The Bari Grand Prix was held in the seaport of Bari, on the Adriatic coast of Italy who organized races between 1947 and 1956 on a circuit that ran through the streets of the town, over a distance of 3.449 miles (5.550km) and the whole town coming to a virtual standstill on race day.
Category Archives: MEMOIRS
VIDA, PASION Y MUERTE DE UN NOBLE
Por Emilio J. Lezcano / carsNtravel
Corría el mes de Febrero de 1957, en La Habana, cuando conocí al marqués de Portago, como muchos le llamaban. La ciudad estaba envuelta en una atmósfera de euforia por la celebración del Primer Gran Premio de Cuba.Continue reading
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo started motor racing almost immediately after it was founded. A.L.F.A. ventured into motor racing in 1911, with drivers Franchini and Ronzoni competing in the Targa Florio with two 24 HP models. The marque’s first success came in 1913 when Nino Franchini finished second in Parma-Poggio Berceto race with a 40-60 HP and Giuseppe Merosi built a very advanced racing car in 1914, which was named the Grand Prix. In 1920 Giuseppe Campari won the race at Mugello with a 40-60 HP, Enzo Ferrari was second in Tange in the same year. A year later Giuseppe Campari won at Mugello again Ugo Sivocci won the 1923 Targa Florio with an RL and Antonio Ascari took second. Sivocci’s car was painted with the green cloverleaf on a white background that was to become Alfa’s good luck token. Alfa Romeo team: Antonio Ascari, Giusepe Campari, Tazio Nuvolari, Luigi Arcangeli, Achille Varzi and Giulio Ramponi (Chief Mechanic).
Alberto Ascari
Alberto ‘Ciccio’ Ascari, born in Milan on July 13, 1918, was just seven years old when his famous father Antonio, the star of the Alfa Romeo Team and the reigning European champion, was killed while leading the French Grand Prix at Montlhery in 1925.
When he was 19 years old was hired to ride for the Bianchi motorcycle team. His four-whell drive came in the 1940 Mille Miglia, where Enzo Ferrari gave him a ride in a Ferrari Tipo 815 Spyder.
Adler
The Adler Fahrradwerke produced bicycles, typewriters, and motorcycles in addition to cars since 1900. Before World War I, the company use De Dion two-and-four cylinder engines in cars that ranged from 1032 cc to 9081 cc.Continue reading
Albi, France.
Introduced in 1933 “Grand Prix de l’Albigeos”, (Albi) soon became one of the classic pre-war Voiturette races. It was raced using the fast three lined ‘Les Planques’ public roads course beside the river Tarm, bumpy and narrow triangular circuit with the pits and the start on the shortest of the straights, the one closest to Albi.
Achille Varzi
Achille Varzi
A.C. Cars Ltd.
A.C. Cars Ltd. is the oldest British car manufacturer with continuous production since 1901. The marque has enormous prestige and an extraordinary history – seemingly more fiction than fact.
Ain Diab, Morocco
This 4.724 mile circuit was situated in the new public roads of the Ain-Diab suburb of Casablanca, Morocco, the desert road towards Azemour and the coast road through the Sidi Abderhaman forest and two races were held between 1957 and 1958.
Tazio Giorgio Nuvolari
Tazio Giorgio Nuvolari. “The Flaying Matuan” or “Il Diabolico Mantovano Volante” was born on 18 November 1892 in Castel d’Ario, situated 20 kilometres from Mantua, Italy. Nuvolari began his career on motorcycles, winning most of the 300 he entered.
MEMOIRS IN AUTORACING
On July 22nd, 1894 twenty one assorted vehicles rumbled out of Paris on their way to Rouen. A year later a race was held from Paris to Bordeaux and back to Paris. The winner was Emile Levassor with his Panhard et Levasor who covered the 1,200 kilometers in 48 hours.
The first motor competition had begun.
Rudolf Caracciola. B January 30, 1901 at Remagen, Germany.
D September 28, 1959.
Caracciola born in Remagen, Germany to a Hotelier Italian family, was a champion racer in Europe in the Grand Prix motor racing era.
Nicknamed “The Ringmeister” for his success in rainy conditions especially at Nurburgring. Caracciola’s legend grew from his very first race, the 1926 German Grand Prix (Grosser Preis Von Deutschland) at the Avus circuit, in Berlin. Caracciola, at the time a 25 year-old weekend racer and salesman for Daimler-Benz, won the event in a factory sports car he borrowed for the weekend. He made history in 1931 after becoming the first non-italian driver to win the famous Mille Miglia.
He went on to win the driving championship three times between 1934 y 1938 even in the light of devastating injuries and the death of his wife in an avalanche.
Caracciola (Mercedes-Benz) and fellow countryman Bernd Rosemeyer (Auto Union) battled for supremacy year after year during the “Silver Arrow” era of motor racing (1934-1938).
After spending World War II in exile in Lugano, Switzerland, Caracciola returned to the track in 1946. Tony Hulman invited Caracciola to compete in the 1946 Indy 500, for which Caracciola was schedule to drive a pre-war Mercedes Benz W165, but the car did not clear customs in Switzerland. Car owner Joel Thorne then invited Caracciola to compete in a Thorne Engineering car.
Caracciola crashed violently in the Speedway’s Turn 2 during practice after -it is believed- he was struck in the face by a bird. He suffered a concussion and skul fracture.
Hulman and his wife, the late Mary Fendrich Hulman, invited Caracciola and his wife, Alice, to be their guest in Terre Haute, Indiana, while Caracciola recuperated. Their friendships remained strong until Caracciola’s death of a bone disease in 1959.