RECENT FORMULA ONE RACES
RECENT FORMULA ONE RACES
KARLSKOGA (August 20th)
This Formula One event, held on the tiny stadium-like track outside the town of Karlskoga in central Sweden, could hardly rank as a Grand Prix, being run over a total distance of less than So kilometres, for a mere few pounds of prize money, but nevertheless the entry contained Bonnier with a works Porsche, Moss with a U.D.T.-Laystall Lotus, Clark and Ireland with works Lotus, Salvadori and Surtees with Yeoman Credit Coopers, Brabham with his own Cooper, and various private owners and local drivers. Being held the day after the Goodwood T.T., Salvadori, Clark and Ireland flew over to Sweden, arriving on Sunday morning for practice, and Moss arrived late so was put on the back of the starting grid without practice. Fortunately 30 laps ” round-the field ” did not require much stamina so the travel-weary T.T. drivers were not handicapped and it took Moss only three laps to get from the back of the grid to first position, where he stayed until the end. Brabham retired with gearbox trouble, both works I.otus cars gave up and Salvadori blew up his engine and pushed to finish fourth, strictly against International rules, while fastest lap was credited to Moss and Surtees.
ROSKILDERING (August 27th)
The week following the Swedish race meeting most of the runners journeyed south into Denmark to the artificial and rather circus-like track at Roskilde, for another bout of sprint racing with Formula One cars. The track at Roskilde is built in an old gravel pit and is only 1.2 kms. in length, twisting and turning in the narrow confines of what might be termed a Stadium, with many of the corners steeply banked. With a lap time of only just over 40 sec. it can be imagined how nearly impossible it is for cars of equal performance ever to change places, so in consequence the start is all important and things often develop into a ” follow-myleader ” game. The F.1 event was run in three heats, one on Saturday afternoon and two on Sunday, the aggregate of the three deciding the final positions.
Stirling Moss in a U.D.T. Lotus-Climax won all three heats, the first from Brabham in the Australian’s own Cooper-Climax, the second from Ireland in a works Lotus, after Brabham had broken his gearbox, and the third again from Ireland, there being. very few runners, left by this time. Masten Gregory drove for the U.D.T.-Laystall team, his drive with.Camoradi in 17.1 racing having folded up with the end of the Camoradi Racing Team, and Henry ‘Taylor was driving once more after his British G.P.
accident. Yeoman Credit had Surtees and Salvadori in thei Coopers, but the motorcycle Champion had gear-clianginf troubles. As at Karlskoga the meeting contained numerous othe small races for Formula Junior, sports cars and saloon cars.
Results—Addition of Times of Three Heats rat : S. Moss (Lotus-Climax) 59 min. 28.5 sec.
MODENA (September 3rd)
It was a long trek from Denmark to Italy but a surprising number of the runners made it and they were joined at Modena by many more, but not by any cars from the Ferrari factory, even though the race was only a few miles from Maranello. Einzc Ferrari was much too busy preparing cars for the Italian GT, and quite rightly gave Modena a miss. However, a vast and miscellaneous entry of 36 cars was :gathered for the 7th Modena G.P., of which 28 turned up for practice on the tiny aerodrome perimeter-track circuit. Moss drove the Walker Lotus-Climax, Bonnier and Gurney had works Porsches, the latter experimenting with disc brakes in practice, Graham Hill and Brooks had B.R.M.Climax cars, Ireland and Clark were on works Lotus-Climax cars, and Surtees and Salvadori with Yeoman Credit Cooper-Climax cars. Surtees tried a new Yeoman Ci edit car in practice which had a Formula Junior chassis frame, 2 in. shorter than a Formula One frame, though it used Formula One suspension parts, a Coventry-Climax engine and the latest Colotti gearbox, a type 29, while the car had 5.50 13 in. front wheels. Brabham had his own Cooper-Climax, Gregory and Taylor were on U.D.T.Laystall Lotus-Climax cars, Parnell his own Lotus-Climax and Lewis his own Cooper-Climax. There were four cars from the small Tomaso factory, two with Osca engines and two with Conrero-modified Alfa Romeo Giulietta engines, and numerous other Continental drivers with old Coopers or Lotus, while Bandini had the Centro-Sud 1961 Cooper-Maserati.
The regulations allowed for 14 starters, and the fastest three Italians were guaranteed starts whether in the 14 or not, and this caused Ireland to be dropped after all the practice times were sorted out. Even so, Bandini was qualified anyway, with eighth fastest time, as was Businello (Tomaso-Conrero) who was x4th, but the third fastest Italian was Scarlatti in 19th place with Starrabba’s Lotus-Maserati, so bringing him up into the 14 qualifiers meant dropping Ireland who had been 13th. All very confusing but absolutely according to the regulations, which it seems Team Lotus may not have read! This left Moss, Bonnier, Gurney, G. Hill, Salvadori, Clark, Gregory, Bandini, Surtees, Brabham, Taylor, Brooks, Businello and Scarlatti to dispute the race over too laps of the tiny 2.366-kilometre circuit, their practice times running from Moss with 58.6 sec. to Searlatti with 61.6 sec., so that qualifying depended a great deal on the luck of the stop-watch.
The start was given by none other than Fangio, on a visit to Modena, and for the opening laps Gurney, Moss, Surtees, Hill and Gregory raced in close company, but on lip 12 Moss seemed to get tired of fooling around and quickly took the lead and disappeared into the distance, never to be challenged again in what proved to be a not very exciting race. Surtees went out with engine trouble, as did Salvadori in the second Yeoman Credit car, Bandini had his Maserati engine burst into lots of pieces all over the track and Graham Hill got a puncture through running over them, and both U.D.T. cars retired. Bonnier and Gurney tried hard to challenge Moss, but the dark blue Lotus was always just too far ahead and every time the Porsthes made up ground Moss quickly replied with an equal spurt so that this pursuit race lasted until the tooth lap, with Moss setting a record lap in his 98th lap.
Results-1130 Laps-236 1st : S. Moss (Lotus-Climas) hr. Kilometres 40 nun. o8.1 sec.-7 41.770 k.p.h.