22 replies to this topic

[BorderReiver]

Hello Everyone

I was wondering if I could ask (yet again) for your collective help and intelligences.

Could anyone please give me some info, results, stories or pictures, of the Swedish Winter Grand Prix'? I beleive this event begain in earnest in 1934, however I am not sure where it was held, who took part etc.

Any help would be very much appreciated. Photographs would be utterly fantastic.

[Vitesse2]

The first Sveriges Vinter Grand Prix for which I have a result is 1932 - Sheldon says this was the second running, but I have no idea when the first was. Like most Swedish races it was mainly contested by "Nordic Specials" - usually with American engines. There were usually a few foreigners along for the ride though - in 1932 Whitney Straight took his Maserati 26M and Karl Ebb turned up with a Mercedes Benz SSK. Another SSK was driven by one of the leading Swedish drivers, Per-Viktor Widengren, while his brother Henken had an Aston Martin. The circuit was 30 miles long, through forests near the frozen Lake Ramen and was traversed eight times, the winner taking almost four and a half hours. Twelve of the 24 starters actually finished, the winner being Clemens Bennstrom in a Chevrolet Special. Ebb set FL, in just over 31 minutes.

In 1933 there were again 24 starters and 12 finishers. Ebb was there again with his SSK but the rest of the field were locals (Paul Pietsch didn't turn up). P-V Widengren won this time, with his newly-acquired Alfa Romeo Monza.

The next race was in 1936. By this time there was quite a series of ice races in Sweden and Norway and foreign participants were Ebb (again!), the Norwegian Eugen Bjornstadt and Laszlo Hartmann from Hungary. Bjornstadt won in his Alfa Monza by just over five minutes from Ebb's SSK.

That was the last pre-war event - King-Farlow records a 1937 race, but that was actually a very short event on Lake Flaten, called the Flatenloppet, again won by Bjornstadt's Alfa Monza, from Ian Connell's ERA. Two locals dead-heated for third!

The Swedish Winter GP was revived after the war - on a bleak airfield circuit at Rommehed. I have an account of it, but can't post it without permission, since it forms part of Alessandro Silva's magnum opus on the 40s. It's a great story though! Suffice it to say that it was a British triumph (albeit a somewhat hollow victory) for Reg Parnell whose ERA A-type beat Leslie Brooke's B-type by 0.6 seconds after a race-long battle in a blizzard - there were just four starters. Parnell also won the Stockholm GP two weeks later.

Full results of all the above can be found in Sheldon Vol 3 & 4. Without checking, I'm pretty sure Leif has some details on his Golden Era site.

[Ray Bell]

Any idea whether that 1932 win was for a Chev 4 or a 6?

I'm interested to know what successes the Chev 6 had in racing...

[BorderReiver]

So already we have a mystery. Anyone have any idea where the first event was run?

[Vitesse2]

Possibly 1931, but I think this might be a guess ....

http://home.hccnet.n...evoort/swe.html

[Leif Snellman]

Take a look at my homepage:

http://www.kolumbus....an/t5.htm#RAMEN

and

http://www.kolumbus....man/gp361.htm#3

1931:
1 Karl A. Ebb, FIN (Auburn) 5:28:59.9 (73 km/h)
2 Johan Ramsay, FIN (Chrysler) 5:41:52.8
3 Clements Bergström, S (?) 5:48:25.3
4 Harry Larsson, S 5.53:10.0
5 Gunnar Olssson, S 6:01:53.8
6 Olof Grönqvist, S (Otin Special) 67:26:57.6
7 Knud Hansen, DEN (Bugatti) 6:33:30.0
No other finishers

DNF:
P-W Widengren, S (M-B SSK)
R Caracciola, D (M-B SSK)
CG Nordensvahn (Citroen-Chrysler)
J Zanelli (Bugatti 2.3L)
Nenonen, FIN

[Leif Snellman]

1931: Ebb (Auburn)



1932: Bergström (Chevrolet)



1933: Widengren #2, Sundstedt #1



I recieved this picture once from Rainer named Ebb 1932 but I think it can be
Widengren (Mercedes-Benz SSk) At Rämen 1932.



Ray, its a bit confusing with the Chevrolets.
As I understand it O. Bennström (Ford) won the 1932 race while Clemens Bergström (Chevrolet) finished 7th, Per Näs (Chevrolet) finished 6th and Martin Strömberg (Chevrolet) finished 11th while Folke Hjelm (Chevrolet) retired.
Still, I have this picture of a Chevrolet from "the winning team". I don't know if it also was a special team event but anyway, the Chevy has a special body ona standard chassis. V4 or V6 I cannot say.

[Ray Bell]

Is the engine capacity listed anywhere?

They would only be inline engines, by the way...

[Leif Snellman]

Sorry! Chevy 4 or 6 of course, not V4 or V6!
No, I have no engine capacity info.

[Leif Snellman]

But I got this info supplied by Bengt Alsed (son of pre war racer driver Helmer Carlsson)
about Swedish Chevrolets:

>Chevrolet Special. Reg.nr. P 5000. Built by Folke Hjelm c:a 1926. 4 cyl. Raced at Rämen 1931

>Chevrolet Special. Built by Martin Strömberg.

>Chevrolet Special. Built by Pelle Näs.

>Chevrolet Special. Built by Clemens Bergström.

And Bergström raced a Chrysler in 1931 (and Chevrolet in 1932)

>Chrysler Roadster. Reg.nr. A 9402. Raced by Clemens Bergström at Rämen 1931.

[Rainer Nyberg]

I have posted this before, it is still on my server, so I thought I could re-post it


It is Widengren in a Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza seen during the 1932 event.

[alessandro silva]

This is the 1947 story:

The Swedish Winter Grand Prix was run in 1931, 1932, 1933, and 1936. After an eleven year interval, the K.A.K. revived the GP at the Rommehed airfield track, a bleak and Godforsaken spot in central Sweden. This rather meaningless race on packed snow would nevertheless attract a good entry from France and Britain, while some of the Italians, very sensibly it must be said, had preferred the Austral Summer in Argentina and Brazil .
Problems of any kind thwarted the organisers: lack of snow forced them to throw gravel on the thin layer of ice every day for ten days. Then the K.A.K. suffered the death of their president, Prince Gustav-Adolph, in an accident. There was talk of postponing the race, but the cars had already beeen shipped and the decision to run the race was supported by the intervention of another Prince, Bertil, who was a keen motor racing enthusiast. But the worst was still to come.
The terrible cold of that February 1947 had completely frozen the Baltic sea. Five Ecurie France cars, 4 Delahayes and the Talbot MC, and three Maseratis had been shipped to Stockholm from Antwerp on February 2nd plus a fourth Maserati from Rouen. The expedition was followed with keen interest by the French press. Ecurie France, very much regarded as a National Team, had raised a lot of expectations during the off-season, mainly because of Vallée’s flair for public .
Besides, the cars were undoubtedly very well prepared, with the Delahayes shining in their new coursifiées bodies à la Chaboud.
Wireless messages ordered the ship to head for Gothenburg instead of Stockholm, but these messages were not acknowledged by the ship’s captain, since the bad weather had interrupted all communications between the ship and the mainland. Meanwhile, some anxiety started to show up: ”Complications for Sweden. There is no snow and the cars have not arrived” was the headline on a French newspaper on February 5th. L’ Equipe motorsports editor Maurice Henry arrived in Sweden on February 6th. The headline: ”The cars willl need protection from the frost, but they have not yet arrived”, appeared on Febrauary 7th. The ship was finally located a few miles outside Gothenburg harbour. “Pas des voitures!” was Henry’s pathetic cry on February 8th. An ice-breaker set off from Gothenburg to free the ship but its precious load arrived too late, so the Continental drivers could only watch as the British divided the very generous prize money between them after a race that had been shortened from 40 to 20 laps.
Starters were Reg Parnell in ERA R1A, the very first ERA, ex-works, Bjornstadt, Humphries, which Parnell had bought from HW Motors in 1946; George Abecassis in ERA R2A, ex-works, Embiricos, Pollock and Leslie Brooke in his usual ERA R7B . The fourth and last starter was local driver Gustaf Nobelius in a Bugatti T35/51. This was chassis 4791, ex-Jean Bugatti, Prince Bertil of Sweden. Nobelius was a well known - if not very quick - driver, who later built his own cars. He was active in the "Nordic special sport class" until the late 1950s. The British ran as a team, with Parnell the appointed winner.
The missing starters were Ciro Basadonna in the Maserati 4CL of Ecurie Auto-Sport , 1573, with fellow driver from Geneva Leonardo Quadri also in Maserati. Quadri had been one of the founders, with Basadonna, de Graffenried and Hug, of Ecurie Helvetia in 1937. He seldom raced, but was seen - mainly in national events - until well into the 1950s. Raymond Sommer and Henri Louveau were also supposed to drive Maseratis. Ecurie France had been officially presented on November 14th, 1946, though it had already appeared in entry lists during the second half of the 1946 season. Paul Vallée had now managed to extract the Monoplace Centrale from Tony Lago and it was thus racing for the first time under the Ecurie’s banner in the hands of Louis Chiron who attracted substantial starting money, rather than the Ecurie’s technical director Eugène Chaboud who was entered in his usual Delahaye 135 CS. The other rebodied Delahayes were driven by Charles Pozzi , Henri Trillaud and Yves Giraud-Cabantous . Chardonnet, Loyer and Serraud were on standby back in Paris as reserve drivers.
An oddity completed the entry list. Two unheard of – before or since - Swedish drivers " Sven Erbe" and " Holger Hjelm" were entered in nothing less than a Mercedes Benz W165 and in an unspecified Alfa Romeo, respectively. The only possible explanation seems to be a rather childish stratagem conceived by the organizers to draw attention to the race .
The Continental drivers wanted to dig into the rich pot of the Swedish starting money too and asked whether a new race could be organized. The Stockholm Motor Klub swiftly responded and a race was organised – in two weeks – on the frozen Lake Vallentuna near the capital, which had already seen two ice races in the mid 30s.
Some of the French drivers went home for the Monthléry re-opening and then returned to Sweden as the British did too. Others, Chiron amongst them, enjoyed the warm Swedish hospitality. The popularity of Louis among the local press was found to be a bit of an encumbrance by some of the Frenchmen who had stayed over. Journalists seemed to consider only him. Besides Chiron was acting in a particular petulant way, monopolising all conversations.
The Swiss Basadonna and Quadri had returned home, leaving one of the Maseratis behind. Belgian Emile Cornet was called in haste to drive it. He started the race without practicing. Nobelius also did not show up. That left eleven cars at the start, five from Ecurie France, the three Britons and the Maseratis of Sommer, Louveau and Cornet. Parnell phoned home to have longer hubs shipped overnight in order to fit rear twin wheels for the last day of practice. That caused quite a stir among the other drivers, but a protest by Sommmer was over-ruled.
Chiron started the race in front followed by Sommer, who soon passed him. For a while Sommer led from Parnell and Abecassis. Chiron had a punctured tire. He restarted but retired soon, very discouraged. The weather took a hand, and in blizzard conditions Parnell took the lead from Sommer and Abecassis. Sommer retired soon afterwards, so Parnell won again, followed by Abecassis, who nursed his car home with the engine running on only five cylinders, and the consistent Chaboud. “Parnell’s prize money was considerable, so they had a real party led by Leslie Brooke…..Their exploits were not overlooked by the Swedish press. [a report said] ’the English were jolly fellows – it seemed as if the three drivers….were much more tough than the French with the exception of Chaboud. They didn’t seem to care about cold weather. Above all Brooke was a funny chap and his orders for more champagne at both Borlange and Rosenblad after the Vallentuna race will be fresh in our minds for a long time”.
The expedition became legendary among the British partcipants. “As the British were not allowed to take their large sums of prize money out of the country, they toured the Stockholm shops buying fur coats and all the imports from America that nobody had seen in Britain, since before the war. So much, in fact, that they had to buy suitcases to put the loot in.”

[Jonas]

Rainer:
The picture is NOT from 1932, but later. Probably some time during -34 or even later than that (by looking up the number 14 it would be no problem to get event and year, but at the moment I haven't got access to the programs I have at home). The reason I can tell is that the car has been converted to a single seater and has also 3 yellow stripes on the bonnet (in -32 only one). These modifications were carried out in 1934 (not entirely sure here, but definitely later than -32). By this time the engine was also bored out to 2.6 litre, so maybe it would be more correct to call it 8C 2600 Monza even if it did not leave the factory as such.

/Jonas

[Vitesse2]

Okay, now I'm confused! Jonas is right, it's definitely not 1932, as Whitney Straight carried 14 that year.

P-V Widengren was #14 in the 1936 race, but according to Sheldon he was a DNA as he was ill. So what race is it?

[Ray Bell]

Of course he was ill!

Can't you see how pale he was in practice? Overnight it really hit him and he had to stay in bed...



And on a more serious note, I wonder if Chiron's stand-alone attitude with his compatriots might have partially stemmed from his pre-war alienation?

[Rainer Nyberg]

Originally posted by Jonas
The picture is NOT from 1932, but later.

Ok, I don't have any records of those races. If we can settle on a year, then I will rename the file.
The information came from the picture caption in the book where it was sourced from.

[Timo]

Is this car all blue with three yellow stripes or is there a third color? When I look at the area between the radiator and the bonnet it looks like the bottom half is painted in a color different from the top half.

Also, does somebody have other photos of Widengren's Alfa (two-seater and monoposto)?

Regards,
Timo

[Tomas Karlsson]

Is this car all blue with three yellow stripes or is there a third color? When I look at the area between the radiator and the bonnet it looks like the bottom half is painted in a color different from the top half.

The car is blue at the lower part with a yellow upper bonnet and with three blue stripes over it. The Swedish national colours. Yellow can sometimes look darker then blue on older photos.
He had the car rebuilt in the summer of '34 to the same specification as his greatest competitor on the Scandinavian scene, the Norwegian Eugen Bjornstad.
The picture is definitely from practice before the Swedish Winter GP at Ramen in february 1936, where Widengren had number 14 on his car. He got sick on race day morning and couldn't start.

[Vitesse2]

So, not DNA, but DNS. Thanks Tomas

[D-Type]

I have a question about the 1947 race.
Was it Formule Libre or was it for cars conforming with the new International Formula (aka 'Formula 1')?
In other words was it 'The first Formula 1 race'?

[David McKinney]

I believe it was a Formula 1 race - but then several 1946 races had already been run to the new regs as a tryout.
It does however seem to have been the first F1 race to be held after the regs officially came in.
Certainly not a noteworthy event at the time - there had been changes in regs for Grand Prix cars before ;)

[Tomas Karlsson]

Was it Formule Libre or was it for cars conforming with the new International Formula (aka 'Formula 1')?

The race was for the new international formula. Organizers KAK and their front-figure prince Bertil was very anxious to place Sweden on the international racing scene. But neither the weather nor the public really helped them.
The only Swedish competitor was an old Bugatti 35 that had got a blown 2-litre engine down-sized to 1,5 litre for the event. There were faster cars and better drivers in Sweden at the time, that would have been happy if it had been a FLibre race.
The Vallentuna race two weeks later was also for Formula A, as I think it was called then.

[Bonde]

I thought this link might be of interest to this thread, as well as this one.