17 replies to this topic

[René de Boer]

I plan to spend a couple of days on holiday this Spring in Sardinia. It would be nice to see at least something remotely connected with motor sport.

Obviously, I know about the Cagliari road circuit that hosted an F3000-Eurorace two years ago and the Cagliari-Sassari events in the 1950s, and also about the Costa Smeralda rally, counting for the European championship.

Can anyone suggest some more motor sport related things in Sardinia?

[Prostfan]

The beautiful village Budduso. Maybe Biondetti's grave is still there.

[David T.]

Not exactly. Biondetti actually was born is Sardegna but he almost always lived in Florence. His grave is at the Trespiano cemetery, in Florence.

As far Sardegna is concerned you can go to the Alghero-Scala Piccada hillclimb.

[WGD706]

Biondetti was 52 years old when he made his World Championship debut in F1, at the 1950 Italian Grand Prix, at the wheel of a Ferrari 166 chassis which had been fitted with a Jaguar engine (sticking a 3.4 litre Jaguar 6 sports engine in his 166S). It lasted for 17 laps.
He only qualified the car 25th out of 27 starters with a time of 2:30.6, but more to the point, this time was some 32 seconds slower than Juan Manuel Fangio on pole. He would retire on lap 17 of 80 with a Jaguar engine failure, but such was the attrition rate that he was already the tenth retirement!
There's a monument to him in Raticosa Pass on the old Mille Miglia route.

[deangelis86]

Visit Costa Smeralda and stop by the De Angelis estate. Who knows, you might just get invited in for a Cup of Tea!

[Nanni Dietrich]

What about the 1956 Sardinia Trophy?

I have just the final classification:
1 - Giorgio Scarlatti - Maserati
2 - Gigi Olivari - Maserati
3 - Camillo Luglio - Ferrari
4 - Alfonso Zampieri - Ferrari

but I don't know anything about the race, the venue, the routes... it it was a hillclimb or a road-race, something similar to Mille Miglia or Giro di Sicilia.

Who knows?

[alessandro silva]

Originally posted by Nanni Dietrich
What about the 1956 Sardinia Trophy?

but I don't know anything about the race, the venue, the routes... it it was a hillclimb or a road-race, something similar to Mille Miglia or Giro di Sicilia.

Who knows?

Cagliari-Sassari-Cagliari, 420 km.

[Tomas Karlsson]

Jo Bonnier came to Sardinia in '56 with the Alfa 6C 3000, but was told that there was no sports car class. So he started with his road car, a 1900Ti, and won his class!
I suppose the sports car race was only for cars - 2000cc?

[alessandro silva]

Yes, up to 2L sports car class.

[humphries]

The first Trofeo Sardo was held in 1951 and the route was as follows:- Cagliari-Monastir-Sanluri (where in 1954 Maria Teresa de Filippis almost ended her racing career having a big "off" in her OSCA)-Cant.Marrubiu-Oristano-Abbasanta-Macomer-Bonnanaro-Sassari; a round trip of 420km. It would appear the competitors raced to Sassari in the morning and raced back to Cagliari in the afternoon.

In 1956 the sports racers were restricted to 2 litres but the GTs were not and Luglio was in a Ferrari 250GT and Zampieri in a Mecedes-Benz 300SL. Gioacchino (sic) Bonnier did race an Alfa Romeo 1900T winning his class and finishing 18th overall.

It was in this race in 1955 that Dan Margulies in his Jaguar C-type finished third but I believe from memory that his passenger/mechanic, a Mr Hill, contributed more than just being along for the ride.

In 1922 a Circuito Sardo was held using the route as follows (confusing but straight from a smudgy contemporary newspaper so don't blame me):- Cagliari-Oristano-Macomer-Terralba-Sassari-Osili (sic)-Nulvi-Chia??monti-Ozieri-Morres-Terralba-Macomer-Oristano-Cagliari, some 506 km. Of the 12 entries, 8 started and 5 finished.

Races were also held in and around Sassari. In 1933 Pietro Ghersi won in an Alfa embracing a 40.2 km circuit (Sassari-bivio Sorso-Sorso Cantoniera-Sassari). There was another race in 1953 on a 13.6 km circuit (no details) won by Roberto Sgorbati (OSCA). In 1954, 1956 and 1957 races were held on the Circuito Platamona, the Lido, (7.73 km) and in 1958 & 1959 on the Circuito della Marinella, Porto Torres (2.1 km).

Rene, have a nice trip.

John

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by Tomas Karlsson
Jo Bonnier came to Sardinia in '56 with the Alfa 6C 3000, but was told that there was no sports car class. So he started with his road car, a 1900Ti, and won his class!
I suppose the sports car race was only for cars - 2000cc?

Following the 1955 Le Mans disaster, national sportscar racing in both France and Italy was limited to 2000cc cars, though, as John says, with a higher limit for GT entries.
The 2-litre limit might also have applied in other European countries but the results there tended to be dominated by Porsches anyway, so it's hard to tell

[Tomas Karlsson]

Following the 1955 Le Mans disaster, national sportscar racing in both France and Italy was limited to 2000cc cars, though, as John says, with a higher limit for GT entries.

So the races at Bari and Messina were international then? What was the difference between the international and national races? Could foreigners race in the national races without any problem?

[alessandro silva]

There were essentially five different categories of races in Italy;

-Club
-National
-National Open to foreign partecipation
-International
-Gran Premio d'Italia

This distinction was in force since the early 1920s until the 1970s. After I do not know. It was used to set priorities in the race calendar.

Bari and Messina were international all right. The Sardinia Cup I guess was Open.

[Tomas Karlsson]

According to the Swedish press and Bonnier, there was a bigger sports car class in the invitation for the Sardinia race. But when there were no local drivers the organizers scratched that race from the programme. There were several foreign drivers who never got to race and who would complain at FIA, according to Bonnier.
He was also impressed by the big price purse, since there were no way the organizers could sell any tickets to the crowds that lined the long road course. But on the other hand he had some problem in getting his price money...

[alessandro silva]

David's statement corcerning the big sports car class is not entirely correct when applied to Italy. In fact the over 2L sports cars were banned from open road racing (hilclimbs included) after the Mille Miglia accident in May 1957.
There were a few Ferraris 750 Monza still racing in Italy during 1956 and early 1957. The fact lamented by Bonnier was quite common those seasons: the 3L sports car class was often cancelled owing to lack of enough participants.

[Tomas Karlsson]

Thank you guys for all the fast and interesting answers!
I haven't seen any pictures from Trofeo Sardo. Does anyone know what type of roads it was? Bonnier wrote that he thought the Alfa 6C 3000 would have been suited to the track, since it was a fast track. Today the road seems to be a highway, but what did it look like in the fifties?

[humphries]

Thomas

Back in the Fifties the main road from Cagliari to Sassari was a relatively narrow winding two-way road nothing like the dual carriageway that exists now. Today most of the towns are bypassed.
Sardinia was something of a backwater even by southern Italian standards and the fact that the entire main road could be closed for a day indicates that traffic was then very light.

John

[humphries]

Thomas

Looking at Bonnier's average speed in his touring Alfa, 129.8 Km/h, it would seem that there must have been quite a few long straight bits. Scarlatti's winning Maserati averaged 148.2 km/h.

John