95 replies to this topic

[llmaurice]

Re- the 1958 Luanda race , Pierre Berchem (Belgium) attended with his ex. works Lotus XV having won the "Leopoldville GP" the previous week . If my memory is correct , 2nd. place went to a Triumph TR3 ! whilst the Ecurie Nationale Belge Ferraris dnf,d
Pierres car suffered "queerbox" trouble and did not feature in the race.

[Rob29]

Originally posted by Udo K.
Thanks a lot Marius for these results.
Question: Were the drivers from 9th to 15th Portugese or Angolan nationals? Any idea or info given in your publication?

I don't think there was such a thing as an Angolan National at that time Udo. it was still a Portugese colony.

[Hieronymus]

For those interested in the circuit map of 1959, I would like to post it here, but as I have said in previous threads, I am completely lost when it comes to posting images. I plea stupid or it can also be due to my outdated computer programme.

The 1959 circuit (Circuito de Luanda) looks different from the Nova Lisboa map that have been posted on this thread. Maybe the 1959 circuit is a modified version...

[Udo K.]

Originally posted by Rob29
I don't think there was such a thing as an Angolan National at that time Udo. it was still a Portugese colony.

Yes, Rob, of course. I just did not think of it. So all the drivers in should have had Portugese passports, although I have Antonio Barros as Brazilian (Antonio Mendes de Barros). He came
4th in the 1957 Interlagos 500 KMs on September 7th. I suppose it was the same man.

[Udo K.]

.. and E. Donquers is certainly Belgian. I have him as De Jonquers. Does anyone know the correct spelling of his name?

[Hieronymus]

Udo

The programme has two different spelling versions, namely "Doncquers" and also "De Doncquers". Two other Belgians that also entered for the 3rd Angolan GP of 1959, were André Pilette and Christian Goethals. Pilette had a "dnf" in his Ferrari Testa Rossa, while no indication is given of Goethals's result in this race.

I have a profile photo of Barros from the race reports. They refer to him as António de Barros, while the programme just states "Barros". Seems some spelling mistakes do occur amongst the programme names, at least amongst the names that are familiar to me. Jimmy de Villiers for instance is documented as 'Villers" and also 'James Villiers'.

Note - there is no indication whatsoever about the nationalities of the drivers. I presume that most of the Portuguese named drivers must have been locals (Angolan) or from Mozambique. The latter had quite a good motor sport club in those years.

As I have mentioned before, prior the the Angolan GP there was another race called the "3rd Taça Cidade de Luanda". Several of the drivers that competed in the GP, also competed in this race over 40 laps. The result of this event:

1) Robert Darville
2) Bill Jennings
3) George Pfaff
4) Dia Gomes
5) C. Gonçalves
6) Martin

[humphries]

Some information that may help with racing in Angola.

The first GP of Luanda, held in 1957, was won by Joaquim Correira de Oliveira in a Porsche 550RS. Second was Jose Manuel Simoes, also in a 550RS and he set fastest lap. The race was held every year, except for 1961, until 1965.

Racing resumed, at least at international level, in 1972 at Nova Lisboa and the following two years also saw races at Luanda ( a different circuit to that of 57-65) and Benguela.

The Antonio Barros referred to in Angola was Portuguese ( from the Metropole as the reports would have it ) and not the Brazilian driver with a similar name who raced Maseratis including a 250F. The Portuguese Barros seemed to have made the headlines when he defeated Francesco Godia at the VI Gran Premio Madrid in May, 1959 when both were driving Mercedes-Benz 300SLs. Photographs of the young Barros suggest that it was he who ate the pies!

The Taca Cidade de Luanda was awarded to the winner of the production sports car class which was usually a separate race. The Taca Governo do Distrito de Luanda was a race for touring cars.

One query. I have assumed that it was the Brazilian Antonio Mendes de Barros who won the early Formula Junior race at the 1958 Coupe du Salon at Montlhery in a Stanguellini when over in Europe on a shopping spree. Does the new Stanguellini book clarify this?

John

[Udo K.]

Originally posted by humphries
Some information that may help with racing in Angola.

The first GP of Luanda, held in 1957, was won by Joaquim Correira de Oliveira in a Porsche 550RS. John

John, do you know the date of the race?

[ry6]

Mahai - what a nice photo of the start line up for the 1964 race.

It looks like Mairesse and Bianchi in Ferrari 250LM's on the front row.

Then the green car could be Tony Maggs in Piper's Ferrari or even David Piper - is this a GTO or 250 LM shape.
Certainly alongside him is the Thompson Bros Lotus 23 Alfa of Brausch Niemann and the Porsche 904 is I think Jo Schlesser.

The old Porsche RSK must be Herman Muller (I was told this car had a 904 engine in it).
The white car looks like a Lotus 30. Certainly Alvaro Lopes of Angola's Automovel e Touring Club had one. Very troublesome (weren't they all).

Is the red car a GTO? Then maybe it's Langlios v Ophem.

Not much available on these races and one has to piece bits and pieces together to recreate what went on.

[AlexS]

I think that Nova Lisboa and Luanda aren't the same place

That is correct, Nova Lisboa is now called Huambo. Luanda never really changed it's name, it was founded in end of 1500s with the name São Paulo de Luanda.

[humphries]

Udo

Sorry, no date for the 1957 Luanda GP; very annoying I know.

When I received the photocopies from Lisbon all the years were mixed up with no written identification of the magazine issue. It took me days to sort them all out.

Perhaps someone who lives in Lisbon could pop in the National library. "O Volante" and the ACP journals were readily available but that might have been the case because I informed them I was coming.

John

[Charles Helps]

Originally posted by ry6
Mahai - what a nice photo of the start line up for the 1964 race.
...
The white car looks like a Lotus 30. Certainly Alvaro Lopes of Angola's Automovel e Touring Club had one. Very troublesome (weren't they all).
...
Not much available on these races and one has to piece bits and pieces together to recreate what went on.

I think the white car is more likely to be a Lotus 23 as the lower edge of the rear panel is straight where it goes across the wheel. All the pictures I've seen of the Lotus 30 show the rear bodywork with a cut-out round the wheel to make it possible to change a wheel, whereas the 23's all in one rear panel hinged up out of the way. Hildebrand or Bradshaw or where there other Lotus 23s in the race?

[Roger Clark]

The white car is Tonio Hildebrand's Lotus 23. Lopes's 30 practiced but non-started following fuel injection problems.

[Neri Moreira]

Originally posted by Udo K.


Yes, Rob, of course. I just did not think of it. So all the drivers in should have had Portugese passports, although I have Antonio Barros as Brazilian (Antonio Mendes de Barros). He came
4th in the 1957 Interlagos 500 KMs on September 7th. I suppose it was the same man.

Sorry for a late answer

Antonio Barros was (he died last month) portuguese (lived in Porto) and not brasilian.


BTW the city of "Nova Lisboa" is called Huambo after the independence of Angola so it is not the same as Luanda :-)

Regards
Neri Moreira

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by Neri Moreira

Antonio Barros was (he died last month) portuguese (lived in Porto) and not brasilian.

Was he the same person as Antonio Mendes de Barros?

[Neri Moreira]

Hehe

Humphries as already replied in this same thread

"The Antonio Barros referred to in Angola was Portuguese ( from the Metropole as the reports would have it ) and not the Brazilian driver with a similar name who raced Maseratis including a 250F. The Portuguese Barros seemed to have made the headlines when he defeated Francesco Godia at the VI Gran Premio Madrid in May, 1959 when both were driving Mercedes-Benz 300SLs. Photographs of the young Barros suggest that it was he who ate the pies!"

As a matter of fact both answer I gave here was already given before by other members.... (sorry)
Only excuse I can have is that in fact I spoke to the guy once as he was my neighbour.
I was (am) also friend of his son, also António Barros, and that used to race also, but without much sucess.

Cheers
Neri

[David McKinney]

My apologies too
I thought I'd read somewhere that they were different people

[Hieronymus]

Originally posted by Neri Moreira
Photographs of the young Barros suggest that it was he who ate the pies!"

This comment made me my day!

[zagan]

Hello!

I saw this Angola Thread and want to add some information.

- The year when the spectator bridge collapsed was 1974 and not 1972
A TV South African team made a film wich is part of an HAVOC video.
The race was named "6 hours of Nova Lisboa", a town later renamed as Huambo.
The winners, that year were Mabilio de Albuquerque and António Peixinho, two portuguese drivers who lived in Angola. The car was a Lola T292-BMW Schnitzer

- There`s a map of the "benguela" track. This track exists after 1972, it was a true circuit not a road track.
Before it exists, the Benguela races were named "Circuito da Praia Morena", in english "Brunette Beach circuit".
The last year of Benguela track races was 1974, ande the winners were Tony Birchenhough and Roger Heavens.

- to UDO K - in 1963 angola race, the second was Hermann Muller and not Herbert Muller

- to Hyeronimous
Vila do Conde was a portuguese northern track were had been races till 2003.
The "Fortaleza Circuit" is the name that had the Angola track in the early 60`s, because it was near a fortress.
António Barros was very good driver. He died in 2005. In 1958 he won the "Coupe du salon de Paris" in Formula junior and was portuguese champion in 1979 and 1980 driving a Porsche Carrera RSR 3.8 Group 5.
He drove lots of cars in his career like the Mercedes 300 SL, Formula Vee, Lotus 61M Formula Ford, Opel Commodore GS/E group 1 and others.
His son, with the same name is also a good portuguese driver actually.

to yorgos
The Alfa 33/2 arrived in Angola in 1969 or 70. It was the Vaccarella car in Targa Florio 1968.
The car raced in Angola till 1974 with a local driver named Santos Peras.
Now it`s restored and was featured in many magazines.

to Ry6
Andre Verwey, of Gemini transmissions South Africa, can talk about Angola races because he raced there in 1972 in the Luanda track. Then he sold his Lola T212 to the Autodel, the enterprise owner of the circuit.

lots of information about portuguese (including Angola) races in

http://sportscarportugal.com.sapo.pt (select "classicos"

(Excuse me please, but my english is not very good.)
zagan

[Victor]

Originally posted by kstrt
I think that Nova Lisboa and Luanda aren't the same place.

Nova Lisboa is now called Huambo. Luanda is the capital of Angola.

[Victor]

I remember watching the Angolan GP, back in 1965. As a matter of fact, I have very good memories of that race, which was probably the reason why I love motorsport.
Two days before the race, two of the drivers, the Portuguese António Peixinho and the Swiss Pierre de Siebenthal, had dinner with my parents in our house. And guess what, they took their racing cars!
Siebenthal had a beautiful red Iso Grifo A3 that was inscribed in the main Sunday race for prototypes and Peixinho was driving a Lotus Elan inscribed in the Saturday GT race. It was amazing to see those wonderful cars, with their painted racing numbers, parked in front of our house as normal street cars. After dinner we all went to take the cars to the paddock. My brother went with Peixinho and Siebenthal drove me. My parents followed us in their car. I still have vivid memories of that trip. The car only had a seat for the driver. I had to kneel besides him and try to hold on as I could. Siebenthal drove fast like hell. I remember the street lamps just passing at amazing speed and the fantastic noise of the engine. What a thrill for a 6 years old boy! My brother was 12, he remembers that Peixinho was driving very very fast but the Lotus did not have a chance, the Iso just disappeared in front of them. When they got to the paddock, the Iso was already parked inside the box and Siebenthal and I were outside waiting, him having a beer and me drinking a coke.

The next day António Peixinho was the winner of the GT race. Pierre de Siebenthal retired in the main race. I saw both races from the balcony of my father’s office. David Piper was the winner driving a Ferrari 365 P2.

This race was held in Luanda’s street circuit until the late 60’s (1968 or 1969) when a terrible accident involving a Porsche Carrera 6 killed quite a few spectators and that was the end of the Luanda GP.

You can find a nice description of the race here.

[botic]

Hello everybody,

I don't know if you can help me but I'm searching some information on two angolan pilots called Antonio Lacerda and Ahrens novais. It seems they won several races in the late 60's and early 70s.
One interesting remark, mr novais had an accident with Andrade Vilar which was driving a porsche 906.

Thank you for your help...

Olivier - Belgium

[bradbury west]

Does anyone remember Colin Arrowsmith as a mechanic out in Angola? Probably in the 70s.

RL

[botic]

Unfortunately no

[O Volante]

Not all, but a lot of details on racing in the Portuguese colonies in Africa can be found here: Please navigate from Protótipos e GT em Portugal ...
PS: A long time ago there was a scan of Jack Fairman's report in Autosport about his adventures in the 1960 Angolan GP at TNF available. This scan is gone - could somebody present it again?

[gdecarli]

I have just found and uploaded on my website the map of Senhora do Monte circuit located in Sá da Bandeira (now Lubango), Angola .



I have no info about it. Is there anybody that knows something about?

Ciao,
Guido

[gdecarli]

I have just found the map of Luanda permanent circuit, opened on May 28th 1972:



(click to open my website, with more info and links to Google Local).

Any more info (including track map of previous street circuits) is welcome!

Thanks,
Guido

[indyricefan13]

Originally posted by Udo K.
Here is what I have on the Angola GP races:

1957:
1. Correia de Oliveira P Porsche

1958:
1. Jimmy de Villiers ZA Jaguar
2. Alain de Changy B Ferrari 250 TR

20.SEP 1959:
1. Curt Lincoln SF Cooper Monaco
2. John Love RSR Jaguar D
3. Mike Bond GB Aston-Martin

1960:
1. John Love RSR Jaguar D
2. Wolfgang Seidel D Porsche
3. Graham Whitehead GB Ferrari 250 GTO

1961: no data. No race???

2. DEC 1962:
1. Lucien Bianchi B Ferrari 250 GTO
2. Hans Herrmann D Porsche 718 RS61
3. David Piper GB Ferrari 250 GTO
4. Mario de Cabral P Jaguar D
5. Georges Berger B Ferrari 250 GTO
6. Cicoira ? Ferrari 250 GTO

13. OCT 1963:
1. Hermann (or was ist Herbert???) Müller
Porsche RS
2. Lucien Bianchi B Ferrari 250 GTO

29. NOV 1964: 100 laps = 301.2 KM
1. Willy Mairesse B Ferrari 250 LM 100 2:21'36.7
2. Lucien Bianch B Ferrari 250 LM 99
3. Gerhard Koch D Porsche 904 GTS 98
4. Jo Schlesser F Porsche 904 GTS 98
5. Antonio Peixinho P? Ferrari 250 GTO 94
6. Tony Maggs ZA Ferrari 250 GTO 93
7. Herbert Müller CH Porsche 718 RSK 93
8. Gerard Langlois B Ferrari 250 GTO 92 (van Ophem)
9. Guy Anaz F? Porsche 904 GTS 91
10. T. Hildebrand ? Lotus-Ford 23 87
11. Bill Bradshaw GB Lotus-Ford 23 78

FL : Willy Mairesse 1'22.84 = 130.894 km/h



28.NOV 1965: 100 laps = 301.2 KM
1. David Piper GB Ferrari 365 P2 100 2:22'37.27
2. Herbert Müller CH Ferrari 275 LM
3. Pierre Dumay F Ferrari 275 LM
4. Vic Wilson GB Ferrari 275 LM
5. D. Gous ZA Elva-Porsche
6. Leon Derniere B Porsche 904 GTS
7. Alvaro Lopes P? Ferrari 275 LM
8. Rainer Ising D Porsche 904 GTS
9. A. de Brito ? Ferrari 275 GTB
10. Keith Schellenberg ? AC Cobra-Ford
11. Gerard Langlois B Ferrari 275 LM
12. Peter Clarke GB Ferrari 275 LM

Pole: Piper 1'21.58

Is the Jimmy De Villiers who won in 1958 in any way related to Giniel De Villiers who drives today in the Dakar?

[Graham Gauld]

If this image shows I will be amazed as Image Shack has been a problem for me. If the image shows I must thank Bonde.


However, here is a start photo of the 1965 Angolan Grand Prix

[Graham Gauld]

Ah well, back to the drawing board......sorry

[Rob Semmeling]

Here you go:

http://img80.imagesh...g65start3fy.jpg

Thanks for the pic!

[Bjorn Kjer]

What a great picture!!! Regards Bjørn (TNF Transporters/Paddock/Who was?/Supply veh.)

[Graham Gauld]

How did you manage to pull the picture up Rob ?

Where did I go wrong ?

[Rob Semmeling]

Graham, I think you used an "IMG" tag, which probably doesn't work with Imageshack.

It's very simple really: all you have to do is copy/paste the link Imageshack gives you after you upload your photo. If I'm not mistaken you get three links for posting on forums, so when in doubt, try them all out with the preview option.

You don't need to insert a HTML or IMG tag after you copy the link into the reply box, just hit 'reply' and it should work....I think

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by Rob Semmeling
Graham, I think you used an "IMG" tag, which probably doesn't work with Imageshack.

No, he used the http link button.

As you said, Rob, all that's necessary is to copy and paste the ImageShack link. If you also use the Atlas IMG button, then you get an extra pair of [IMG] instructions.

[David McKinney]

http://www.sanzalang...galeria/album97

[Hieronymus]

Very good link, many thanks, David! Nice photos of colonial Angola.

[Graham Gauld]

In June 2006 I attempted to send this picture but failed. Now, with experience I can attach it. It is one of the photos for my forthcoming biography of Keith Schellenberg who raced a white AC Cobra in this event which is Angola 1965.

[Neri Moreira]

Dear Mr. Gauld

Talking about biografies
How is the Cliff Allison´s progressing, is it already out or near?

If yes where can I look for it? (ISBN?)
(of course I googled for it, but....) :-)

Best Regards
Neri

[Graham Gauld]

Book Situation is :

Jack Sears : Due to be published by Veloce at the turn of the year.

Cliff Allison : As far as Cliff Allison is concerned Veloce estimates it will be out around Feb or March next year

Suggest you keep an eye on the Veloce web site.

GG

[Neri Moreira]

Hi again

Dear Mr. Gauld

Thank you very much for your (quick :-)) answer.

I will try to keep an eye on them.

Thank you
Neri

[bradbury west]

Originally posted by Graham Gauld
Book Situation is :

Jack Sears : Due to be published by Veloce at the turn of the year.

Cliff Allison : As far as Cliff Allison is concerned Veloce estimates it will be out around Feb or March next year

Suggest you keep an eye on the Veloce web site.

GG

Especially as Veloce has a habit of having special 40% discount offers on their books.
I look forward to all three tomes
Roger Lund.

[Pablomin]

Hi all. I have directed Andre Verwey to this thread, hopefully he will join and give you guys more information on Angola.

[Graham Clayton]

Not the Angolan Grand Prix, but an excellent series of photos of a race at the Agadir circuit during 1951:

http://motorsportina...rocos-1951.html

[r.atlos]

Never mind - that's right next door ...

Edited by r.atlos, 27 April 2013 - 21:38.

[Graham Clayton]

Oops - got my "A"s mixed up