Siracusa, Sicily. April 25th.
Two major changes were made at the Siracusa G.P. this year, firstly the race was for F.2 cars and secondly the date was changed from the usual Sunday fixture to a Saturday one. These changes were brought about by looking forward and backward, the forward look being to 1961 and the new F.1 rules of 1,500 c.c. and the backward one to the fact that April 25th was a national holiday in Sicily in celebration of the 1945 liberation. With the 2½-litre Formula nearing the end of its run, the Siracusa organisers, like many others, decided to give encouragement to Formula 2 in preparation for the new Formula and in consequence held the ninth G.P. for 1½-litre cars over the natural road circuit just outside the town, putting all their efforts into ensuring they had a representative selection of cars and not a monopoly of one make.
With Aintree the weekend before and Silverstone the weekend after there was not too much time for prospective British competitors and six of them solved the problem by chartering a plane and flying five Coopers and a Lotus out to Sicily and back, the rest of the competitors going by road, boat or train.
