Photo: Ed McDonough
On May 27-28, the streets of Monaco filled with the sounds of racecars… historic racecars. Six previous Grand Prix winners were there to entertain a small crowd of about 5000 who turned out for the second Monaco Historic Races which preceded the annual Grand Prix by one week.
In the pre-1934 Grand Prix cars event, Julian Majzub’s rapid Bugatti ran away from the field while in the pre-1952 GP race; UK’s Barrie “Whizzo” Williams put on a stunning performance after stalling on the grid to bring his green ERA from last to 3rd – getting all four wheels off the ground in more than one spot.
The sports car event saw a stunning defeat for the male ego as German racer Claudia Hurtgen absolutely hurled her Maserati 300S away from pole to control the sports car race for the whole distance. Frank Sytner chased in a Ferrari 250TR, with Flavien Marcais in his C-Type Jag not far behind.
Martin Stretton, in a Ferrari 555 Supersqualo, had a 12-second win over von Schenk’s 250F Maserati in the pre-1961 GP car race; but the best race of all was for pre-1966 rear-engine Grand Prix cars. Duncan Dayton, in the ex-Bob Anderson Brabham BT11 led from the start, but there was a terrific battle behind between Paul Alexander’s BRM 261 and James King’s Brabham BT7. In 7th place, giving a hard time to Malcolm Rickett’s Lotus 32B, was Stirling Moss in a Cooper T-53. Moss put in one of his best performances ever in a historic event, driving the Cooper much quicker than any 70 year old should be able to! Too bad that Maurice Trintignant, who practiced a Cooper T45, decided to rest on his laurels – though at 82, perhaps that may not have been a bad idea!
Finally, the Merlyn of Denis Welch was indecently quick in the Formula Junior thrash, but there were hard battles all the way down the varied and intriguing field, with many historically significant ex-Monaco racecars taking part.
Submitted By Ed McDonough
