6 replies to this topic

[Eric Dunsdon]

The discussion and excellent photograph regarding the 1952 Turnberry race meeting in the recent 'Hawthorn Green Ferrari' thread brought back many memories of the great Formula Libre races of the 1950's which were invariably the big races of the day. The prescence of the V16 BRM's and The Thinwall Ferrari brought a great sense of occasion and importance to fairly minor meetings at circuits such as Ibsley, Snetterton, Charterhall and Turnberry while at Goodwood they were very much the main attractions. The two 100 mile 'Libre' races at the 1952 and 53 British Grand Prix meetings were certainly more spectacular and dramatic than the Formula 2 races that preceded them, in fact the spectacular drive by Frolian Gonzalez in the 1952 race was one of the most memorable that I have seen. Even without the Owen and Vandervell cars there were excellent races to be seen. A race at Boreham in June 1952 which was won by Dennis Poore's Alfa Romeo from Graham Whitehead's ERA and Reg Parnell's Maserati 4CLT remains fresh in the memory. I wondered if any members knew of a source of information for these fine races which rather tailed off around 1958.

[Vitesse2]

We have had two previous threads about 1940s and 50s FL races:

http://forums.autosp...highlight=libre

http://forums.autosp...highlight=libre

[sandy]

Without wishing to prolong this thread which has been helpfully re-directed back to previous very comprehensive threads it does bring home the extraordinary range of motor racing activity that occured in the fifties, 1954 in particular and in which the top drivers of the day participated in: what with World Championship F1 racing, non World Championship F1 racing, Formula Libre, sports car racing, saloon car racing and even 500cc events, it seems that the drivers were into everything and how much fun for all that must have been.

It raises another point also: why was Froilan Gonzalez so consistently successful at Silverstone? Has there ever been a "Froilan Gonzalez at Silverstone" appreciation day?

[RAP]

There is some information on Formula Libre races on Martin Krejci's site here
http://wsrp.ic.cz/flibre.html
RAP

[Eric Dunsdon]

Originally posted by Vitesse2
We have had two previous threads about 1940s and 50s FL races:

http://forums.autosp...highlight=libre

http://forums.autosp...highlight=libre

Many thanks, being a newcomer I wasnt aware of those earlier threads.

[D-Type]

Don't worry - we've all done it.

The search facility is clunky but it does work. At the top right of your screen there's a button "Search BB" which opens up a conventional search screen. The problem is that there's so much fascinating stuff on here that you get distracted reading all the threads that come up. Have fun!

[Eric Dunsdon]

Originally posted by D-Type
Don't worry - we've all done it.

The search facility is clunky but it does work. At the top right of your screen there's a button "Search BB" which opens up a conventional search screen. The problem is that there's so much fascinating stuff on here that you get distracted reading all the threads that come up. Have fun!

Thank you for that. I've already been having fun!.