Bikes

New edition of advertising from 24 Hours at the Montuïc circuit

By Lluís Pupré (Lydia Schartenberg's traslation)

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The first President of Penya Motorista Barcelona was Mr. Tristán Desvall, followed by Joaquim Cuyàs, Marià Cugueró, Joaquim Calvetó, Antoni Vidal Llobateras, Antoni López López. All of them created management teams full of enthusiasm and capable of overcoming all the difficulties in organizing the "24 Hours of MonjuïcTogether with the National and International competitions, European Cup and Resistance World Championship, the "24 Hours of Monjuïc" was the emblematic race of the entity. 

The first edition of this speed and resistance race took place on July 3, 1955 at the Montjuich Circuit. The following article was published in the newspaper "La Vanguardia".
"These "24 Hours" held at the Montjuich Circuit have been a complete success inspite the organizers concern about the outcome".

The truth is that Penya Motorista Barcelona proved to be perfectly capable of organizing the race, from with the race director Mr. Enrique L. Massé up to the last control, everyone complied with their committments with enthusiasm and aware of their responsibility.

This comment made reference to the victory of the spanish team "Juan Soler Bulto-Turuta" who covered 1.935,922 Kms at an average of 80,633 km/h, riding alternatively a Montesa 125 cc manufactured in Spain.

The motorcycles of smaller capacity lost their predominance at the circuit when in 1959 the british Daniel-Darvill, with a powerful BMW 600 won, without being able to improve the record established 3 years before by the Ducati 125 cc of Gandasi-Spaggiari.
That year the race had to mourn the death of one of the best motorcycle riders at that time, who fell from the bike and was run over by another rider who was just behind and was not able to avoid the accident.
A few months before the fiancè of this rider, the gymnast Olga Soler, also died in a plane accident. The gymnast Joaquín Blume also died in the same accident.

The following year there was a spanish victory of the brothers Jorge and Enrique Sireia with a Montesa 250 cc, brand that also won the "Cadirat Trophy", founded in honour of the unfortunate catalonian rider.
In 1965 the European Cup became the European Championship, in which the "24 Hours of Montjuich" were included. This was due to the great influence it had in the international races of long endurance, in which the physical strength of the riders and the mechanical efficiency was tested.
In this edition the winners were the british Butcher-Degens with the Dresa-Triton, a hybrid with a Norton motor. In 1966 the spaniard Busquets and italian Villa with a Montesa 250 cc overexceeded the average of 100 km/h setting the record in 102,047 km/h.
Spanish victories continued with riders such as Iglesias-Giró with Ossa; Juanjo-Fargas with Norton 750 cc; Cañellas-Rocamora with Bultaco 360 cc. These were interrupted by the british Degens-Doddard with a Dresda 650 cc and the italians Brettoni-Angiolini with a powerful Laverda 750.

The motorcycles below 500 cc did not prevail any longer, and the ones with more capacity and power took over. At the same time the participation of national motorcycles diminished.
The assistance increased with the participation of the japanese brands Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Japauto, which competed against the europeans BMW, Ducati, Laverda and Guzzi. The spanish brands such as Montesa, Bultaco and Ossa became a minority.

The last scoring race of the "24 Hours of Montjuich" within the "Resistance World Championship" took place in 1982, due to a boicot organized by french riders. The result was that in the FIM Congress held in Yugoslavia, the Montjuich Circuit was vetoed for scoring the the championship.
The enthusiasts from Barcelona lost the possibility to see the Grand Prix for cars and motorcycles, as the international organisms decided that the Montjuich Circuit was not suitable for these type of competitions. It was terrible to see how the last race was cancelled, and above all sad to see how the FEM, Spanish Motorycle Federation didn't do anything to save this race. 28 years of continuous efforts, from 1955 to 1982 had a sad end.

Penya Motorista Barcelona didn't succumb to adversities and again started up the "24 Hours", to which the entity didn't want to give up. All its fans in Barcelona identified with this race praised the action taken and gave full support with a fluent assistance to the circuit. It was such the desire to re-establish these "24 Hours of Montjuïc", a very important motorcycling event in Catalunya, that the entity was supported by the Barcelona town council, the Generalitat de Catalunya and other official organisms, all convince that the "24 Hours of Montjuïc" could not die.

Penya Motorista Barcelona, besides the "24 Hours of Montjuïc" has also organized other events which should be remembered, such as "International Rally del Pirineus", "Rally 1000 Kilometers", Regularity competition "Santa Creu d'Olorde to Panticosa, Barcelona-Tarragona", "Night ascent at the Montjuïc Castle", Trials and motorycle races at Terramar, and also the race "Pujada en Cuesta" organized for the first time in 1922 by the Penya Rhin, and which PMB recuperated from 1949 to 1979.

In the last years this race was a pure motorcyle race, but in 1983 the "Catalonian Car Federation" made it possible that cars and motorcycles return to the no longer existing "Hostal de l'Arengada" to "Els Penitents".