1956 1000 km Buenos Aires

The 1956 1000 km Buenos Aires took place on 29 January, on the Autódromo Municipal-Avenida Paz, (Buenos Aires, Argentina). It was the third running of the race, and once again, it was opening round of the F.I.A. World Sports Car Championship. For this event, a longer section of the Autopista General Pablo Riccheri route was removed, returning the circuit to 9.476km in length, as it was in 1954.

Report

Entry

A grand total of 32 racing cars were registered for this event, of which 28 arrived for practice and 27 for qualifying. Although this was the first major sports car race of the year, the race was poorly supported by the work of teams. Only Ferrari and Maserati sent cars from Europe. Both teams were represented by three cars in the race. Ferrari send a Ferrari 857 S for Olivier Gendebien and Phil Hill, and a pair of Ferrari 410 Sport Scaglietti Spyders for Juan Manuel Fangio/Eugenio Castellotti and Luigi Musso/Peter Collins. Meanwhile, Officine Alfieri Maserati was represented a trio of Maserati 300S in the hands of Stirling Moss/Carlos Menditéguy; Jean Behra/José Froilán González and Francisco Landi/Gerino Gerini. The remained of the field were cars from South American teams. [1]

Qualifying

After a three hour qualifying session held on the prior to the race, the local hero, Juan Manuel Fangio took pole position for Scuderia Ferrari, in their Ferrari 410 Sport. [2]

Race

Maserati 300S - similar to the car driven to victory by Moss/Menditéguy

The race was held over 106 laps of the 5.888 miles, Autódromo Municipal-Avenida Paz, giving a distance of 624.162 miles (1,004.490km). It was the winner of the 1955 race, Enrique Saenz Valiente who took an early lead from Fangio and Musso. By lap ten, both the works Ferrari had moved ahead of the privately-entered Ferrari 375 Plus of Valinete. On lap 20, Moss and Gendebien were also moving up the leaderboard. However, with just 20 laps left Gendebien were in the pits with problems, while Fangio’s car, now in the hands of Castellotti, was also in the pits following a collision with a dog. With the retirement of Musso just after half distance, the Maserati of Moss and Menditéguy was now in a clear lead. With his car now repaired, Fangio launches a relentless pursuit of the Maserati although the distance is too great and the Ferrari’s differential explodes into many pieces. [3][4][5]

As a result of Fangio’s retirement, Moss and Menditéguy in car number 31, took an impressive victory, winning in a time of 6hrs 29:37.9 mins., averaging a speed of 96.116mph. In second was the sole remaining Scuderia Ferrari of Gendebien and Hill, albeit two laps drift. The podium was complete by another works Maserati 300S, of Behra and González, who were a further three laps adrift. [6][7][8]

Official Classification

Class Winners are in Bold text.

Pos No Class Driver Entrant Chassis Laps Reason Out
1st 31 S3.0 United Kingdom Stirling Moss Argentina Carlos Menditéguy Officine Alfieri Maserati Maserati 300S 6hr 29:37.9, 106
2nd 36 S+3.0 Belgium Olivier Gendebien United States Phil Hill Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 857 S 104
3rd 32 S3.0 France Jean Behra Argentina José Froilán González Officine Alfieri Maserati Maserati 300S 101
4th 4 S1.5 Argentina Alejandro de Tomaso Argentina Carlo Tomasi Maserati 150S 97
5th 20 S2.0 Venezuela Enrique Muro Venezuela Julio Pola Ferrari 500 Mondial 93
6th 26 S3.0 Chile Eduardo Kovacs-Jones Chile Raúl Jaras Mercedes-Benz 300 SL 90
DNF 43 S+3.0 Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio Italy Eugenio Castellotti Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 410 Sport Scaglietti Spyder 89 Transmission
7th 6 S1.5 United States Isabelle Haskell Argentina Carlos Lostalo Maserati 150S 88
8th 24 S3.0 Argentina Angel Maiocchi Argentina Lucio Bollaert Ferrari 225 S 85
DNF 1 S1.5 Guatemala Jaroslav Juhan Argentina José Félix Lopes Porsche550 Spyder 72 Accident
9th 49 S+3.0 Argentina Franco Bruno Argentina Carlos Bruno Allard-Cadillac J2X 71
DISQ 3 S1.5 West Germany Curt Delfosse Argentina Pedro Escudero Gordini-Porsche T16 Special 70 Pushed through finish line
DNF 33 S3.0 Brazil Francisco Landi Italy Gerino Gerini Officine Alfieri Maserati Maserati 300S 68 Engine
DNF 44 S+3.0 Italy Luigi Musso United Kingdom Peter Collins Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 410 Sport Scaglietti Spyder 61 Differential
DNF 42 S+3.0 Argentina Roberto Bonomi Argentina Ernesto Florencio Castro Cranwell Ferrari 375 MM 59 Fire
DNF 34 S3.0 Argentina Luis Milan Argentina Ela Capotosti Ferrari 625 TF 44 Clutch
DNF 41 S+3.0 Brazil Celso Lara-Barberis Brazil Godofredo Vianna Ferrari 375 41 Engine
DNF 30 S3.0 Venezuela Lino Fayen Venezuela Joao Rozendo Dos Santos Scuderia Guastalla Ferrari 750 Monza Spyder Scaglietti 37 Raer axle
DNF 45 S+3.0 Argentina Enrique Saenz Valiente Argentina Jorge Camano Ferrari 375 Plus 35 Overheating
DNF 22 S2.0 Italy Maria Teresa de Filipis Maserati A6GCS 26 Accident
DNF 46 S+3.0 Argentina Carlos Najurieta Argentina Cesar Rivero Ferrari 375 MM 23 Gearbox
DNF 5 S1.5 Argentina Miguel Jantus Argentina Alberto Gomez Gordini T15S 22 Engine
DNF 23 S2.0 Argentina Ricardo Grandio Argentina Alberto Rodriguez-Larreta Maserati A6GCS 21
DNF 25 S3.0 Argentina Danilo Clapesssoni Argentina César Reyes Ferrari 225 Export 16 Engine
DNF 2 S1.5 Argentina Tomas Mayol Argentina Juan Gobbi Porsche 550 Spyder 14 Engine
DNF 21 S3.0 Uruguay Osvaldo Carballido Uruguay Elias Carballido Austin-Healey 100M 11 Fire
DNF 35 S+3.0 Argentina José M. Millet Argentina Miguel Schroeder Jaguar C-Type 3
DNS 40 S+3.0 France Jean Blanc
Argentina Pedro J. Llano
France Colette Duval Talbot-Lago T26GS

[9][10][11]


Class Winners

Class Winners
Sports +3000 36 Ferrari 857 S Gendebien / Hill
Sports 3000 31 Maserati 300S Moss / Menditéguy
Sports 2000 20 Ferrari 500 Mondial Muro / Pola
Sports 1500 4 Maserati 150S de Tomaso / Tomasi

[14]

Standings after the race

Pos Championship Points
1 Italy Maserati 8
2 Italy Ferrari 6
3 West Germany Mercedes-Benz 1

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Championship points were awarded for the first six places in each race in the order of 8-6-4-3-2-1. Manufacturers were only awarded points for their highest finishing car with no points awarded for positions filled by additional cars. Only the best 3 results out of the 5 races could be retained by each manufacturer. Points earned but not counted towards the championship totals are listed within brackets in the above table.

References


World Sportscar Championship
Previous race:
1955 Targa Florio
1956 season Next race:
12 Hours of Sebring