PART 4
VIII GRAND PRIX DE BELGIQUE SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS (B), 25 JUNE 1939 35 laps x 14.50 km = 507.50 km. Weather: Heavy intermittent local rain showers.
The Belgian Grand Prix was back in the calendar and the first championship race of the season. By bypassing the Ancienne Douanne chicane the track had been shortened by 364 m and made faster. (The cars now went the "modern way" through the "Eau Rouche".) The Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union teams entered four cars each for the race. Motor cycle driver Meier made his debut for Auto Union replacing Stuck, who was racing in Bucharest. Two works Alfa Romeos were also entered and the rest of the field consisted of Mandirola's private Voiturette Maserati and two Delahaye sports cars. The German cars again showed their speed during practice with Lang reaching 310 km/h on the straight and making the fastest lap of 5:03.2. The grid was however decided by ballot so practice times did not count for anything. Farina, who had been slow during practice, found himself on the front row of the grid. Grid, positions drawn by ballot:
Race: Belgium had not seen rain for 40 days but on race day as the cars lined up for the start the rain was pouring down. As the grid was in a downhill there was a risk for false starts. The Mercedes team solved the problem by putting pieces of chalk in front of the wheels. No such thing had been done to Farina's Alfa and it started to roll down towards Eau Rouge long before the flag was dropped. Then the German cars led by Müller caught the Alfa and passed on the fast parts of the track and after the first lap the order was Müller, Lang, Nuvolari, Caracciola, Farina, Seaman, Hasse, von Brauchitsch, Sommer and Meier. While the German drivers were fighting to find a way past Farina, who was holding up the midfield, Müller in the front was holding up Lang. The Auto Union driver was running in the middle of the road and blocking any attempts to pass, seemingly unaware of the Mercedes driver's fist shakings. Neubauer's protests to the organizers only resulted in that the marshalls started to show blue flags to Lang instead of Müller! On lap 3 Seaman managed to pass Farina and started the pull in the gap to the leaders. Lang finally got enough and waved both Caracciola and Seaman by so that the two rain specialists could have a try on Müller. Caracciola was also blocked and got so frustrated by the Auto Union that he on lap 9 made a mistake and spun in the La Source hairpin. The Mercedes stalled in the grass and Caracciola was out of the race. On lap 11 Müller had problems and went into the pits leaving over the lead to Seaman, who immediately started to make some really fast laps, opening up a gap to Lang and Nuvolari. On the 14th lap Meier in sixth place was forced into a ditch as he was trying to lap Mandirola's Maserati at Blanchemont. The rain had stopped for some time but the track was still slippery. Both of the top Mercedes cars went in for fuel. Becouse of the conditions there was no need to change tyres. Seaman lost a few seconds and Lang came back to the track in front of his teammate. On the next lap Seaman was back in the lead and continued to pull away at a incredible rate. After 21 laps Seaman led by half a minute over Lang, followed by Nuvolari, Hasse and von Brauchitsch. Coming to Club Corner just before the La Source hairpin Seaman came in too fast, missed the entry point and left the track sideways. The Mercedes car hit a tree and then wrapped itself around another tree with a broken fuel line. 250 litres of fuel rushed into the cockpit and over the exhaust and in the next moment the car was an inferno. Seaman's right hand was broken and the driver was trapped behind the steering wheel. After a minute of futile rescuing efforts a Belgian soldier walked right into the fire and released the driver. Lang made an extra stop to tell the team what had happened and asked if he could retire. Unaware of the seriousness of the crash Neubauer asked Lang to go on. On lap 28 Nuvolari made a mistake and spun off and the order was now Lang, Hasse and von Brauchitsch. A carburettor error made Lang's car heavy on fuel consumption and with just one lap to go Lang went out of fuel before La Source. He managed to roll down into the pits but the fuel lines were empty too and the car refused to restart. Lang 's car rolled down the hill to Eau Rouche and finally just as he reached the uphill and was passed by Hasse the engine started. Lang went away at full speed to retake the lead and opened up a 17 seconds gap on just one lap to take a joyless victory. After the race the drivers went to the hospital where Seaman had recovered consciousness for a short time. He had however suffered burns on 60 percent of the body and Britain's greatest pre-war driver died before midnight.
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I CIRCUIT DE VITESSE AUTOMOBILE DES REMPARTS ANGOULÊME (F), 2 JULY 1939 2 heats of 40 laps x 1.279 km = 51.16 km + final of 70 laps x 1.279m = 89.53 km, 19 starters The first Circuit des Remparts was run on a twisty beautiful and highly spectacular circuit on the streets in front of the Angoulême cathedral. This race has for some reason been more or less ignored by the history books. (Note 1) The quite big entry list consisted of French drivers and a mixed car material with Sommer's semi-works Alfa Romeo 308 being the only modern GP car. The entrants where divided in two heats with practice times determining the grid positions. Neither Malivoir nor Sommer managed to do a timed lap, the latter suffering from a broken supercharger shaft at the start of practice. The 10 best overall times of the two heats were selected for the final. The high rate of retirements plus Bonnet's slow speed meant that only the two top drivers from the first heat were selected, while the whole field in the second heat except Guerin and Malivour reached the final. Sommer dominated the final itself, the Alfa Romeo beating Horvilleur's and Durand's Voiturettes by three laps. Heat 1: Grid:
Results: 1 J Paul (Delahaye 135S 3.6L) 51:11 (60.0 km/h, 37.3 mph) 2 Horvilleur (Maserati 4CM 1.5L) - 1 lap 3 Bonnet (D.B.-Citroen 1.9L) - 8 laps DNF Du Brusles (Bugatti 1.9L) 28 laps radiator DNF Wimille (Bugatti 4.7L) 19 laps transmission DNF Roumani (Bugatti 1.5L) 11 laps ? DNF Trémoulet (Salmson 1.5L) 9 laps engine DNF Cathary (Bugatti 1.5L) 5 laps ? DNF Mestivier (Amilcar 1.3L) 4 laps valve Heat 2:Grid:
Results: 1 Loyer (Maserati 1.5L) 48:43 (63.0 km/h, 39.2 mph) 2 Sommer (Alfa Romeo 308 3.0L) + 19 3 Trintignant (Bugatti 2.3L) - 1 lap 4 Durand (Bugatti 1.5L) - 3 laps (-2 laps?) 5 Contet (Delahaye 2.6L) - 5 laps (-2 laps?) 6 Larrue (Delahaye 135 3.5L) - 5 laps 7 Herkuleyns (M.G. 1.1L) - 7 laps (-6 laps?) 8 Guyard (Amilcar 1.1L) - 8 laps (-6 laps?) DNF Guerin (Bugatti 1.5L) 31 laps DNF Malivour (Bugatti 1.5L) 17 laps Final:Grid:
Results: 1 Sommer (Alfa Romeo 308 3.0L) 1:25:10 (63.1 km/h, 39.2 mph) 2 Horvilleur (Maserati 1.5L) - 3 laps 3 Durand (Bugatti 1.5L) - 3 laps 4 Contet (Delahaye 2.6L) - 4 laps 5 Trintignant (Bugatti 2.3L) - 7 laps (- 8 laps?) 6 Herkuleyns (M.G. 1.1L) - 10 laps 7 Guyard (Amilcar 1.1L) - 11 laps (-15 laps?) DNF Loyer (Maserati 1.5L) ? laps fire DNF J Paul (Delahaye 135S 3.6L) ? laps crash DNF Larrue (Delahaye 135 3.5L) ? laps ? Fastest lap: Sommer (Alfa Romeo) 1:10.0 (65.8 km/h, 40.9 mph) |
CIRCUIT OF CARNARO CIRCUIT OF CARNARO - Abbazia (I), 9 JULY 1939 VOITURETTE 25 laps, 9 starters The Italians organized a race in Abbazia the same day as the French GP as Mussolini had denied the Italian works teams to start in France. In an all-Maserati field the works cars of Rocco (6CM with a 4CL engine), Luigi Villoresi and Cortese dominated the race. Rocco got problems leaving Luigi Villoresi, still shaken from the death of his brother three weeks earlier, to win an easy victory. DNA/DNS: 8 Pagliano (Maserati *3), 9 Bonomi (Maserati *2), 11 Lami (Maserati *3)Grid:
Results: 1 L Villoresi (Maserati 4CL 1.5L *) 1:10:51.2 2 Cortese (Maserati 4CL 1.5L *) + 12.2 3 Romano (Maserati 6CM 1.5L) + 7:26.1 4 Rocco (Maserati 6CM 1.5L *) - 1 lap DNF E Platé (Maserati 6CM 1.5L) ~4 laps mechanical DNF Baruffi (Maserati 6CM 1.5L) ~3 laps mechanical DNF Barbieri (Maserati 6CM 1.5L) 1 lap crash DNF Pietsch (Maserati 6CM 1.5L *2) 1 lap engine Fastest lap: L Villoresi (Maserati) 2:45.2 * Entered by Officine A Maserati *2 Entered by Scuderia Torino *3 Entered by C Lami | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
GRAND PRIX DE L´ALBIGEOIS LES PLANQUES - Albi (F), 16 JULY 1939 VOITURETTE 2 x 20 laps, 15 starters Of course there were no Italian teams at Albi. During practice Hug (Maserati 4CM) crashed on the wet track suffering permanent brain damage. That ended the career for one of Switzerland's best drivers. Dobson (ERA-E) was fastest during practice and took the lead in the first heat. However, at half distance the new ERA suddenly struck problems and Dobson made a late decision to enter the pits but braked too hard and crashed. Wakefield won heat one from Tongue and Bira (in his old ERA-B). Mays had retired his ERA-D from 3rd position when a wheel came loose. The second heat had the same result as the first and that was of course also the final result with Wakefield taking yet another victory. DNA: 2 Joa (Maserati *2), 10 Hug (Maserati *4) 12 Gerard (Maserti), 20 Pietsch (Maserati *4) Heat 1: Grid:Grid:
Results: 1 Wakefield (Maserati 4CL 1.5L) 1:10:58.8 2 Tongue (Maserati 4CL 1.5L) + 19.8 3 "B Bira" (ERA B 1.5L) ? 4 Dipper (Maserati 6CM 1.5L *2) + 2:30.2 5 Sommer (Maserati 6CM 1.5L *3) + 3:16.2 6 de Graffenried (Maserati 6CM 1.5L *3) - 1 lap 7 Herkuleyns (MG K3 Magnette) - 5 laps 8 Delorme (Bugatti T51A 1.5L) - 5 laps 9 Horvilleur (Maserati 4CM 1.5L) - 6 laps DNF Brooke (Brooke-Alta Spl) 9 laps crash DNF Abecassis (Alta) 9 laps crash DNF Contet (Maserati 4CM) 2 laps mechanical Fastest lap: Wakefield (Maserati) 3:22 Results (Aggregate): 1 Wakefield (Maserati 4CL 1.5L) 1:10:22 2 Tongue (Maserati 4CL 1.5L) + 1:30 3 "B Bira" (ERA B 1.5L) + 3:20 4 Dipper (Maserati 6CM 1.5L *2) - 2 laps 5 Sommer (Maserati 6CM 1.5L *3) - 3 laps 6 de Graffenried (Maserati 6CM 1.5L *3) - 4 laps 7 Horvilleur (Maserati 4CM 1.5L) - 8 laps 8 Herkuleyns (MG K3 Magnette) - 9 laps 9 Delorme (Bugatti T51A 1.5L) - 11 laps * Entered by ERA Ltd *2 Entered by Südddeutsche Renngemainschaft *3 Entered by Ecurie Autosport *4 Entered by Scuderia Torino | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FOOTNOTES:
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