Fifth International Klausen Race – August 7th and 8th, 1926
October 2005

Josef Kessler on his way to the one and only Swiss winner of the day

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Ruoff on a 5-liter Chrysler
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Two winners of the day from Switzerland

Waiting for the race drivers, the finish on top of the Klausen pass was snow covered and enveloped in thick fog and clouds in 1926. In spite of such miserable weather conditions two surprising, almost unbelievable things happened. Franco Franconi, the driver from the Canton of Tessin, not only repeated his success of the previous year on a Motosacoche 2C 15A TT, but he even beat the four wheelers. The time he achieved of 17.48.60 remained unchallenged. It was the very best propaganda for the Swiss motorcycle industry.

In the race cars category it was also a Swiss who won, Josef Kessler from Zurich. “Kessler is and remains Kessler. It is wonderful to watch, how securely he handles the 160 HP of his Alfa, how coolly he calculates, even driving at a crazy speed”, a journalist wrote. Kessler remained the only Swiss winner of the day in a Klausen race with a race car.
Elisabeth Junek

Elisabeth Junek was not very pleased with the nasty weather on the Klausen. However, the woman from Prague did not lack courage when she raced across the Urnerboden with 123 km/h. She was faster than Caracciola on Mercedes-Benz and faster than sports car racer Gloggner on Bugatti.
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Elisabeth Junek from Prague doubtlessly belongs to the best female race car drivers of all times. In the twenties there was no other woman in the field of motor sports that was as fiercely celebrated as the petite Tchech lady. She participated in the Klausen Race only once, but she put up an unforgettable performance. In the category of the 2-liter sport cars she won the silver medal on Bugatti in a time of 20.39.40. In the overall ranking list she scored eleventh, a superb accomplishment considering that more than 180 drivers started.

On this weekend in August of the year 1926 the weather was everything but summer-like on the Klausen pass. Like most of the race drivers Elisabeth Junek was half frozen when she reached the snow-covered top of the pass. Later she remembered: “I let the Swiss talk me into this terrible mountain race. I got dizzy by just looking at the aerial picture of the race track. At night the damned curves gave me nightmares. We made two training runs three times. The track frightened me. I could not remember the countless curves and other dangerous spots of the alpine terrain, something which so far had been my strength. The track followed rocky ridges in a small band and was surrounded by hazardous slopes. On this course you drive through three climate zones: down below there was tropical rain, in the middle a foggy soup and on top metres of deep fresh snow. In the valley it was tolerable, however, around about 1000 metres above sea level icy rain lashed in my face – and that at 140 km/h. The wet snow made me half blind. The tires skidded on the soft surface and often the car broke away unexpectedly.
For the first time in my life I drove risking everything, for the finish I had to mobilize my last ounce of strength”.
The first racing motorcycles on the Klausen Pass – François Franconi going first
February 2005
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In the 1925 Klausen Race, 46 motorcycles and 4 motorcycles with side cars were at the starting line. The fastest “individual” came from Innsbruck , his name was Edi Linser and he drove a 500 Sunbeam.
The undisputed celebrity, however, was the Swiss “expert” François Franconi on a factory-owned machine by Motosacoche. Franconi was employed as test driver by that firm in Geneva . He was the most successful test driver at Motosacoche and with 18.21.80 he set a milestone for motorcycles. That time matched an average speed of more than 70 km/h.
Runners-up were Arthur Dom with a water-cooled Scott and Alfred Carmine with a Harley-Davidson.
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Successful Swiss race drivers in the midst of a group of spectators: From the left: Léon Divorne with a Condor 175 ccm, came in third. Alfredo Carmine with Harley-Davison, winner of the 1000 ccm class. François Franconi on Motosacoche No. 39, winner of the day.
Later on François Franconi had an accident on the Isle of Man. Even though his crash was not fatal like the one of “the Count”, his severe head injuries forced him to give up professional car racing. Regrettably he also lost his job at Motosacoche.
1924 Taking part: The Women at the Klausen Race
January 2005
While nowadays the automobile sport tends to be a sheer male domain, in the twenties quite a few women took part in the daring races. Reason enough to talk about it. Female drivers in overalls – possibly with a lit cigarette between their lips – were a scandalous sight! No self-respecting woman behaved that way! Many of those women came from wealthy, even aristocratic families. They could afford this sport and did it for the fun and the adventure of it. To name an example: Princess von Hohenlohe drove a Bugatti both in 1924 and 1925 at the Klausen Pass Race.

Princess at the start
No women took part in the first two races in 1922 and 1923. However, in 1924 two ladies participated for the first time: Madame Rothenbach, wife of the director of the Gaswerke Olten, he a race driver himself, drove with Amilcar. The Princess zu Hohenlohe from Lucerne piloted a Bugatti.

The company Schlotterbeck of Basle put the Amilcar at Madam Rothenbach’s disposal. Unfortunately, she got off the road at the Restaurant Bergli.

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Madame Rothenbach was sent into the race with start number 1. This brought her little luck. Barely on the way, in the curve at the Restaurant Bergli, her brakes failed and the dream of a glorious victory came to a sudden end. She was by far not the only one who did not reach the Pass. Of all the 80 female and male competitors not more than about half reached the finish line. In a rather moderate time of 32.48.00 the princess came in second in her category.
The first compressors at the Klausen Race
October 2004
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For the 1924 competition Daimler-Mercedes-Automobil AG appeared with a whole fleet of race cars with compressors. Otto Merz, the former car mechanic from Cannstatt and now test driver, beat his most dangerous opponent and winner of the previous year’s race, Hermann Rützler with Steyr. With 18.48.60 minutes he established a new record. In his 2-litre Grand-Prix vehicle he was tearing along the Urnerboden with 142 km/h. This breathtaking tempo was sensational even for the experts. “I could have killed myself six times”! Merz told the reporters knowing that emotional information was already then eagerly soaked up by the press.

Caracciola’s Automobil as a secret weapon

In 1924 Daimler-Mercedes-Automobil AG appointed the 23 years old Caracciola to the Klausen Race. He then was still employed as a car salesman for the company in Dresden , with a basic monthly salary of 100 Marks. In return he was allowed to participate in several races with the 1.5 litre Mercedes-Benz, officially called the 6/25/50. This car’s top speed was just under 120 km/h, which was not an overwhelming performance. However, the talented Caracciola turned this vehicle into a “secret weapon” in all the hill-climb competitions. When Caracciola came to the Klausen Race for the first time in 1924, his national Palmarès was already quite impressive. Amongst his 18 victories were the Circuit Race in the Eiffel, the Zittau Hill-Climb Race and the Race in the Forest of Teutoburg . It is hardly known that Caracciola also participated successfully in motorcycle races with a 350 Garelli. As mentioned before, “Mercedes Automobilgesellschaft Limited” chose the Klausenpass Race for Caracciola’s first mission abroad. Thanks to his economic style of driving, his calculated audaciousness and his feel for mechanical matters the 23 years old Caracciola baffled his opponents who, to some extent, had better vehicles.

Merely the robust Otto Merz with his 2 litre Mercedes-Benz, and hill specialist Hermann Rützler with a 4.5 litre hill climb race car by Steyr were faster. Caracciola came in third and harvested a good deal of admiration from the spectators. It is said that the old “warhorses” applauded rather frostily during the award ceremony. They all knew, of course, that the young star aimed to push them off their pedestal.
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(Excerpt from the book by Bernhard Brägger: Mythos Klausen Race to the clouds (2000) Published by Baeschlin)
The first major contest on the Klausen
September 2004
“In 1923 two internationally famous race car drivers shaped the 2 nd Klausen Race, namely the Italian Count and private driver Giulio Masetti and the Austrian factory driver Hermann Rützler. Both of them piloted top-flight racing cars: Masetti an Alfa Romeo RLS, Rützler a Steyr. Both had to go on the slippery course immediately after a heavy thunderstorm. Shortly before reaching the Urnerboden, Masetti overtook the Swiss driver Kermer whose slow Presto was not well suited for such a hill-climb race. In spite of that Kermer kept staying in the middle of the long straight stretch and did not let the energetic Italian pass for quite a while. At the finish line Masetti was timed with 20.25.20 minutes. Contrary to what happened to the Count, the skilful Rützler with his enormous hill-climb car did not have to bother with a crawling obstruction. The race car with Tschudi (Peugeot) from Glarus that had started before him sportingly let him pass. Rützler was faster than Masetti by as little as 8/10 th of a second. Masetti vowed revenge. And how! 1925 he signed up again for the race..
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All the same, it is not only the automobile racing sport that shaped the Klausen Race. Two different worlds collided. On one side there was the racing crowd with the engineers and mechanics, the rich and the beautiful, on the other side there were the mountain folks and the factory workers. The mutual contact always remained shallow. The smell of the world of engines did not easily mix with the odours coming from farm houses and factory halls.
Photo: Rützler on a 4 litre Steyr wins the 2 nd International Klausen Race
(Excerpt from the book by Bernhard Brägger: Mythos Klausen Race to the clouds (2000) Published by Baeschlin)