For many years, he had his lifetime dream - to build a Czech racing motorcycle. In the country where this sport was considered a cinderella, the atmosphere after the Velvet revolution opened doors to the skilful ones. There was one of them in Ústí nad Orlicí.

“If my cousin had not put me on the motorcycle in 1966 and we had not joined the race in Hořice, I would have never got to know the road.” At that time, I was keen on the terrain. “Terrain motorcycles” were my first ones I built.” This is the way Miroslav Felgr (born on 11 October 1951) recalls his beginnings; he has been living, working and thinking in the world of fast motorcycles for incredible forty racing seasons. He comes from the generation of enthusiastic handymen who kept alive the road sport for large personal, material and financial sacrifices in 1970s and 1980s. Today, this native from Ústí nad Orlicí remained practically alone though. Vlastimil Rain, Václav Rathouský, Bedřich Fendrich, Bohuslav Vaňous, Pavel Zubatý, Pavel Petráček or Bohumil Staša finished their activities long time ago. The story of Miroslav Felgr is even more remarkable as it continues through the times when the situation in our country changed and when it was not easy to adapt to the new conditions. He managed to do that, he also reached many of his personal goals. Yet his activities did not end there.

Between the world wars, there were tens of motorcycle manufacturers and dealers in Bohemia. The motorcycle spirit remained strong even after the change of the political situation after the end of the Second World War. Thanks especially to Jawa and also to ČZ Strakonice, the sport enthusiasts received a good basis for running their passion. However, with the decline in production of the many brands starting from 1970s, there was a major turnabout. A number of amateur-built constructions of extraordinary quality saw the light of the world - they were capable of keeping Czech racing alive. After more than twenty long years, in the season of 2003, another national motorcycle marked FGR 125 GP stood on the start line. This Czech innovation was built in the racing department of MOTO FGR, a part of the FPOS a.s. company from Ústí nad Orlicí, which is also the main sponsoring institution and thanks to which this courageous project was implemented. The father to the project was a keen enthusiast, now at the age of sixty, Miroslav Felgr from Ústí nad Orlicí.

Following the first contacts of Felgr with the former constructor of motocross motorbikes at ČZ Strakonice, Ing. Oldřich Kreuz, the first FGR engine was designed in 2001. It was first started up on 12 January 2003 in Ústí nad Orlicí. The liquid-cooled two-stroke engine with a single cylinder slanted forward had the bore and stroke of 54 x 54.5 mm, suction system using flexing valves, a Keihin 39.5 mm carburettor, and gave the power at the level of 33 kW at 13 000 RPM. Nikasil surface finishing of the cylinder working areas was done in cooperation with a specialist from Strakonice, Bohumil Staša. Worth mentioning is the water-cooled engine carter, in which the large labyrinth in the body of the casting provided the engine with completely reliable cooling during the operation. A construction “candy” was a special solution to the 6-speed gearbox - it could be very quickly removed using a device and replaced with a new one. The dimensions of the engine enabled building it into a Honda frame. The non-engine part of the motorcycle was designed by constructor Ing. Zdeněk Špindler from the company of VMK Engineering Ústí nad Orlicí. In FGR 125 GP of the first generation, the engine was mounted into the Honda centre-tube frame made of aluminium sheets. In addition, a WP upside down front fork with a 41 mm glider diameter was used. A front single-disc Brembo break of o 290 mm, a rear floating disc FPOS of o 187 mm, Dunlop 17" tyres on Marchesini spoke wheels, a 12 litre fuel tank, the weight of 75 kg. An FGR 125 GP of the second generation was introduced for the season of 2004. The engine was mounted into a brand new truss structure frame made of chromium-molybdenum tubes manufactured at FPOS - Kovovýroba s.r.o., and the engine itself was innovated. It was equipped with an exhaust throttle and the crankshaft diameter was changed. The first look featured modern Marchesini 17" multiple-spoke wheels, a new tube frame as well as more elegant shapes of the bodywork.  The swinging fork was cut out of two pieces of special alloy called Certal. The worry about electrical wiring was assigned to Ing. Pivoňka from Žďár nad Sázavou.

Yet the development in Ústí nad Orlicí, the unbeatably most modern place of motorcycle racing, did not finish with that. After 2005, the FGR engine received several adjustments. The most substantial one was prepared in the form of a brand new engine in 2010. That one was jointly developed by technicians from FPOS a.s. and MOTO FGR s.r.o. companies and by several foreign experts. Also the bodywork gradually underwent a few changes which were the result of the cooperation which began in 2005 between MOTO FGR s.r.o. and MOTO FORZA from Brno. The first Czech road 125 cc FGR motorcycle became the first one in the modern history of the Czech Republic to enter the motorcycle road racing world championship. The motorcycle had its premiere with racer Karel Májek at the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic in Brno in 2007; for the second time, it started in the same competition in 2009 ridden by Ladislav Chmelík. He reached the finish line on the 29th position. For the third time, the team appeared in the 2010 season with a wild card, again with Ladislav Chmelík. From the beginning of the project, the aim was to ride the complete series of the MotoGP World Championship, so let's see, how the fairy tale ends… MOTO3 is so close...

In 2003, two prototypes of the engine were manufactured and tested. In the same year, the MOTO FGR team started to ride the series of the International Championship of the Czech Republic for which the FGR engine was put into a Honda frame. Michal Březina, an experienced racer from Prague, was engaged. Before the first race which took place at the Trenčín airport, many people came to ask Mr Felgr why he was going there for the last position. But he kept calm and told them: “We are going there to win”. Mr Felgr was not very far from those bold words. Short after the start, Michal got to the second position and he was going closer and closer to Pavkovič on the first position. Unfortunately, the rider who was going on the third position at that time sent Michal to the ground. Fortunately, it was just a light slide and the Czech motorcycle could continue racing. Michal managed to get to the second position again which he kept it until the end and the first fantastic result was born. The team waited to achieve also the first victory and that was in the third race of the series at the airport in Hradec Králové. Another victory came in Most after which Michal placed at the running first place in the International Championship of the Czech Republic (MMČR). At the end of the season, these great results brought the final second position, Markéta Janáková from Dvůr Králové won by two points. Already in the first season, Michal received a wild card to start at Brno circuit, but the team thought that he would not be able to participate in such a festive racing occasion with honour and they cancelled his start.

In the season of 2004, the team first rode out with an FGR swinging fork and an FGR tube frame. Michal Březina had a promising start of the season as he came second in the first race of MMČR at Hungaroring after Václav Bittman. In June of that year, the company of Mr Felgr, FPOS - Kovovýroba s.r.o., introduced a brand new FGR Czech motorcycle - the engine, the frame, the swinging fork were all manufactured in this company. The launching ceremony of the motorcycle could not be missed by Milan Urban, the then minister of industry and trade, who also had the motorcycle brought to the company courtyard and rode it for the first metres. This fame was attended by many well-known people of the motorcycle branch, for example Bohumil Staša who helped to assemble the motorcycle. Unfortunately, the racer of the team from Ústí nad Orlicí got hurt and he could not finish the season which had started so well. Worth mentioning are two more results: Lukáš Rážek won one race of MMČR in the colours of FGR in Hungary, Florian Kresse, a native racer, achieved the great fifth position in the International German Championship (IDM).

For the year of 2005, when the team had FGR own bodywork, they engaged two foreign riders despite the opposition of home fans - Florian Kresse mentioned above and Attila Magda from Hungary. It was a year of various results - Florian managed to win one race of the International Championship of the Czech Republic, the best result of Attila was the fifth position in the European Championship in Croatia which the whole MOTO FGR team appreciates the most so far.

In the season of 2006, Florian Kresse stayed in the team and Michal Vecko was accepted into the team as the second rider. Unfortunately, that year was not developing as planned by the team - there were minor breakdowns and a bit of bad luck caused losing fairly good positions, so the season did not come up to the expectations. Due to disagreements during the season, the team parted with Florian; the last race in Brno was finished by a rider from Brno, Karel Májek, who won the very good fourth position in his first season and he was the third among juniors. With this result, he won for himself a place in the team for the year of 2007.

Jiří Šrámek who used to cooperate successfully with Michal Filla for several years became the manager of the team. Karel Pešek became the second rider but he agreed with the team to leave after the third race. The first significant result came in the second race of the International Championship of the Czech Republic at Pannonia-Ring in Hungary where Karel Májek's fierce performance brought the second position. When Karel Pešek left, the team borrowed rehashed Attila Magda to race in the European Championship in Croatia. His twelfth position in the finish did not come up to the expectations. Karel Májek took the thirteenth place after an unsuccessful start and received his first points in Europe. After Rijeca, the team moved to Brno for the third race of the International Championship of the Czech Republic. Karel was gradually improving in trainings. In the race, he got the fairly good fourth position and the third place in juniors. The fourth race of the championship which was held in Most brought disappointment. After the start of the race, the control unit of the exhaust throttle stopped working, so the motorcycle did not reach the full power. Despite this, Karel did not give up and came in eighth. During that season, Mr Šrámek, the manager of the team, asked for a wild card for the World Championship in Brno. Karel Májek got the wild card and a Czech motorcycle appeared on the world racing scene after many years. Karel Májek qualified for the race with the time of 2:15.1. The start was a success; he was riding in front of both wild card riders, Michal Prášek and Karel Pešek. However, he had to back out due to a small breakdown and did not finish the race. The team still made a good impression. Worth mentioning are definitely the fans with FGR flags who deserve thanks as well as all the others who believed that the team would qualify for the race. After the world championship, the team moved to Hungaroring where the last but one race of the International Championship of the Czech Republic took place. Karel started well, but because of the excessive efforts of his, he fell from the first position and the race finished in hospital for him. Already a week later, the last racing event of the International Championship of the Czech Republic was held in Brno. Still slightly shaken, Karel Májek starter the race amongst the last ones, he had to bite through gradually from the fifteenth position to the third where he was fighting with Prášek who was faster in the end and Karel had to accept the fourth position. For the last race of the European Championship of the season, the team set off for Cartagena, Spain, with an uneasy objective to score points. Our rider was trying to find his way of riding. The start of the race was not very successful, the weather was changeable and he finally came in nineteenth.

In the season of 2008, our team was represented by riders Alen Gyorfi from Hungary and Michel Zonca from Italy who had been riding only in the Italian Championship, so all the other circuits were new to him. The very first race was a great success as Alen Gyorfi won the European Cup at Pannonia-Ring, Hungary. In the middle of the season, Czech rider Jakub Kornfeil joined the MOTO FGR team to represent it for the rest of the season and came in third in the International Championship of the Czech Republic. In the last race of the European Cup in Poznan, Poland, Michal Prášek rode one race for our team and Ladislav Chmelík who we were trying out for the season of 2009 rode one, too. Michal Prášek managed to win that race. In November, the team travelled to Valencia to enter the Spanish Championship with Jakub Kornfeil. Despite the efforts of the team, he did not qualify for the race out of 73 riders.

In the season of 2009, we were represented by Ladislav Chmelík, there was an initial plan to cooperate also with Jakub Kornfeil, but the team did not come to an agreement with him in the end. After the first race of the International German Championship, we concluded an agreement with a talented German rider Sebastian Kreuziger who represented us in the whole season. It was the first time in our seven-year-long history that we did the complete IDM series. Unfortunately, we did not manage to score in any of the races. The International Championship of the Czech Republic brought more joy to us as Ladislav Chmelík won in the junior category even though he did not start in one of the races because of the collision of dates and he did not finish another one. The most successful race was at Most where Sebastian managed to get our second pole position in history and came in second losing only by two milliseconds. In the same race, Ladislav did the fastest lap and although he had a bad start, he reached the final second position in the International Championship of the Czech Republic. The second time we managed to receive a wild card was for the World Championship in Brno where we qualified and Ladislav finished the race on the 29th position. In that season, we participated in 13 races which was the biggest number in our history so far.

In the season of 2010, our aims were the title of the champion of the republic and the MotoGP World Championship race in Brno. Additionally, we started in two races of the German Championship. The beginning of the season was the most successful one of all because Ladislav Chmelík finished the race at Hungaroring, Hungary, on the final third position and on the second position in the Czech Championship. He came in fourth in another race in Brno and third in the Czech Championship. The there was a failure at Pannonia-Ring, Hungary, when the second position was lost due to a faulty cylinder. Fortunately, Ladislav got better at Most where five racers fighting for the second position finished within two seconds. Ladislav came in fourth and second in the Czech Championship. We were very unlucky in Poznan, Poland, where our rider had to leave the race from the first position due to the same defect as at Pannonia-Ring. The top of the season came in mid-August - a wild card race in the MotoGP World Championship in Brno, where Ladislav participated for the second time after his experience from the previous year. However, the conditions were changeable, the track was mostly semi-dry. In the end, the qualification counted from the first training, Ladislav rode the first lap with the groups of last six riders with whom he was to fight for five laps. But then the motorcycle began to lose power and Ladislav lost the contact with the group. He was forced to leave for the box and did not finish the race from the 23rd position. The last race was the final of the German Championship at Hockenheim which we entered in this season for the second time. The start from the 26th position was enough for him to finish on the 19th position. In total, this meant the 4th position in the Czech Championship and the 2nd in juniors, having finished four out of six races of the Czech Championship.

The year of 2011 has been the most successful season so far for the MOTO FGR team of the Felgr family from Ústí nad Orlicí. The aim of the season was to win the International Championship of the Czech Republic and also to enter the additional German Championship, the Alpe Adria Championship, and the final race of the European Championship at Albacete, Spain. Nominated were two talented Czech riders - Tomáš Vavrouš, a participant of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, and Karel Hanika, the previous year's champion of the Czech Republic. As Tomáš was very busy, the team signed a contract only for six races of the Czech Championship. The first April race already indicated that the members of the team were right as they took the total second and third positions at Hungaroring, Hungary, which meant the first and the second positions in the Czech Championship. The next race was the German Championship at Oschersleben where Karel Hanika managed to go a great race and won the 10th place in strong competition. The third race of the International Championship of the Czech Republic was attended again by both our riders and, for the first time, we showed ourselves to the home fans at Brno circuit during the František Šťastný Memorial. Unfortunately, we did not manage to set Tomáš's motorcycle for the whole weekend, we found the setting as late as after the Sunday's warm-up. Despite this, Tomáš finished on the total fourth position which was the third in the International Championship of the Czech Republic. Karel Hanika started from the third position as the first, he was fighting with our previous year's rider Ladislav Chmelík for two laps but he was finally defeated by him and finished on the nice second place. Moreover, Karel Hanika set our team's record at 2:13.6. The third race of the International Championship of the Czech Republic was the traditional stop at Pannonia-Ring, Hungary, which is our most favourite as for the historical results. We confirmed it again that year as Karel Hanika starting from the pole position won the total first place in Alpe Adria as well as in the International Championship of the Czech Republic by winning the MOTO FGR team's symbolic 100th race. Tomáš was fighting for the third position and he lost it by 8 tenths of a second. He was on the podium for the third position in the International Championship of the Czech Republic. Another stop on the national championship series was the new circuit called Slovakiaring where we got another pole position thanks to Karel and Tomáš stood right beside him. Karel made a good start but he had to leave the race with a 14-second lead because of a failure. Tomáš was fighting for the first position with Italian racer Capella, which he managed to do, and he won this championship for the first time. Another race was IDM in the beginning of July in Salzburg, Austria, which is very popular with riders as it is half-natural. We could not find the optimum setting for the whole weekend and Karel had to leave the race because of the problems with electronics. The fifth race of the International Championship of the Czech Republic was held at Most where Tomáš fell down as early as in the first lap and Karel Hanika was fighting for the third position which he just lost, but it meant the second position in the Czech championship and the first in juniors. The final race of the International Championship of the Czech Republic took place in soaking-wet Poznan, Poland, where the wild race started with a fall of Karel in the introductory lap and the repair of the motorcycle in ten minutes and with a fallen-off ending on Tomáš's motorcycle who would otherwise certainly go for the victory. In the end, they both finished the race, so that they could keep their total standing. Karel Hanika won the title of the champion of the Czech Republic, Tomáš Vavrouš finished right after him, so the MOTO FGR team achieved the double. Our third stop on the German championship series was the brand new circuit called Red Bull Ring where we did manage to fight but the 14th position did not surely come up to the team's expectations. Thanks to a chance, the team decided to win the title in Alpe Adria and started at Rijeca, Croatia. Karel Hanika was gradually speeding up and he started from the second position. Unfortunately, due to a mistake of a mechanic, he did not start at all and got the total fourth place. Thanks to a grant from Autoklub, the team could participate in the final race of the European Championship at Albacete, Spain. In the competition of 36 riders, the team achieved the 25th position in the trainings. In the race, our rider was fighting for the 21st place but, unfortunately, he had a fall in the 14th lap. Nevertheless, 27 podium results speak for themselves and the season did come up to the expectations of the team.

After ten years, the aim of the FGR project was met - the MOTO FGR team was selected for the series of the MotoGP World Championship in the new class of MOTO3. Because of the regulations for four-stroke engines of 250 cc, the team decided to build a Honda NSF 250 engine into its own frame. We contracted Dutch rider Jasper Iwema who managed to score with the great 7th place in the fourth race which brought the historically first points for a Czech motorcycle. But after that Jasper did not manage to score again and he was replaced by Spanish Joseph Rodriguez for the last four races. Joseph managed to score in the last race of the season with his 15th position and the FGR brand took the total 7th place out of 11 brands in the Constructor Championship. This deed recorded the town of Ústí nad Orlicí into the history of motorsport forever!

For the following year of 2013, the team returned home as it had not been accepted into the World Championship. The season was started by Ladislav Chmelík, two races were ridden by Austrian Lukas Trautman, and it was finished by Martin Gbelec. In the Alpe Adria Cup races where he went, he was not defeated, he also scored in the International German Championship with the results around the 10th position.

In 2014, racer Martin Gbelec from Brno was nominated, he did not find a defeater in the Alpe Adria races he entered, and he also became the absolute winner of the MOTO3 class. Over the twelve years, the MOTO FGR team competed in the total of 144 races on 34 circuits on 4 continents. The result of the efforts was 75 podiums, 33 victories, 4 titles, and 10 points in the Grand Prix of the World Championship. The team from Ústí nad Orlicí described the twelve unforgettable years in its book called Motorcycles, my love - a story of Miroslav Felgr and the FGR brand.