26 replies to this topic

[Jimisgod]

Simple question here, what was the single longest continuous circuit race either by time or distance covered?

I've heard of the 25 Hours of Spa, but surely there have been crazier drivers that took it further?

[Ray Bell]

There were 84-hour races at the Nurburgring...

From memory, Vic Elford won a couple of them.

[Tim Murray]

There was also at least one 96 hour race on the Nürburgring.

[Stefan Schmidt]

There were 84-hour races at the Nurburgring...

From memory, Vic Elford won a couple of them.

Correct

[Jimisgod]

96 hours I'm guessing much of the car was changed in the pits during those hours, what was the distance covered?

[David McKinney]

There were 84-hour races at the Nurburgring...

We've done this before - wasn't there a regularity element in those? In other words, weren't they more correctly rallies?

[Tim Murray]

The event was the Marathon de la Route, which was originally a rally (aka Liège-Rome-Liège and Liège-Sofia-Liège). The last rally was held in 1964, after which it was decided that it was no longer possible to run the event as a rally, so the event was run from 1965 as an 84 hour race on the Nürburgring, with (as David suggests) some elements of a rally incorporated (cars were penalised if their lap times fell outside a set margin). From 1965 to 1970 the event lasted 84 hours, but the last event in 1971 was run over 96 hours. Results of all the Nürburgring events are on Frank de Jong's excellent touring car website. Here are the results for the 1971 event, but no speeds or distances are listed, I assume because it's not clear which Nürburgring circuit the event ran on:

http://homepage.mac......ng 96hrs.html

[Rob Semmeling]

The 1971 Marathon de la Route was held on the 22.835 km Nordschleife, start on Tuesday, finish on Saturday. The winning team completed 487 laps = 11,120.6 km or 6911.5 miles. Average speed 115.8 km/h or 72.0 mph.

However, for every minute at the pits, driver changes excluded, one lap was deducted, 26 in case of the winning team (hence the winning distance was only 461 laps). As a result of this rule, some teams continued on long-worn tyres as long as possible, with all due consequences. In addition, one lap may not take longer than 20 minutes.

Since the objective was still to achieve the greatest distance in the 96 hours, with no prescribed pace or target times, I think the 1971 Marathon de la Route can be counted as an actual race rather than regularity run or rally. For other years, the regulations may have been slightly different, I'd have to check.

The race distance was not always 84 hours, incidentally, but also 82 (1965) and 86 (1970).

[ryan86]

There was a race in Argentina in early 2000 to celebrate the new millenium that went on for a long time, I think it might have been 84 hours as well.

[Doug Nye]

If you spool back to 1948 the Gran Premio de America del Sur was pretty serious - the course from Buenos Aires in Argentina to Caracas, Venezuela, ran to 9,579kms - to be contested in 14 stages. Domingo Marimon - father of later Maserati F1 driver Onofre - won in his Carretera Chevrolet Coupe, after 118 hours 37 minutes of open road racing. But of course, this wasn't - re-reading the original question - a circuit race, that lesser form of life... One could argue that the Mille Miglia was a circuit race of just on 1,000 miles, in that it covered one lap of the Brescia-Brescia course, but that most decidedly was no lesser life form.

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 26 August 2011 - 13:56.

[D-Type]

And the substitute Mille Miglia in 1940 was 9 laps of a 111 mile or so course.

The Irish Gordon Bennet race was two laps of a figure of 8 course. Was the Kaiserpreis one or two laps of a circuit?

If we stray into point to point races there's the city to city races of 100 years ago, the Carrera Panamericana of 50 years ago and the Dakar of recent years. The Carrera Panamericana was shorter than The Grand Premio de America del Sul and other South American marathons but it was a bona fide international sports and touring car race. And like the Marathon de la Route I think the Dakar or Paris-Dakar is technically a rally.
 

Edited by D-Type, 08 October 2014 - 15:38.

[Bauble]

I can recall a lot of races that seemed to go for ever, mostly Group 'C' and Formula 3 especially the 1 litre 'screamers' so beloved of many TNF afficionados. You could add in a lot of Formula 1 events over the last 50 years.

Now! If you want stories of grass growing at Silverstone I'm your man.

However, on a more serious note (yes, I can be serious) I would have thought that to avoid too much drizzle, the longest non-stop, single driver race might be an appropriate place to start and finish the thread.

[Jimisgod]

If you spool back to 1948 the Gran Premio de America del Sur was pretty serious - the course from Buenos Aires in Argentina to Caracas, Venezuela, ran to 9,579kms - to be contested in 14 stages. Domingo Marimon - father of later Maserati F1 driver Onofre - won in his Carretera Chevrolet Coupe, after 118 hours 37 minutes of open road racing. But of course, this wasn't - re-reading the original question - a circuit race, that lesser form of life... One could argue that the Mille Miglia was a circuit race of just on 1,000 miles, in that it covered one lap of the Brescia-Brescia course, but that most decidedly was no lesser life form.

DCN

Well, events with stages imply that the car is not operating for a period of time. I'm wondering about the longest continuous event, of course that may be a stage of an open road event. Despite being 1600km, the Mille Miglia course took only 10 hours 8 minutes by 1955 at the hands of Moss and Jenkinson.

Edited by Jimisgod, 26 August 2011 - 15:36.

[byrkus]

However, on a more serious note (yes, I can be serious) I would have thought that to avoid too much drizzle, the longest non-stop, single driver race might be an appropriate place to start and finish the thread.

"The Bol d’Or (Gold Cup) was a peculiar race. The rules were quite simple: a 24-hour race which was different from Le Mans as there was only one driver per car. Alone, during the entire race! Not easy… "

1939 Bol d'Or, source

I can't imagine longer race for a single driver...

[Michael Ferner]

Émile Levassor drove continously for 48 hours and 48 minutes in the 1895 Paris - Bordeaux - Paris race, though there is some doubt as to whether he REALLY drove all the way...

[Vitesse2]

As Doug has broached the subject of Turismo Carretera, I do know of one or two which never covered the same bit of road twice. For example, there was the Premio Presidente Getulio Vargas in Brazil in 1941: a single lap of a 3730km course!

http://www.jmfangio....94112brasil.htm

The 7192km Gran Premio del Sur of 1942 might come close as well, but they seem to have traversed the road between Rio Gallegos and Punta Arenas in both directions:

http://www.jmfangio....194214gpsur.htm

[Bauble]

Émile Levassor drove continously for 48 hours and 48 minutes in the 1895 Paris - Bordeaux - Paris race, though there is some doubt as to whether he REALLY drove all the way...

Gracious, did he walk part of the time?

[Vitesse2]

15 mph was a pretty good average speed for 1895! After all, the first LSR was only just over 39 mph - and that wouldn't be set for another three years

[Pablo Vignone]

You can argue it's not a race but a rally, but the 1978 Vuelta a la America del Sud rally, won by Andrew Cowan, was 30.000 km long. It touched the ten South American capitals, from Buenos Aires to Caracas and return, including a stop at Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego. Jorge Recalde, then a WRC winner, won his class with a Renault 12.

In 1969, the Marathon de la Route was held over the longest circuit available at the Nurburgring, combining Nordschleife and Sudschleife layouts. That was the year in which competed an argentinian team whose leader was one certain JMF... 40 years later, as an hommage to that team, it was run an 84 hour race at Buenos Aires, AFAIK, the last longest race ever...

Edited by Pablo Vignone, 26 August 2011 - 21:54.

[Pablo Vignone]

As for the longest Turismo Carretera ever raced, that was the 1949 Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina, 11.535 km, won by Juan Galvez with a Ford. It was the last TC race in which Juan Fangio took part.

[jj2728]

Were there not some races at the turn of the last century that were very long? Surely there has to be one of those that qualifies as the longest continuous circuit race.

[Darren Galpin]

Just came across the following:

Gulf Coast Speedway, TX
21st-25th July 1923

R.E.Settle won the automobile driving marathon contest when at 01:10am he had been at the wheel for 101 hours and 10 minutes – he won when the only remaining competitor of the 13 who started, Mrs Mabel Lowe, fainted at 01:02 am. It was estimated that Settle had driven 1800 miles. Speed was not the object of the competition, the only rule being than a minimum speed of 15mph was allowed. Each driver was allowed five minutes rest every seven hours.

[arttidesco]

Just came across the following:

Gulf Coast Speedway, TX
21st-25th July 1923

Each driver was allowed five minutes rest every seven hours.

Who were the organisers the Sadists Automobile Club of Texas ?

[BRG]

Who were the organisers the Sadists Automobile Club of Texas ?

Wasn't this the era of those dance marathons (viz They Shoot Horses Don't They?)

[AAGR]

You can argue it's not a race but a rally, but the 1978 Vuelta a la America del Sud rally, won by Andrew Cowan, was 30.000 km long. It touched the ten South American capitals, from Buenos Aires to Caracas and return, including a stop at Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego. Jorge Recalde, then a WRC winner, won his class with a Renault 12.

.

It was definitely a rally, not a race, for it went on for about six weeks, and there were at least 15 overnight halts. How do I know ? I was actually following the event from start (Buenos Aires) to fiinish (Buenos Aires) via a massive anti-clockwise loop of South America) in the various organisers' borrowed/hired/scrounged aircraft, as the only British journalist who attended, and saw it all.

[TimRTC]

The Maxi Endurance 32hrs of Algarve, 12-14th December 2014

 

http://www.maxiendurance.com/

 

Hope they stream it live

[HistoryFan]

In three months there will be a 100 h touring car race in China.