6
INTERNATIONAL
AUTO RACING
THE FIRST AUTO RACE IN CUBA WAS HELD IN HAVANA IN 1903, HOSTED BY THE HAVANA AUTOMOBILE CLUB. FIVE CARS WERE ENTERED, INCLUDING AT LEAST ONE GERMAN MERCEDES AND A FRENCH DARRACQ. DÁMASO LAINÉ, DRIVING THE DARRACQ, WON WITH HIS WIFE RIDING IN THE PASSENGER SEAT.
THE COUNTRY’S SECOND RACE WAS IN 1905 AND WAS SANCTIONED BY THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUTOMOBILE RACING. IT INCLUDED DRIVERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD WHO COMPETED ON A 99-MILE COURSE. ERNESTO CARRICABURU, THE SAME MAN WHO WOULD BRING TEN MODEL TS TO CUBA TO BEGIN A TAXI BUSINESS A DECADE LATER, WON IN A MERCEDES WITH AN AVERAGE SPEED OF 53 MILES PER HOUR. CARRICABURU’S SPEED WAS A WORLD RECORD AT THE TIME. HE ALSO SET A RECORD FOR DRIVING FROM HAVANA TO MATANZAS, ABOUT 68 MILES APART, IN JUST ONE HOUR AND TWELVE MINUTES.
Juan Manuel Fangio (in a Maserati 330S) leads Peter Collins (in a Ferrari 500TR) through Havana’s streets. Collection of Bill Warner
Cuba’s first horseracing track, Parque Oriental, also known as the Hippodrome, began promoting auto racing events in 1916. This photo is from a 1918 event. University of Miami, Cuban Heritage Collection
Driver Marcelino Amador and teammates in their Cadillac-powered race cars at the Parque Oriental race in 1918. University of Miami, Cuban Heritage Collection
Auto racing became more popular, and in 1907, events were held on the La Sierra horseracing track in Havana instead of on public roads. As in the modern era, races were held in order to market vehicles to consumers—or as we call it today, “win on Sunday, sell on Monday.” The more cars that were sold, the more races were held.
In 1925, five drivers competed in a speed record attempt to drive 531 miles, starting in Santiago de Cuba and ending in Havana. It took the winner just over nine days to go the distance, as drivers battled torrential rains and flooding along the route. Newspapers called the drivers heroes. A year later, four drivers competed in a similar race, taking just under three days to go the same distance.
STOCK CARS
Most of the cars that competed in early Cuban auto races were cut-down, open-wheel affairs with either one or two seats. These were early predecessors of today’s Formula One and Indy race cars. But occasionally races were held for “stock-bodied” cars.
Roberto Vegas was considered one of Cuba’s top drivers from the 1930s until the 1950s. His most successful mount? Not a lightweight coupe or roadster, but a 1928 seven-passenger Lincoln sedan. The behemoth vehicle was supposedly built for a Chicago gangster and had bulletproof glass and armor plating installed. Somehow the car wound up in Cuba in 1930 and was used by then-president Gerardo Machado. Later, the car sat behind a Lincoln dealership, then was sold to a junkyard for scrap.
Vegas, seeing potential in the giant, stripped it of its heavy glass and armor plating and turned it into a race car. He souped up the original V-12 engine, painted the black sedan yellow, and began winning races against cars that were seemingly much lighter and faster. In one stretch of seventeen races, Vegas won ten in the gargantuan Lincoln. He often started dead last, because he volunteered to use his car to “push-start” the race cars of other competitors whose engines refused to fire.
Stock-car racing was popular in Cuba for decades. Here, in a race on downtown Havana streets, are a 1956 Ford Victoria and a 1957 Chevy sports cedan. University of Miami, Cuban Heritage Collection
MIDGETS AND “BIG CARS”
Just prior to World War II, much of the racing taking place in Cuba actually originated in the Northeast United States. The owners of Midget race cars—smaller-scale open-wheel racers, most often powered by V-8 60 Ford flathead engines but occasionally by twin-cam Offenhauser power plants—were encouraged to come to Havana and race their cars during the winter months in 1939 and 1940.
A hotbed of Midget racing, Freeport Raceway on Long Island advertised that drivers could race in Cuba three nights per week during the months of February, March, and April. Not a bad proposition for snowbound racers who were counting the days until Northeast races began again.
Havana’s races often were staged in the Stadium Tropical, but occasionally on beaches as well. Most drivers traveled to Cuba from New York and Tampa, Florida, but occasionally drivers traveled from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and even Canada. Even if they didn’t win, drivers considered it an all-expenses-paid vacation.
POST–WORLD WAR II, CUBA’S RACING ERA
New York racing promotors Jake Kedenburg and Duke Donaldson were encouraged to begin bringing American drivers to Cuba after the war. The site of most prewar races, La Tropical stadium, was not available because of a heavy baseball schedule, so races were conducted at Autódromo Nacional, a half-mile track that was suitable for sprint cars, stock cars, midgets, and motorcycles.
American drivers were guaranteed US$50 per week as appearance money if they raced against Cuban drivers in Havana. Unlike in prewar years, the US drivers mostly rented rides in Cuban-owned cars, thereby keeping their travel expenses to a minimum. Some of the standout American drivers who ventured south included Buzz Barton, Speed Wynn, and Pete Folse.
The six-race series was considered a success, with the Cuban drivers showing that they had become as talented as their American competitors.
Interestingly, one of the most renowned American drivers of the era, Tommy Hinnershitz, and his number one sprint car were featured on the cover of the race program for the December 16, 1951, Autódromo Nacional races, but there is no record of Hinnershitz ever racing in Cuba.
ROAD RACING ATTRACTS TOURISTS
After controversial dictator Fulgencio Batista’s coup made him the leader of Cuba in 1952, he sought to expand Cuba’s presence in all forms of sport. He built soccer and baseball fields, running tracks, swimming pools, and gymnasiums throughout the country, allowing citizens to use these facilities at no charge.
Tall and narrow, a Jaguar XK120 speeds along the long Malecón main straightaway. The outside wall separates the race cars from the water below. Collection of Bill Warner
Seeing how the popularity of road races such as the Bahamas Speed Week and events in Argentina and Sebring, Florida, were attracting tourists, Batista put plans in place to host international races in Cuba. The Cuban Sporting Commission (CSC) met with officials of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) in Europe to schedule a race after the Caracas and Bahamas races but before Argentina and Sebring.
A date of February 25, 1955, was chosen, and a series of sports and stock car races were held through the streets of old Havana and on the scenic Malecón, a wide, elevated highway above the ocean in Havana. A roughly 3 1/2-mile circuit was designed to run counterclockwise along a mostly straight route with a few left-hand turns.
But the FIA was concerned about Cuba hosting an internationally sanctioned Grand Prix, having never hosted a race before, so they rejected Cuba’s request. Because of the horrific accident that occurred at the 1955 Le Mans race in June—when a Mercedes-Benz race car vaulted into the grandstands, killing eighty-three spectators—the organization was concerned about driver and spectator safety, given the proposed course’s tall curbing and potentially high speeds.
After the FIA denied request after request from Cuba to host a non-championship Grand Prix, a World Sports Car Manufacturers Championship race, and a 1,000-kilometer endurance event, the governing organization finally approved a 500-kilometer non-championship race for sports and stock cars to be held on February 25, 1957.
Prior to the FIA-sanctioned events, Cuba had hosted its own series of events, called the Cuban National Races—which included the Pinar del Rio–Havana rally, among others—from 1954 until 1956. The long-distance rallies were driven on public roads, some as long as 187 miles. They attracted mostly Cuban drivers in cars ranging from MG TDs and Jaguars to Lincoln and Buick sedans.
Longtime journalist and automotive PR guy Bob Fendell was issued these (misspelled) credentials so he could cover the 1957 Cuban Grand Prix for the New York World-Telegram. Collection of Bill Warner
THE GRAND PRIX BECOMES REALITY: THE 1957 CUBAN GRAND PRIX
Cuban sports officials had the foresight to realize that nobody in that country had the connections to attract top racing talent to their first Grand Prix. So three “agents” were hired to help convince the top teams to participate. The Automobile Club of Milan (Italy) was in charge of attracting teams from Europe; driver Juan Manuel Fangio’s manager, Marcello Giambertone, had the responsibility to recruit South American teams; and US Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti was in charge of Ferrari entries.
The organizers agreed that Fangio needed to be an entrant. Besides being considered a racing god in South America after winning multiple Grand Prix titles for both Mercedes and Ferrari, his entry would add legitimacy to the entire event. Fangio had left the Ferrari team at the end of the 1956 season, so he would be competing in a Maserati 300S in Havana. Some of the other well-known drivers committed to the race were Stirling Moss (Maserati 300S), Carroll Shelby (Ferrari 410 Sport), Phil Hill (Ferrari 860 Monza) and Masten Gregory (Ferrari 500 TR).
Poster design for the 1958 Grand Prix. Motorbooks collection
Cuban organizers decided that only World Sports Car Manufacturers Championship cars would be invited, meaning no production-based vehicles—such as the Mercedes-Benz 300SL—could participate. Also, no American-powered Ferraris or Maseratis could enter. (American engines transplanted into Italian sports cars was a popular modification in the United States at the time.) The organizers were only interested in genuine Ferraris and Maseratis competing. Further, race cars under two liters were not invited, meaning that Porsches and OSCAs could not compete, because it was feared the smaller-horsepower cars would have an extreme disadvantage in the high-speed Malecón circuit.
In the days leading up to race day, most of the drivers made laps around the circuit in their street cars to become familiar with the layout. On the Friday before the race, practice sessions began with drivers in their race cars. Some drivers complained of some nasty bumps and rough patches brought on by the high heat drawing the oil up from the pavement. Additionally, because water flowed beneath the elevated road surface, sections of the pavement continually became undermined. Road crews worked feverishly to keep the road surface in good shape for the race.
The FIA required that the Automobile Club of Milan be contracted to provide communications, race control, and logistics for the Cuban organizers because of the host’s lack of experience.
When race day finally arrived, Cuban fans were thrilled to see the high-powered cars at speed. Fangio started on the pole, followed by Alfonso de Portago, Phil Hill, and Harry Schell. At the standing start, Hill stalled on the grid, which left his car momentarily powerless and a dangerous obstacle for the other racers to navigate around. Carroll Shelby’s very powerful Ferrari launched into the lead for one lap, but the ill-handling car spun at the first turn on lap two, and he fell back to fourth. Moss dropped out early when his oil pressure dropped to zero because of a ruptured oil line in his Maserati.
Olivier Gendebien in the Ferrari 500TR owned by Bill Helburn. He qualified ninth and finished fifth. Helburn was a terrible driver, so Gendebien did all the work. Collection of Bill Warner
Drivers in the race were recording lap times in the 2.4-minute range, about the same as Fangio’s pole qualifying lap.
By the middle of the race, de Portago was leading with Fangio, the only other car on the lead lap, close behind, probably waiting for the leader to pit before attempting to take the lead. Fangio had started with a heavy load of fuel and was biding his time and conserving his brakes before making his move. Shelby was in third, one lap down, followed by Castellotti, Gendebien, and Gregory.
After leading much of the race, Alfonso de Portago’s Ferrari 860 Monza finished third. In the process, he turned the race’s fastest lap. Collection of Bill Warner
Carroll Shelby muscles the Ferrari 410 Sport to a second-place finish behind the Maestro, Juan Fangio. Collection of Bill Warner
Marquis Alfonso de Portago awaits the start of the 1957 Grand Prix, delayed by rain. Collection of Bill Warner
De Portago came into the pits on lap sixty-nine of the ninety-lap race with fuel pressure problems; his fuel line had cracked, and his car suddenly slowed to a crawl. As mechanics feverishly worked on his car, de Portago screamed, cursed, and banged on the car for them to get the job done until Luigi Chinetti pleaded with him to stop his tirade.
As de Portago sat in the pits for more than five minutes, Fangio, who had inherited the lead, passed the pits twice. When de Portago finally reentered the race, nearly three laps down to Fangio and two to Shelby, the PA announcer had the Cuban crowd in a frenzy cheering on the Spanish driver. De Portago passed Shelby and Fangio once, but the race was too short to make up any more laps on the leader. During his frenzy to make up for his lengthy pit stop, de Portago recorded the race’s fastest lap of 2 minutes, 1.1 seconds.
Fangio held on to the lead and won the 500-kilometer race in 3 hours, 11 minutes for an average speed of 98.2 miles per hour. Shelby finished second and de Portago was third.
President Batista was on hand to award Fangio a gold trophy. However, on his way back to his mansion after the race, the leader’s limo was caught in traffic caused by people leaving the event. Fans shouted for Batista to help find them jobs. His police escort began to beat the spectators and fired gunshots into the air to scatter the crowd.
It was an unfortunate ending to an otherwise wonderful day.
After the award ceremony, de Portago complained loudly that he had been robbed—that he should have won the race. The crowd started to cheer for him, at which point race winner Fangio came over and put his winner’s wreath around de Portago’s neck. The crowd went wild and de Portago became embarrassed at all the attention.
Of the seventeen starters, only eight cars were still running at the race’s conclusion.
1958 CUBAN GRAND PRIX: A RACE OF CALAMITY
An FIA rules change for 1958 put a maximum engine displacement at three liters for that year’s race, which meant the big-engined Ferraris and Maseratis were relegated out of the series.
Another notable difference was that three drivers who had competed in the inaugural Cuban Grand Prix the year before—Eugenio Castellotti, Alfonso de Portago, and Piero Carini—had died during that season.
After Cuba had proven itself by hosting a successful Grand Prix, the FIA granted the country the rights to conduct a second race in 1958. The length would be the same (ninety laps), as would the prize money (US$1,500 for first place, $1,000 for second, and $500 for third, fourth, and fifth—plus another $500 for winning the pole position). A growing concern for race organizers was the increasing unrest caused by the Communists, who were upset that the inaugural Grand Prix had been a success in all regards. The Communists complained that the races siphoned money away from social programs, such as finding employment for unemployed farm workers, and warned an accident like the Le Mans Mercedes-Benz crash could easily happen in Cuba. Suddenly politicians began talking about a ban on auto racing on Cuban roads. Many also feared that the Communists would booby-trap or otherwise disrupt the race activities.
This unidentified beauty poses against Wolfgang Von Trips’s Ferrari 315S prior to the start of the 1958 Grand Prix. Perhaps she rubbed on some good luck, because Von Trips finished fourth. Collection of Bill Warner
Juan Fangio won his fifth and final world championship by the end of 1957 and announced his retirement from full-time racing. He decided, at forty-seven years old, to enter only a couple of races in 1958, then leave the sport for good. He would only compete in races that meant a lot to him during his farewell tour, and Cuba was certainly on that list.
Fangio received $5,000 appearance money and agreed to race a Maserati owned by American architect and car collector Temple Buell in the Cuban event.
As the race neared, rumors and media speculation that the Communists would attempt to disrupt the race began circulating. There were whispers that bombs would be placed around the circuit and that tacks and oily liquids would be put in fast corners. Communists passed out leaflets warning spectators to stay indoors; foreign drivers were assigned bodyguards, and there was a heavy police and military presence around the circuit.
De Portago on the outside in the No. 12 Ferrari 410 races wheel-to-wheel against Juan Fangio in the No. 2 Maserati in the turn at the end of the long Malecón straightaway, 1957. Collection of Bill Warner
Cubans knew that Communists were often bearded men, so anyone with facial hair was viewed suspiciously. In an embarrassing episode, Finnish driver Jo Bonnier was arrested because he sported a beard and held for several hours of questioning before being released.
Separately, the overall health of Cuba’s racing administration was put to the test during pre-race activities, and it was in shambles. Nobody seemed to be in charge of driver registration, and workers were afraid to make decisions. Because Cuba had hosted a successful event twelve months earlier, the FIA rescinded the requirement to contract the Automobile Club of Milan to operate all aspects of race control. The Cuban organizers thought this would be an ideal way to save money, but the foolhardiness of that decision was becoming more apparent every day.
Peter Collins, in Howard Hively’s Ferrari 500TR, finished fourth overall. Collection of Bill Warner
There was also concern from the start about the race’s infrastructure. There was no radio communication around the circuit, and few ambulances and medical personnel were present.
When practice began, drivers complained of some amazingly slippery turns. It was suspected that some of the stock car races that were held earlier in the day may have oiled down the track. During practice, cars were sliding off the track and slamming curbs, and without proper radio communication and flags to warn the drivers, it kept happening over and over.
A local driver, Diego Veguilla, died when his car’s steering broke at high speed along the Malecón straightaway. His car flipped and hit a light pole, and Veguilla was thrown from his car into the pole and died instantly. The car’s gas tank broke from the car and caught on fire, yet because communications were so bad, emergency personnel weren’t notified of the severity of the accident. Few timing and scoring people were experienced, and stopwatches were in short supply. As a result, lap times were estimated. A professional timekeeper from Sebring arrived with a state-of-the-art stopwatch setup, which featured a split-time function, but halfway through Sunday morning’s practice, the timing unit fell from its shelf onto concrete 10 feet below and was destroyed.
Despite all of this, Fangio was recorded fastest with a 1 minute, 59 second lap, decisively faster than one year earlier. Moss went out late in qualifying with fresh tires and minimum fuel and cut a lap of 1 minute, 58 seconds. All other competitors were 2 minutes or more.
Race activities on the morning of February 24, 1958, began with the Cuban National Races for sports and stock cars. Cars such as Edsels, Studebakers, and Dodges competed in the stock car class, with Porsches and Mercedes 300SLs entered in various sports car classes.
Before the race, the pit and paddock areas were in turmoil, with scores of race fans disrupting drivers and mechanics making last-minute adjustments.
Race control was in complete chaos. The organizers had only two stopwatches before one fell onto the concrete and was stepped on. One of the two experienced timers had to leave for the United States, and a small, rag-tag group of inexperienced volunteers offered to help.
Communication around the circuit was almost nonexistent, and attending journalists described the scene as unrestrained bedlam.
With no sign of Fangio, driver Maurice Trintignant was offered the pole-qualifying car to race, but he would start from the fifth row.
Finally, after a confusing two-hour delay in the race start, the ninety-lap Grand Prix of Cuba took the green at 3:20 p.m. As a result of the delay spent idling in the heat, some cars overheated and others fouled spark plugs. The air was filled with smoke and unburned fuel as the front rows took off down the Malecón.
Masten Gregory shot ahead, followed by Stirling Moss and Phil Hill.
Several cars dropped oil around the circuit, and without any means of communication, no oil flags were displayed. The field slowed down as cautious drivers feared wrecking their cars.
On lap six, Armando Garcia Cifuentes lost control at a high-speed corner near the American Embassy, jumped the curb, and plowed into a group of spectators. Six spectators were killed and at least forty others were injured.
Fangio on his way to victory in the 1957 Cuban GP. Collection of Bill Warner
A red flag (to stop the race) was displayed, but because race control was out of sight, personnel could only guess that something was wrong on the other end of the track. Finally Phil Hill and Bob Said stopped at race control to inform them of what had happened. Gregory and Moss passed the accident, with leader Gregory slowing down and Moss taking the lead under the red flag.
The race lasted just six laps and thirteen minutes.
Moss was declared the winner, with Gregory in second. Gregory was upset because Moss had passed him under a red flag, which was usually not legal, but Moss reminded him that under international racing rules, a red flag could only be displayed at the start-finish line. The two men decided to split the first- and second-place prize money equally, each receiving $2,250, which seemed to satisfy both parties.
Carroll Shelby finished third, followed by Wolfgang von Trips and Harry Schell.
1960 CUBAN GRAND PRIX:CUBA’S LAST INTERNATIONAL RACE
Communist revolutionaries continued to try to convince Cuban citizens that they would be better off supporting their movement than Batista’s right-wing dictatorship. Finally, on New Year’s Day, 1959, Batista fled to the Dominican Republic, taking an estimated US$500 million in gold reserves with him.
Castro had won, but the Cuban economy was in shambles and getting worse by the day as foreign investment ground to a halt.
Despite the 1958 Grand Prix debacle, road racing continued for Cuban drivers in sports and stock cars at La Cayuga airport in San Antonio de los Baños and in the Marianao section of Havana in 1958 and 1959. However, these races were poorly organized and attended, and because they were held on an active airport runway, they were halted any time a plane approached for a landing.
No Grand Prix was considered in 1959. But West Palm Beach racing organizer Ken Coleman approached the Castro regime about the possibility of hosting another race in Cuba as a way to spur tourism, which had declined rapidly after the Communist takeover. Castro’s government was anxious to show that the country was still a viable tourist destination and supported the idea. The race was scheduled for February 28, 1960.
Coleman and his team determined that to improve spectator and driver safety, the Malecón was no longer a viable circuit and a new venue needed to be found. After an exhaustive search, a 3.1-mile circuit at Camp Liberty was chosen. The camp, outside of Havana, was formerly known as La Cayuga, a World War II–era US airbase that was named by its designers after the lake in New York where several of them had grown up. The course would use some runways and some airport access roads, a few of which ran along the Havana Country Club. Spectator safety was paramount in the minds of the organizers, so retaining fences were erected with plenty of run-off area between the course and spectator areas.
The race was to be sixty-five laps in length, about 202 miles.
The FIA was leery about granting the Cuban Grand Prix an international sanction because of the disastrous 1958 race. Not surprisingly, they required assurances that an adequate communications system, with trained flagmen and corner workers, be secured before that sanction would be granted.
One of the preliminary races during the 1960 Havana Speed Week was for Formula Juniors. The rapid, lightweight cars were considered a steppingstone to Formula One. Collection of Bill Warner
Giacomo Russo, No. 42, drove his Stanguellini Formula Junior to seventh and second place in the weekend’s two races, to finish third in the aggregate. Henri Grandsire in the No. 12 Stanguellini had problems, with only a last-place finish in one race. Collection of Bill Warner
Stirling Moss and Pedro Rodriguez would be paid US$5,000 each in appearance monies, and an all-star cast of other internationally known drivers was expected to participate as well.
In the twenty-four months since Cuba had last hosted an international race, much had changed in the sports car racing world. Maserati and Aston Martin no longer fielded factory teams, and Ferrari was not inclined to sell modern race cars to private teams. Porsche was eager to sell cars, but they could only dominate a race like this if there were many corners, not on the high-speed straights of the airport circuit.
A week before the Grand Prix, a Formula Junior race was held for cars that were considered a steppingstone to Grand Prix race cars. Not many American teams attended because Stanguellini importer Briggs Cunningham was protesting the Cuban event over the Castro government taking control of a Cunningham-owned business in Cuba. Most entries came from South America, Italy, and France. Ken Coleman wrote to the FIA at the conclusion of the Junior race, informing the sanctioning body of his dissatisfaction with the race’s management and asking that it be rectified.
On Wednesday of Havana Speed Week, sandwiched between the Formula Junior race on one weekend and concluding with the Grand Prix the next, a GT race was held for production-based cars such as the Mercedes 300SL and Corvette. Jim Jeffords in a Corvette was the class of the field, running on a lap of his own. Second-place Alfonso Gomez Mena finished more than one minute behind Jeffords in his Ferrari.
Odd Bedfellows: a Gemini-brand Formula Junior racecar shares the paddock with a machine-gun-toting military vehicle during the 1960 Grand Prix. Collection of Bill Warner
Jim Rathmann in the No. 3 Camoradi Corvette chases down Allen Markelson’s No. 23 Ferrari 500 TR on the 1960 road course, which was constructed on runways and service roads around La Cayuga Airport. Collection of Bill Warner
American Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) standout Jim Jeffords entered the 1960 Cuban Grand Prix. Competing in a Corvette against more exotic Maseratis and Ferraris, Jeffords finished on the lead lap in ninth place. Collection of Bill Warner
Press releases were issued by the organizers as the second weekend approached, announcing that a field of forty-five cars was entered in the Grand Prix.
The fastest driver in the first practice was Jack Brabham in a Cooper Monaco, followed by George Constantine, also in a Cooper Monaco, and Pedro Rodriguez in a Ferrari. During the second practice, Stirling Moss recorded the fastest lap in a Camoradi USA Maserati Tipo 61, four seconds faster than Brabham.
Jack Brabham installed a larger fuel tank in his Cooper Monaco, so the required spare tire had to be moved and secured in the passenger compartment. Collection of Bill Warner
During what appeared to be an otherwise faultless racing week, driver Ettore Chimeri crashed his Ferrari into a cyclone wire fence during practice after the car fishtailed, likely due to faulty brakes. It tumbled over the fence and down a 150-foot embankment. Chimeri died on the scene.
Just one hour before the start of the Grand Prix on Sunday, race organizers informed competitors that their race would be shortened from sixty-five laps to fifty laps in order to accommodate a race for Cuban stock cars afterward. The order had come from Fidel Castro himself, and promoter Coleman reluctantly obliged. The Grand Prix race would now be just 155 miles as opposed to the original 202 miles. Records are unclear as to how many drivers actually started the Grand Prix; just before the start of the event, forty-four drivers were said to be ready to take the green flag, but afterwards, that number was reduced to forty-one starters, then to thirty-eight.
The race started as advertised at 3:00 p.m., when the drivers were given the signal to sprint across the track in a Le Mans–style start. It is estimated that between seventy thousand and one hundred thousand fans attended that hot, sunny day.
Maurice Trintignant’s Maserati leads George Constantine’s Cooper Monaco. Collection of Bill Warner
Masten Gregory in contemplation before buckling himself into his Porsche RSK. Collection of Bill Warner
Moss was first across the track, jumping into his Maserati and sprinting off. Masten Gregory was not so lucky; as he jumped into his Porsche, one of his legs went between the steering wheel spokes and became jammed. It took almost forty-five seconds for Gregory to extricate his leg from the steering wheel and get under way; some say that it took so long because he was laughing so hard at his clumsiness. Other drivers having issues included Indy ace Rodger Ward, whose Ferrari wouldn’t start, and Eddie Sachs, whose Chevy-powered special flooded its carburetor.
Moss led from the start and was as much as forty-five seconds ahead of Rodriguez’s Ferrari when he slowed down to a ten-second lead, partly because his seat mount had broken but partly to add some excitement to the race. He won the race with Pedro Rodriguez in second, the only two drivers to go the full fifty-lap distance. The third- and fourth-place finishers were Masten Gregory and Huschke van Heinstein, respectively, both in Porsche RSKs.
American Dan Gurney, whose Maserati’s differential failed, sat in the pits until the last lap, when he sputtered around the circuit to take the checkered flag. But because he failed to complete the minimum twenty-five laps, his finish was disqualified.
Porsche RSK drivers Fritz d’Orey (No. 37) and Huschke von Hanstein try to chase down Stirling Moss’s Maserati in the far distance. Collection of Bill Warner
Mexican standout Ricardo Rodriguez kneels next to his Porsche RSK prior to the race’s start, seemingly installing a decal. Rodriguez did not finish due to clutch problems. Collection of Bill Warner
Dan Gurney (left) and Stirling Moss, both early in their racing careers, seem to be discussing strategy prior to the start of the Grand Prix. Collection of Bill Warner
CHECKERED FLAG
The 1960 race was seen as a success by the organizers and the fans. In fact, promoter Coleman and his associates suggested that a similar event be conducted the following year. But the Castro government thought otherwise.
A sport that had been part of Cuba’s history since 1903—and that had brought drivers, teams, and tourists from around the world—was suddenly viewed as “frivolous and had no social value” by the new government. Racing would continue to be enjoyed in other parts of the world, but the checkered flag that fell on March 2, 1960, ended international racing in Cuba forever.
Rodger Ward in the Ferrari 250 TR he shared with a young Dan Gurney to finish fourteenth overall in the 1960 GP. Collection of Bill Warner
Stirling Moss and Maserati team chief mechanic Guerino Bertocchi taking a victory lap after Moss won the Grand Prix. Collection of Bill Warner
Stirling Moss in his Maserati gets a wave-by from Fausto Gonzalez de Chavez in a Jaguar XKSS. Collection of Bill Warner
Huschke van Heinstein finished fourth overall in the Porsche RSK. Collection of Bill Warner
A rare car anywhere in the world, this Triumph Vitesse convertible is a six-cylinder version of the four-cylinder Herald. This beauty doubles as a taxi.