1936 Pau Grand Prix: the first of the season

The road racing season is with us once -more. Alfas, Bugattis, Maseratis, sleek, multi-coloured racing cars are playing those heart-stirring tunes of rising and falling exhaust notes. And it all started at Pau.

The A.C. Basco-Bearnais had planned a tricky little circuit for their race on March 1st. A shade under 3 kilometres in length, it was never straight for a moment, and was even more sinuous than Monaco. The organisers had spent a good deal of money in resurfacing the road, which was in a fair condition except on a certain downhill stretch that was not easy to negotiate when braking hard for the corner at the bottom.

The entry list was limited to twelve, of which the three Ferrari-owned Alfa Romeos were the most formidable. Nuvolari and Brivio were to have driven the 3.8-litre Tipo C cars which were seen at Monza last autumn, while Farina had been promised a 3.2-litre Monoposto. The complete team, cars, lorries, drivers and mechanics, left Modena by road, but were stopped at the Italian-French frontier.

Simultaneously, the organisers received a telegram from Furmanik, president of Sporting Commission of R.A.C.I., saying that a “superior authority” had given orders that Italian cars were not to race in sanctionist countries until after the League of Nations meeting on March 10th. The Pau people made a forlorn appeal to Furmanik to try and get the order rescinded, but to no avail.

In a way, of course, it was quite a good thing. Last year, you will remember, Nuvolari and Dreyfus just ran away with the race, which suffered accordingly.

The early elimination of Ferrari left 10 starters in the field, to wit, Wimille (3.3 Bugatti), Sommer (Alfa-Romeo), Etancelin (Maserati 4.8), Martin (Alfa-Romeo), Lehoux (2.8 Bugatti), Villapadierna (Alfa-Romeo), Brunet (Maserati), Raph (Alfa-Romeo), Hellé-Nice (Alfa-Romeo) and Delorme (Bugatti) drawn up in pairs in that order.

There were two sessions of practising, both of them at lunch time instead of the more orthodox pre-breakfast hour. Wirnille, although new to the circuit, made the fastest time on each occasion, getting round in 1 min. 59 secs., and on the second day 1 min. 58 secs. Nuvolari’s record, by the way, was 1 min. 52 secs. On the first day Lehoux clocked 2 min. 1 sec., Etancelin 2 min. 2 secs., and Martin 2 min. 8 secs. Sommer, Raph and Brunet were all having trouble with their motors.

On the next day Etancelin and Sommer got down to 2 min. dead, but were still 2 secs. slower than Wimille. Martin and Lehoux did 2 min. 1 sec., Villapadierna 2 min. 3 secs., Brunet 2 min. 11 secs., and Raph 2 min. 16 secs. Brunet skidded into the kerb and broke a wheel. Mlle Hellé-Nice arrived late, and covered a few laps before the course was thrown open to the public.

So far Charles Martin had kept within striking distance of the leaders, in spite of a hectic tete-a-queue on the far side of the course which had cost him 10 secs. (it might have been more, had he not jammed the gear-lever into reverse while the car was travelling backwards and thus restarted the engine I). On the 61st lap Martin stopped to refuel, and this he did in 41 seconds without losing third place in the race.

Meanwhile Sommer and Etancelin were busily engaged passing and re-passing each other. Etancelin covered his fastest lap in 1 min. 57 secs., but this was a good deal slower than Wimille, who made the fastest lap of the race (on lap 2) in 1 min. 55 secs.

Etancelin must have had some trouble on a quiet part of the circuit, because all of a sudden he was quite 20 sec. behind Sommer. Luckily for him, however, Sommer came to a standstill in the Parc Beaumont on the following lap with a broken back axle.

But even now the result was in doubt, for ominous sounds began to emanate from the Maserati, and ” Fi-Fi’s ” face looked decidedly worried. On the 98th lap his lead had dropped to 27 secs., and to 22 secs. on the 99th. Would the car last out another lap before something vital happened ? All eyes were turned towards the bend where the cars came into. view to find the answer.

At last the Maserati came into sight, and Etancelin’s face was wreathed in smiles once more. Sixteen secs. later Charles Martin roared across the line, finishing a good second. Lehoux was third, 1min. 18 secs. behind Martin. Villapadierna was still running, but the crowd swarmed onto the road in defiance of all the laws of self preservation and quickly brought him to a standstill. In spite of many retirements, it had been an interesting race, with the issue in doubt until the very last.

Result

100 laps. 270 km. 900

1. P. Etancelin (Maserati 4.8) 3h. 22m. 26.6s). 82.085 k.p.h.
2. C. E. C. Martin (Alfa-Romeo) 3h. 22m. 40s.
8. M Lehoux (Bugatti) 3h. 23m. 58s.
4. J. de Villapadierna (Alfa-Romeo) 3 laps behind.

The winner used Dunlop tyres.