Karlskoga Motorstadion
59.38333333333314.516111111111Koordinaten: 59 ° 23 '0 " N, 14 ° 30' 58" E
The Karlskoga Motor Stadium (also Gelleråsens Motorbana or Gelleråsen ) is the oldest permanent racing circuit in Sweden.
The track is located about six kilometers north of Karlskoga in the province of Örebro County and is currently homologated for the Swedish Touring Car Championship. It is designed so that you can overlook all spectators the entire area.
History
The Karlskoga Motor Stadium was opened in 1949 as a 1.55 km long Dirttrack slope. The first race was held on 4 June 1950 with the canon race (Swedish Kanonloppet ). This got its name from the weapons manufacturer Bofors, which was located in Karlskoga and it sponsored. For the second Kanonloppet in 1952, the road was paved and increases the length of the runway to 1.6 km. 1953 Björkdungskurvan was built (later renamed Tröskurvan ), whereby the length of the route grew to 2.0 km. In 1958, the Velodromkurvan section was added. Now the Karlskoga Motor Stadium had a length of 3.172 km.
From 1961 to 1963, the Kanonloppet race for Formula 1 were advertised and attracted the most famous drivers of that time on. It does not included the World Cup, but were invitational race. The winners Stirling Moss Lotus - Climax on, Masten Gregory ( Lotus - BRM ) and Jim Clark Lotus - Climax. In 1967, a round of the Formula 2 European Championship the Jackie Stewart took place at the Grand Prix of Sweden, the Matra Won.
On the morning of August 9, 1970, it came under the popular Kanonloppet race for worst accident in the Swedish motor sport history. At the first race of the day, the ³ for touring cars up to 2000 cc, the Ford Escort of the Finn Pekka Virtanen and BMW 02 of Sweden Rune Tobiasson touched in the right-hand kink on the back straight. The two cars came off the track, bounced into the embankment about 80 meters away and were thrown into the audience. The courts were located there because of their great distance from the runway as relatively safe. In addition, the visitors were distracted because shortly before the driver Erik Berger come off at the same point of the track and the run-out zone was thus shrouded in thick dust. Five spectators died in the accident, 32 were injured. Virtanen broke his leg while Tobiasson was uninjured. The race was stopped immediately. Two hours later, the event was continued with reduced to every 16 vehicles starting fields.
As a result of the tragedy all races in Sweden were suspended until the routes were inspected and found to be safe. The Karlskoga Motor Stadium, which actually should be modified to a Formula 1 World Championship suitable route, was closed for several years, rebuilt and 2.530 km shortened.
In the years 1978 and 1979 the FIM World Motorcycle Championship was the Grand Prix of Sweden on the track.
After the Karlskoga Motor Stadium were fell more or less in sequence carried out extensive renovations in the 1990s and 2000s. The pit lane was moved and improves the boxing facilities. In addition, some improvements in track safety took place, which included the conversion of the Tröskurvan and the demolition of the velodrome section among others. The shortened runway has since been a length of 2.400 km.