1929 Grand Prix season
In a close race between Williams’ Bugatti and the Mercedes-Benz SSK sports car of Rudolf Caracciola, it was decided by a botched pit-stop for the German.
[38] Nominally set up for seven races in seven countries, the planned World Championship was abandoned when most organisations disavowed the AIACR regulations.
One of the latest additions would gain great fame as an icon race: the brainchild of Antony Noghès, the 3 km Monaco circuit ran through the streets of Monte Carlo, from the port up to the famous hotel and casino then back, via a tunnel, along the waterfront.
He won the season opener at Tunis, beating home Baconin Borzacchini in the works Maserati and Tazio Nuvolari, now building his own racing team.
Italian interest in these essentially French affairs brought drivers with their Alfa Romeos and Maseratis making up diverse fields rather than just being a Bugatti procession.
Goffredo Zehender, Pietro Ghersi and Louis Rigal led the Alfa Romeo challenge while German Rudolf Caracciola arrived in his 7-litre Mercedes-Benz SSK sports car.
[47] After a wet practice, race day was sunny and a huge crowd thronged the circuit and watching from hotel balconies.
Caracciola had a farcical pitstop when the jack slipped off the tramline it was resting on and dropped the car, then the hammer used to knock the wheel off broke.
[48][47] Later in the year, Caracciola took his car to Northern Ireland and, in the rain in front of over 500,000 spectators, won the RAC Tourist Trophy from a field of 65 starters.
[39][40][49] The Mille Miglia sports car race had been held the same weekend, won by Giuseppe Campari for Alfa Romeo.
A week later a big field of 33 cars lined up for the race at Alessandria, now known as the Coppa Pietro Bordino after the death the year before of the great Italian driver.
Bugatti had dominated the race with victories in the past four years and the company entered a strong team of four drivers all in the 2-litre Type 35C: race-winner Albert Divo, Louis Wagner, Ferdinando Minoia and Caberto Conelli.
[47] Following the example set the year before, by Eliška Junková, of meticulous preparation, both the Bugatti and Alfa Romeo teams arrived during the month beforehand for extensive practice.
George Stewart (racing under his pseudonym “Leon Duray”), with his team sponsored by Packard Cable, had Ralph Hepburn and Tony Gulotta alongside him.
Additional interest was generated with the entry of two French cars: Grand prix winner Louis Chiron ran a 1.5-litre supercharged Delage while Jules Moriceau had an Amilcar.
[53] Once again, the front-wheel drive Millers proved very fast in practice, taking four of the top-five spots in qualifying with Cliff Woodbury claiming pole position and Leon Duray and Ralph Hepburn joining him on the front row.
He pitted with just two laps, Moore got back in to nurse it to the finish but only made it to turn two before being stopped with a broken connecting rod.
Brilli-Peri was the sole representative of the Scuderia Materassi but on the long straights, his Talbot was powerful enough to take a flag-to-flag victory.
Thrown out of the car, he landed below on the stones of a dry river bed, fortunately only suffering mild back injuries.
Boillot led at the end of the first lap, however his Peugeot teammate was stranded out on the circuit with a faulty magneto and it would take him an hour to get back to the pits.
The two continued to swap the lead until Boillot had to pit on lap 12 to fix a loose ignition wire, losing ground.
[59] The Coppa Ciano was northern Italy's equivalent to the Targa Florio, run on the mountainous Montenero circuit near Livorno.
Varzi kept pressing building a lead and the race was decided on the eighth lap when Brilli-Peri had to pit and lost two places.
[60] In Spain, the field for the San Sebastián Grand Prix was filled with Bugattis Type 35Bs and Cs, except for the single Alfa Romeo belonging to Luigi Platé.
Chiron, having recently won the German GP (for sports cars), had pole position but it was “Philippe” who took the lead, just ahead of Chilean Juan Zanelli.
Swiss-Italian Fritz Caflisch had an S-model, while the Daimler-Benz works team sent August Momberger in an SSK tourer and Adolf Rosenberger in a 1921 Targa Florio model, with its venerable 1914 4.5-litre Mercedes engine, now supercharged.
Instead he took Bourlier's place in the second heat, which started badly for Varzi who had to stop after one lap to secure his radiator cap that had been left open.
Maserati had steadily built a 20-second lead by halfway then, knowing he would qualify, eased off to be pipped at the line by Momberger's Mercedes.
A fortnight later on the long straights to the east of Cremona, Borzacchini took the Maserati V4 and set a record on the 10 km trial, with an average speed of 246 km/h, 20 km/h faster than Brilli-Peri in the Alfa P2.
[68] At the end of the year, “Leon Duray” arranged with Jean Bugatti to swap his two front-wheel-drive Millers for three 2.3-litre Type 43 sports cars.
