2 replies to this topic

[Darren Galpin]

The Kokomo Tribune, 1st February 1922, pg 6, reports that the first coast to coast automobile race in South America of the year started in Buenos Aires on the 1st February aiming for Valparaiso in Chile. No other details were given. This is different from the Gran Premio Nacional later in the year which went from Buenos Aires-Rosario-Buenos Aires. Any further details known?

Edited by Darren Galpin, 12 September 2012 - 12:47.

[David McKinney]

Haven't heard of that in any of the various Argentinean sources I have

The Gran Premio itself was at the end of the same month, so it sounds as if the Valparaiso idea was just that - an idea

[Pablo Vignone]

Haven't heard of that in any of the various Argentinean sources I have

The Gran Premio itself was at the end of the same month, so it sounds as if the Valparaiso idea was just that - an idea

There was more than an idea. It was a raid planned by two papers, El Mercurio in Santiago de Chile and La Nación in Buenos Aires. They gave the technicalities of the organization to the Asoaciacion Automovilística de Santiago and the Automóvil Club Argentino. The route was traced between Valparaíso and Buenos Aires, crossing the Andes by the Pino Hachado pass, to Zapala, in Argentina.

But the raid, as it was called, was suspended on December 6th, 1921, because of chilean roads bad state after a mean winter. The organisers in Santiago didn't found any money (they even asked the president) to repair the roads, and they accepted too that the enthusiasm among chilean drivers were not so fizzy, so to spend money on roads to hold a race that only attract six national drivers was not a interesting affair.

And that was that. End of story.