The Early Days
1958 - 1968
Early sidecar champions competed in many styles of racing
- Road Racing, Dirt Tracks, Time Trials and Scrambles. They used different
outfits in the same season.
Early sidecar racing was dominated both in Europe and
the U.S. by BMW rigs. In the early sixties sidecars were an unknown
in road racing, when Bob Bakker built a BMW R50 rig for demostrations
at motorcycle club events. In the picture above, Bakker and passenger
Bob Bender puts on a demonstration on a 500cc BMW Sidecar in 1961.
4-Time World Sidecar Champion Still Active In Racing After 49 Years
Max Deubel, the original Sidecar Superstar.
Together with passenger Emil Horner, they dominated sidecar racing
in the early 1960s.
Like most early sidecar racers, Deubel
prepped and payed for the machines himself. Despite this he won the
German Junior Championship in 1959 with a BMW RS engine, here with
passenger Rolf Amfaldem. Always determined, Max made his GP debut
the same year, and the following year finished a fine 6th overall
in the World Championship.
During their four-year domination (1961-64),
Deubel and Horner campaigned the last World Championship 'sitter'
sidecar, always decorated with the German characters Max and Moritz
to distingish them from other sidecars.
Deubel retired from racing in 1966 and
still remains very active in sidecar racing. Much of his time is taken
up with official duties for the ADAC Nordrhein, the DMSB (two German
Motorsports Federations) and the FIM. He opened a hotel in Oberwiehl
near Cologne, Germany – Hotel Deubel - which he still operates
today.
Max & Moritz Sidecar Campaigned By Max Deubel
& Emil Horner To Four World Championships
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