Inge Stoll

Ingeborg Stoll-Laforge (11 February 1930, Breinig - Stolberg (Rhineland), Germany – 24 August 1958)[1][2] was a female German motorcycle racer.[3]

Inge Stoll
Stoll family burial memorial
NationalityGerman
Born(1930-02-11)11 February 1930
Breinig, Germany
Died24 August 1958(1958-08-24) (aged 28)
Brno, Czechoslovakia
Motorcycle racing career statistics
Isle of Man TT career
TTs contested2 (1954, 1957)
TT wins0
TT podiums0

Early life

Ingeborg Stoll-Laforge was born on 11 February 1930, in Breinig Stolberg (Rhineland), near Aachen, Germany to Maria (nee Moll) and Kurt Stoll.[4] Her parents raced together, with Maria as Kurt's motorcycle sidecar passenger. Inge took over her mother's role in the sidecar when she turned 17.

Racing career

Stoll began competing professionally as a female passenger in her father's NSU outfit in 1947.[5] In December 1949, she married Belgian Jean Laforge but the marriage was short lived.[4] Her father retired in 1951 to concentrate on running his driving school.[6] She then joined sidecar driver Jacques Drion in 1952[7] and won the 1952 and 1954 French Sidecar Championships. Stoll and Drion competed in the World Sidecar Championship events from 1952 to 1957.[8][4]

Zandvoort sidecar race. Jacques Drion driving with Ingeberg Stoll in sidecar

The re-introduction of the Sidecar TT race into the 1954 Isle of Man TT races was controversial as it was opposed by the motorcycle manufacturers and also for the inclusion of Inge Stoll as the first female competitor at an Isle of Man TT race.[9]

In May 1958, Stoll married Manfred Grunwald and was planning to give up her racing career, but Drion was unable to find a new passenger so she agreed to ride with him for another race.[4]

At the 1958 Czechoslovakian Grand Prix, a non-championship event, the Norton sidecar outfit of Stoll and Drion, while holding second place, left the road on a right-hand corner during the penultimate lap. The machine hit a fence and overturned. Stoll was killed instantly and Drion died after being admitted to hospital.[10]

Memorial to Stoll and Drion near their fatal crash site

Isle of Man TT race career
YearPositionRaceMake of MotorcycleAverage Speed
19545thSidecar TT*Norton63.91 mph
  • *Event held on Clypse Course
  • DNF 1957 Sidecar TT Race, broken hand-hold.
TT Career Summary
Finishing Position5thDNF
Number of times11

World Championship career 1952–1957
Grand Prix career summary
Finishing position2nd3rd4th5th6th
Number of times13453
  • Total number of points: 48

Sources
  1. Inge Stoll liebt das Leben und vor allem die Geschwindigkeit, Aachener-Zeitung 23 August 2018, Retrieved 26 November 2018. "Sie ist eine Pionierin gewesen, liebte das Leben und besonders die Geschwindigkeit: Freitag vor 60 Jahren starb Inge Stoll, nach der im Breiniger Neubaugebiet eine Straße benannt ist, bei einem Rennunfall. Sie wurde nur 28 Jahre alt."
  2. Isle of Man Courier and Northern Advertiser page 3 dated 5 September 1958
  3. Daily Express page 1 Monday 25 August 1958
  4. https://www.pressreader.com/australia/old-bike-australasia/20190501/282535839755037. Retrieved 2 October 2022 – via PressReader. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. Story & photographs Lothar Mildebrath. "Read A Swinging Lady Online". Scribd. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  6. "The Classic Motorcycle - December 2018". issuu.com. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  7. "Drion and Stoll Killed". Motor Cycling. London: Temple Press Ltd. 98 (2528): 557. 28 August 1958.
  8. "Latest Blogs - Isle Of Man TT Asgard". www.asgardsss.co.uk. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  9. Isle of Man Weekly Times dated 22 May 1954
  10. "Stoll, Ingeborg (Inge)  (1930 - 1958)". Technical Museum Vienna. Retrieved 17 June 2019.


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