Getting to Know: Suzuka’s Degner Curves
The Suzuka circuit has 18 corners, some of which – such as Spoon, 130R and the uphill combination between Turns 2 and 7 – are among the most famous on the world championship calendar. Less well-known are the two Degner corners, named after Ernest Degner, a German motorcycle racer of the 1950s and 1960s.
Born in Gleiwitz (in Poland’s Silesian Highlands) in 1931 and raised in East Germany, Degner was one of the most prominent sportsmen in Eastern Europe. He raced MZ two-stroke motorcycles designed by Walter Kaaden, a brilliant engineer who worked for the Nazis at Peenemunde during World War II: the secret weapons research facility commissioned by Adolf Hitler. Thanks to Kaaden's creativity, the MZs were able to beat not only the established European competition but also those of their emerging rivals from Japan, who were just beginning to make their name.
In 1960, for example, Suzuki entered international competition for the first time but the Japanese bike was dramatically slow, finishing the 1960 Isle of Man TT a full 15 minutes behind the winner. It was clear that the Japanese firm urgently needed external know-how, but where to find it? The answer came in the form of a chance meeting that took place the following year between Degner and company president Shunzo Suzuki. During their conversation, Degner said he was tired of his dull life in East Germany, as the rest of the world was starting to emerge from post-war austerity: he had also had enough of the constant surveillance from the Stasi – Germany’s secret police – who followed him to every race.
The Stasi were so concerned that Degner might defect that his family weren’t allowed to come to race, so that he would always have a reason to come home. Naturally, Degner also hated the fact that most other riders – even those with far less talent – were paid much more than him, as under his home regime he had to settle for a salary equal to that of virtually any other MZ worker.
An agreement was quickly reached: Degner would run away, help Suzuki develop their bikes and then race for the Japanese. But he wouldn’t leave East Germany without his family and, with the Berlin Wall having just gone up, getting them out seemed almost impossible.
So during the 1961 Swedish Grand Prix weekend (which took place in Kristianstad) Degner organized his family’s escape, with the help of a friend from West Germany who made frequent business trips to East Berlin. The friend smuggled them out in a secret compartment in the boot of a Lincoln Mercury, with Degner relying on the fact that the Stasi spent more time watching him at race weekends abroad than his family at home.
He retired from the Swedish race due to engine failure and then fled to West Germany to reunite with his family before moving to Hamamatsu, where Suzuki’s headquarters were located. MZ immediately canceled their overseas race program, just in case anyone else had the bright idea of following Degner's example...
Degner raced for Suzuki in 1962; despite living in constant fear of being killed by the Stasi, he still managed to win the first world title in the 50cc class. But the dream turned into a nightmare the following year. At the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka he fell from his bike in the place now known as the Degner Curves and, when the fuel tank exploded, he suffered severe burns requiring over 50 skin grafts.
He returned to racing the following year but was dogged by other accidents before retiring for good in 1966. Living with constant pain caused him to slip into morphine addiction: his death in 1983 aged just 51 (when he was living in Tenerife) was officially down to a heart attack, but many thought it was caused by an overdose, while some people believed that the Stasi finally caught up with him.
In any case, Turns 8 and 9 of the Suzuka track are now named after him as a tribute to his contribution to Japanese motorcycling history.
Courtesy of Pirelli & C. S.p.A.
