[MOUNTAINS - Carpathian Mountains - Tatra Mountains - Third (?) Tatra Race - situational photograph]. [1930?]. Photograph form. 8,...

[MOUNTAINS - CarpathianMountains - Tatra Mountains - Third (?) Tatra Race - situational photograph]. [1930?]. Photograph form. 8.8x14 cm, by H[enryk] Schabenbeck in Zakopane.
Visible car with registration numbers: "SŁ125PR" on the route of a race on a section of the Zakopane - Morskie Oko road. On the back a pencil inscription: "From the Car Race on the road to M. Oko with a view of Wysoka (Czech)". In the lower right corner an imprint: "H. Schabenbeck Zakopane". Local stains and abrasions, otherwise good condition.
The Tatra Race - a car and motorcycle mountain race organized annually in August in 1927-1931 by the Cracow Automobile Club, on a 7.5 km long section of the mountain road Lysa Polana - Morskie Oko. The first race was held on August 14, 1927. Since 1928 it was held as an international race, and the best time was awarded the passable Great Tatra Prize. The 2nd International Tatra Race was held in 1929, and the 3rd race in August 1930. The 4th and last International Tatra Race was held in August 1931. The originator and organizer of the mountain race in the Tatra Mountains was the Cracow Automobile Club (K.K.A). It was the first event of its kind in Poland. The competition was held on a section of the Oswald Balzer road - Zakopane - Morskie Oko road, 7.5 km long, with a start at 21 km and a finish at 28.5 km from Zakopane. The start took place in Lysa Polana near the bridge over the Białka River. The average elevation on the route was 4.2%, and the maximum was 6%. The race was from a stopped start, with cars and motorcycles starting individually in a fixed order. In preparation, grandstands for 500 people were built near the finish line, although they only provided observation of the last kilometer of the route. The communications service fed information to the stands about the competitors' passage through the checkpoints at the start, the end of the straight behind Lysa Polana, at Mickiewicz's Waterfalls and elevation 1205 about a kilometer and a half before the finish. Cars used by spectators were parked between the finish line and Morskie Oko and at Lysa Polana. In the first year, touring cars, racing cars and motorcycles (solo and with trikes) were allowed to start, categorized by engine capacity. (Wikipedia).
H. Schabenbeck (1886-1939) - photographer, filmmaker - pioneer of Tatra film and social activist. In 1906 he settled in Zakopane and founded the first permanent photographic establishment in the city, "Stefa". He then established a branch in Nowy Targ. In 1914 he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army. At that time the establishment was run by his mother Karolina. During the war, he was taken prisoner by the Russians and ended up in a prisoner-of-war camp in Siberia, from where he escaped to Barnau nad Obem in the Tumsk governorate, where he opened a photography business. He returned to Zakopane in 1920 or 1921 and took up photography again. In the interwar years he was considered one of the most outstanding mountain photographers. From 1931 he was president of the Photographers' Club in Zakopane and an active member of the Polish Photo Club. He showed his works at numerous exhibitions and reproduced them in magazines and publications. He was also involved in publishing Tatra postcards.