Race Day

(Program of the Brno–Soběšice races for 1925)

What has always been in us humans, what is in us and what will remain is the hunger for competition! It has always been like this. As soon as three people got together, it usually ended with two of them measuring themselves and – the third one looking on. 

Today we read in the dust and ruins of Babylon that from time to time the subjects gathered for great festivals, during which they rejoiced, sacrificed to the gods, and then concluded everything with competitions.

In Egypt it was the same, and then in Greece it was similar. Rome raised racing to the level of a cult; it built stadiums that remained unsurpassed for two thousand years. The ancient nations raced either on horses or in war chariots, or among themselves.

The sense of competition disappeared or was reborn in nations with the disappearing or coming and existing will to exist. Races fell into disgusting, brutal depths, only to be raised to a noble level after a while.

Races have always been a true and unadulterated image of human culture. In the Middle Ages, they charged at each other on armored horses and threw themselves out of the saddle; ordinary mercenaries waved strong clubs and knocked them out of each other's hands. Nations that settled on the shores of the seas had their festivals on the waters. Each according to its own - according to circumstances and opinions. To this day we see that some people delight in cutting open a live bull; perfumed beauties with fans and Seville lace are either in love with that acrobat in the arena, or they hiss, throw orange peels at him and stick out their tongues...

Today's human culture is connected with the machine. And that is why we do not organize races to show our personal prowess, standing astride two horses, but we sit behind a machine that, after all, needs a master and a master. We drive the machine! We drive it with reason and intelligence - and that is why the machine becomes only a means in our hands.

The machine itself does not win – it is the person sitting behind it. Instead of a helmet, a shield and a spear, today we have an engine; instead of heavy, armored horses, we have four tires; instead of the medieval effort to crash into each other and knock something down – we have the desire to outrun our opponent, to escape him, to catch up with him and to fly past the goal before he does.

But let's not forget the third person. It's not enough for two to race, there must be a third person watching them. There must be not one, but hundreds, even thousands and thousands of people who form a frame around the race track.

Spectators are needed! People who experience the races along with the competitors! Not crowds who simply watch – but crowds who they are experiencing!

And that's why we set off to the races with a cheerful mind. Let's forget the worries of everyday life for at least a few hours and give ourselves to the racing morning with all our hearts. It's a holiday! Let's choose our favorite from the competitors and wish him success with all our hearts. If he passes, let's give him moral support. Let's shout at him, give him "spurs" with proper hip – hip! Don't call him: Forward, Captain, or Mr. Engineer, or Doctor, or Mr. Pucifus! No! The racer doesn't need that. He wants intimacy. Thunder at him: Raaaaah, Frantík! Hipp, hipp Josef! Go ahead, Jendo! Shout at every competitor – but as soon as the silhouette of "your" favorite appears in the distance, take a deep breath and shout at him so that he jumps.

Make race morning a real holiday. Talk to your neighbors, joke and be joked about. If a candy vendor walks by, buy a few. Smoke a pipe or light a cigarette. Buy a joint or coffee, or whatever they offer you to buy. Don't be stingy on race day, make it a really nice, carefree day. Have, as the Americans say, "a fine time.".

Weather? What if it rains. Of course, sunshine is nicer and more welcome than cloudy skies. But have you ever seen a car in full flight sliding around corners on mud – have you seen water spraying in the form of beautiful fans? It's nice! There is a real pleasure in seeing and hearing a racing car in sleet. So don't pay attention to the weather – don't lower yourself to the level of old grumps, but rise to the young army of enthusiastic car spectators.

Be proud of your races. They are just beginning. Like everything that already exists, it had to begin first. Don't consider your meeting worthless because perhaps in other countries people have built huge race tracks with high stands for hundreds of thousands of people. That the cream of the competitors gather there in white cars, in white clothes, as if they were all going for a certain victory - or perhaps to the next world. Don't pay attention to the fact that in other countries everything is on a large scale! Relatively speaking - it is not! We do what we can - and that is enough.

But one day - sooner than we think - we will also have our own track, and the most modern vehicle of our generation - the automobile - will race along it.

So up, to the races! Let's make this Sunday morning a "good time". Let's indulge! Everyone will indulge. Let's be cheerful. Let's bet a six or a crown on our favorite. Let's win or lose the bet with a cheerful mind. And let's wish in our minds what our predecessors - spectators - have wished for ages: that something upsetting happens. Is it a sin to think so? But that's often part of racing. That the car flies into a ditch or a tree in full flight, that the four wheels are turned to the sky and spin merrily, that the driver flips over into a nettle bush and gets up healthy and cheerful: a few sevens on his coat and torn ruffles on his trousers don't hurt anyone. Little is enough - a person doesn't change! He always wants to be an eyewitness to some "misfortune" - where the operation would fail and the patient would live happily ever after...

And don't forget the candy, trunk, cigar, and also that great bad habit of all spectators around the world: betting on a six!

Race track

The race track starts in Králův Poli, Křižíkova Street No. 9, and after the first 100 m it already has the largest hairpin bend, where the driver has to turn the vehicle 180 degrees in a very short and narrow bend. Immediately after that, the largest climb of the track begins, which has 10 %. The track climbs in constant bends to the food line, where it bends at a right angle and has a small straight after the cross. There the vehicles reach the highest maximum speed. At the gamekeeper's hut, the track starts to climb again and at the top it then has a very dangerous S, behind which the vehicles rush with a small bend, but with a significant climb, to the finish line, which is 20 m behind the highest point of the track.

Text from the official race program Brno–Soběšice from 10. 5. 1925