1953 Carrera Panamericana
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The 1953 Carrera Panamericana was the fourth running of the Carrera Panamericana Mexican sports car racing event, and the first edition as a part of the World Sportscar Championship. The race was run from Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, over 8 stages and 3,077 kilometres (1,912 mi).[1] 182 cars started the race, and 60 finished all 8 stages. The race was won by Juan Manuel Fangio and Gino Bronzoni in a works-entered Lancia D24. The pair finished the race in 18 hours and 11 minutes, averaging 169.221 kilometres per hour (105.149 mph).

Race

Both Lancia and Lincoln came to the race highly organized and both factories swept 1–2–3 finishes in their respective categories. The Europeans dominated the sports categories, and the Americans the stock. Large Sports Cars was won by Juan Manuel Fangio of Argentina and Gino Bronzoni of Italy in a Lancia, Small Sports Cars by José Herrarte and Carlos González from Guatemala in a Porsche. Large Stock Cars was won by Chuck Stevenson and Clay Smith of the United States in a Lincoln and Small Stock Cars by C.D. Evans and Walter Krause, Jr., also of the U.S., in a six-cylinder Chevrolet. Stevenson has the distinction of being the only person to ever win twice in the original race.

The race was marred by the death of a number of competitors. The co-driver and pacenote systems championed by the Mercedes-Benz teams of the previous year were vindicated by the failure of an alternative system used by some other works drivers, notably those of Lancia. During pre-race runs of the route at much safer speeds, Felice Bonetto and Piero Taruffi, winner of the 1951 edition of the race, painted warning signals on the road to remind themselves of particular hazards. This resulted in the death of Bonetto who, leading the race under pressure from Taruffi, missed his own warning signs. Entering the village of Silao, he encountered rough pavement at excessive speed and impacted a building, killing him instantly.

Results

Class winners are marked in bold.
Pos Class No. Entrant Driver(s) Car Stages Time
1 S+1.6 36 Scuderia Lancia Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio
Italy Gino Bronzoni Lancia D24 Pinin Farina 8 18:11:00

2 S+1.6 22 Scuderia Lancia Italy Piero Taruffi
Italy Luigi Maggio Lancia D24 Pinin Farina 8 18:18:51

3 S+1.6 38 Scuderia Lancia Italy Eugenio Castellotti
Italy Carlo Luoni Lancia D23 Pinin Farina 8 18:24:52

4 S+1.6 26 Scuderia Guastalla Italy Guido Mancini
Italy Fabrizio Serena di Lapigio Ferrari 375 MM Pinin Farina Berlinetta 8 19:40:29

5 S+1.6 6 Club Francia Amigos de la Panamericana France Louis Rosier Talbot-Lago T26GS 8 20:11:22

6 S+1.6 23 Scuderia Guastalla Italy Mario Ricci
Italy Forese Salviati Ferrari 375 MM Pinin Farina Berlinetta 8 20:16:28

I bought this unique Pre-Carrera from a old Italien Heuer-Collector , perhaps it was the part of a Italien-race-team on the 1953 Carrera Panamerica race in Mexico, where the 5 of the first 6 placed teams came from Italy !!

Enjoy the pics... Jasper[/red