Motodrom Gelsenkirchen, former car racing track

Motodrom Gelsenkirchen was a racing track located on a former industrial site in the city. The circuit measured approximately 750 meters and was originally built with gravel, then paved with asphalt in 1977 to enable faster and smoother races.

The Rheinländische Altwagen-Gemeinschaft, led by its president Anton Brenner, laid out the track in 1969 on the wasteland of the former Alma coking plant, initially surfaced with gravel. It was used for car and motorcycle races, and after paving in 1977 only car races were held. Operations ended in the mid-1980s.

The circuit's nickname Almaring comes from the former Alma coking plant whose wasteland it was built on. Races ran in eight vehicle classes, with 150 to 200 starters per race day, about 30 to 50 of them from neighbouring countries. Today the overgrown site is reached by the Almabahn and Kray-Wanner-Bahn cycle paths.

The site is wooded today, but the full asphalt surface, guardrails and other racing relics remain. It is connected to the Almabahn and Kray-Wanner-Bahn cycle paths, so it can still be reached by bike. The track was 750 m long and 7.5 m wide, and unlike most speedway circuits it was not a pure oval.

The track was not a pure oval: the 750-metre asphalt loop had a non-oval layout, and apart from a makeshift race announcer's tower there was no notable built infrastructure. The surface, guardrails and other racing relics are still fully present under the trees that have grown over the former coking plant site.