Motorsport in Kvarner

The first hill climb up Učka ran on 22 September 1929 under the name Abbazia - Monte Maggiore. It was the first real motorsport competition in the region and was followed across Italy at the time. The start line was in Matulji, on the Giuseppina, the old Austrian road, and the course had more than ninety corners up to the Poklon pass. Big names were entered: Biondetti, winner at Monza, Fagioli, winner at Bologna, Zironda, Pastore in a Maserati.

A lawyer from Trieste named Poilucci, winner of the Kvarner Cup, climbed it in an Alfa Romeo in 15 minutes and 9 seconds, then lost control past the finish line, scraped a wall and broke his mudguards.

From 1969 to 1977, with a break in 1971, Preluk hosted rounds of the motorcycle World Championship, known as the Adriatic Grand Prix and later the Yugoslavian Grand Prix. Six kilometres of road with eighty-five metres of climb, trees, stone walls, lampposts, embankments, houses and the sea beside the road, without a single run-off zone.

Riders compared Preluk to the Isle of Man: a public road, a stone wall on one side, the sea on the other, and nowhere to make a mistake. Giacomo Agostini, Ángel Nieto, Phil Read and Walter Villa all won there, and in the best years more than 70,000 people lined the road.

Zdravko Matulja was born in Volosko in 1957, grew up in Kuk above Preluk, trained as a mechanic in Rijeka and a hospitality worker in Opatija, and worked at Autotrans and Torpedo. At twelve he rode an HMV, a two-speed machine from the Zagreb motorcycle factory.

After testing at the newly opened Grobnik in 1979, he became a factory rider for Tomos. In 1981 he missed his chance at Europe: two friends and talents from Matulji, Tedi Jeličić and Edi Grbac, died on the way to a race in Požega.

In 1982, after five races in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, England and Spain, he became European champion in the 50cc class. Not as a factory rider, but as a privateer. To this day he is the only European champion in that class from this region.

On a fifty he was clocked at Grobnik at 204.5 km/h. In 1983 he rode almost the entire world championship and finished fourth at Grobnik. In 1986 he built his own 80cc machine, the MTM. From 1991 to 1995 he was at war. He became Croatian champion in 1995, ended his career in 1996, and died on Christmas Eve 2022, exactly forty years after his European title.

Alongside him: Nikola Šnjarić, a Preluk winner in the 125cc class, Luciano Saletnik of Matulji, Vinko Surina, Marijan Kosić, and Opatija legend Branko Bevanda.

The motorcycle he won the European title on is on display here in our restaurant.

Construction began in June 1977, on a gravel pit beside Grobničko Polje, until then known as the Rijeka airfield. The lead designer, engineer Andrija Prager, toured European circuits with a single brief: to design the best track in the region. He came back with 4,168 metres, eighteen corners, ten metres of width at the narrowest point and seventeen on the start straight, at 320 metres above sea level.

The track opened on 14 September 1978. The first ceremonial lap was ridden by Branko Bevanda of Opatija, on a Yamaha borrowed from his rival, Marijan Kosić of Rijeka. Three days later, on 17 September, the first Yugoslavian Grand Prix was held.

The Yugoslavian Grand Prix ran at Grobnik until 1990. Winners there included Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Gardner, Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey. The last world championship race ran on 17 June 1990.

It came close twice. According to Nacional, Ecclestone agreed to a preliminary contract to move the race to Grobnik in 1997, negotiated through Hrvoje Šarinić. The deal fell through after a weekly magazine attacked his wife Slavica, who was born in Rijeka.

In February 2003 the government made an exception to the ban on tobacco advertising for international sporting events. As Belgium and Austria were dropping out of the calendar over the same bans, it was reported that Ecclestone was seriously considering Grobnik and was reportedly willing to hand over the rights without Croatian investment. A race as soon as 2006 was discussed.

The race never happened. There was not enough infrastructure, and joining the European Union removed the tobacco advantage too.

The Grand Prix of Croatia ran on 16 and 17 May 2026: seven series, more than a hundred and fifty drivers and a hundred cars. Formula 3 returned to Grobnik after half a century, and major international series returned to Croatia after forty years. Four organisers spent four years preparing it.

A day pass was fifteen euro, children under fourteen went free. Despite a poor forecast, a large crowd turned out. Veteran Niko Pulić raced a borrowed car and finished on the podium.