[alfa] Grudges (was: RE: Alfetta 158/159)

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John Fielding, writing on the Alfetta 158/159, said "The Germans had a grudge against the Alfa Romeo team for good reason.  The 1939 Tripoli GP, the last GP before Italy entered the war, was run to a 1.5 litre formula.  Mercedes Benz, at great expense, had developed a special 1.5 litre version of its racing car with the strict purpose of beating the Italians to prove superior engineering.  In the event the Alfetta's gave the germans a hiding and this did not go down well with the german high ranking politicians, particularly Adolph Hitler.  Italy and Germany were thrown together as unlikely allies at the outbreak of war and many people believe the german high ranking politicians still bore a grudge against the humiliating defeat in the Tripoli GP only a few months previously."
 
It may be quibbling (moi?) but the outbreak of the war was in September 1939, so the 'humiliating defeat' of the 1.5 litre Mercedes by the Alfettas in the Tripoli GP only a few months previously would have to have been the 7 May 1939 race in which the Mercedes W165 (of which only two had been built) took first and second (Lang and Caracciola respectively) ahead of a third-place Alfa 158 driven by Viloressi, followed by nine Maseratis. This was the first, and I believe only, race for the Mercedes W165. The 158 was only a little more than four minutes behind the second-place Mercedes, which may possibly have been considered humiliating by some Germans.
 
In the 12 May 1940 Tripoli Grand Prix, again for 1500 cc cars, and before Italy entered the war, Alfas took first, second, third, and sixth, with six Maseratis the other finishers. A possible reappearance of the Mercedes W165 for this race had been rumored, but it didn't happen, perhaps because two days previously (10 May 1940) Germany invaded Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg, beginning the western Blitzkrieg against France and England.
 
In sports car racing a team of BMWs, with bodies by Touring, had completely dominated the April 1940 running of the Mille Miglia, held that year as several laps of a long road course around Brescia (and thus often called the Brescia Grand Prix). And on 10 June 1940 Italy declared war on Britain and France, just one month after the western Blitzkrieg began and the Tripoli GP was run. Not Italy's finest hour, even if they had won a race in which nobody else ran.
 
Sad business. Survive yours -
 
John H.
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