach
LOC
Q55
Dutch
LOC
Q9783
Roermond
LOC
Q362
World War II
EVE
Q702411
Rheydt
LOC
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"Reichsmark"
MISC
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Emil "Teddy" Vorster
PER
Q370470
Lower Rhine
LOC
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Bavaria
LOC
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Georg "Schorsch" Meier
PER
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BMW
ORG
Q61832
Toni Ulmen
PER
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Veritas
MEDIA
Q61287
Helmut Niedermayr
PER
Q64
Berlin
LOC
Q687214
Formula Two
EVE
Q873601
Grenzlandring
LOC
Q873601
Grenzlandring
LOC
Q873601
Grenzlandring
LOC
1947-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1947
DATE
1938-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1938
DATE
1939-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1939
DATE
1949-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1949
DATE
1948-09-19T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
September 19, 1948
DATE
1949-09-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
September 1949
DATE
1951-09-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
September 1951
DATE
2000-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2000
DATE
1952-08-31T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
August 31, 1952
DATE
1949-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1949
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3.3
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+250.000^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
250,000
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+100.000^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
100,000
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+13^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
13
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+42^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
42
NUMBER
+300.000^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
300,000
NUMBER
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twinned administrative body
diplomatic relation
twinned administrative body
country