LOST TRACK: CIRCUITS OF THE YORE - PART XVIII - MONSANTO PARK, LISBON

A road part of Monsanto Park in its current state 

Like many of the European countries in the past that have expressed interest in motorsports and have hosted Formula One races, Portugal too came up with a proposal. Since the 1950's, there were constant negotiations with the sport authorities about a race in Portugal and four years later, those negotiations bore fruit. With no stand alone race tracks, the streets of Porto first hosted a sports car race and then soon after in 1954 Lisbon hosted a race in the most unlikely part of the city, Monsanto Park.

If any one of the readers have made a visit to Lisbon, one cannot miss the name 'Monsanto Park' in many of the tourist maps. Monsanto Park was created by the local authorities in 1930's as a plan to reforest the bare lands of Monsanto Hills. With the disruption of the existing vegetation, Monsanto Park provided the right platform to replant many of the trees and create a park with roads, access, play areas and to conduct leisure activities. In this area of roughly 2,500 acres, a race track of 5.44 km was carved out of the forest park.

With the unpopular sentiments of hosting the first ever Portuguese Grand Prix at Porto, Boavista was overlooked and instead Monsanto Park stepped up to host the second Portuguese Grand Prix in 1959.

THE RACE

It is always a challenge to host races on public roads where temporary safety measures needs to be incorporated keeping in mind the race cars have no speed limits.

In the 1959 race, Stirling Moss, the ace driver of the 50's raced with Rob Walker's team and demonstrated the speed of Cooper-Climax outpacing the Cooper factory team to start the race in pole position. With no hopes of winning the driver's championship, the Brit had nothing to lose and his qualifying pace became the talk of the town.

The championship fight was on between the Australian Jack Brabham driving the revolutionary Cooper-Climax factory's car and leading the driver's standings by five points over Ferrari's Tony Brooks.

Sixteen cars qualified for the race and surprisingly, five of them were Americans. With the August Sunday that year being one of the hottest days of the summer in Lisbon, the race was scheduled to start at 5 pm sparing the drivers to race in that intense heat.

At the start, Moss got a poor one and quickly slipped to third position with Brabham taking the lead followed by Masten Gregory. While one championship contender was at the helm, Tony Brooks on the other hand was the last car running at the end of the first lap. Moss was quick to respond and was back in the lead on lap 2, a position which he never gave up for the rest of the race.

The first of the casualties to retire from the race happened to be on lap three when Innes Ireland ended his race with a gear box failure. Two laps later, future world champions Graham Hill and Phil Hill got tangled in a spin which severely damaged both cars.

The championship leader Jack Brabham was the next unfortunate driver to be thrown out of the race. He went off the track and hit a telegraph pole while avoiding the last placed driver Mario Cabral. This promoted his team-mate Bruce McLaren into third position with Gregory Masten taking the place behind Stirling Moss, who by now was on a race of his own. However, McLaren's luck ran out thirteen laps later and he too retired from the race owing to transmission problems.

While all this drama was on, Moss seemed unstoppable and he was on a different zone when compared to other drivers that trailed him.  By the time he started his last lap, the 62^nd of the race, Stirling Moss had lapped every driver present on the circuit; such was the domination of the Brit and more importantly, the superiority of Cooper-Climax. After a disappointing season leading up to this race in Monsanto Park, Moss was finally able to win his first Grand Prix of the year and as a result moved five points behind Tony Brooks to be placed third in the driver's championships. Jack Brabham retained his lead and would go on to win his first of the three world titles. 

A ONE RACE SHOW

I have spent some time around the area of Monsanto Park and also happened to drive a passenger car around the area. It is hard to imagine an F1 race in such a backdrop with some sections having tramlines as a part of racing circuit. Unless, there are measures taken on the lines of Albert Park, Australia, there is hardly any future for such public roads. 

Post the Monsanto Park race, the future looked bleak for Lisbon  and after the 1960 Boavista race in Porto, Portugal had to wait until 1984 to host another Grand Prix. That took place not far away from the pit straights of Monsanto circuit - which serves as the autostrada to Estoril, a name which was associated with F1 for more than a decade up until the mid 90's, when it regularly hosted the F1 races. 

And unlike Estoril, which is a purpose built F1 circuit, Monsanto was a street circuit which did not step up to host more races and there by relegated to be just a one race circuit, although the place continues to be as popular as ever without Formula One. 

Courtesy: allf1.info

Lost Track: Circuits of the Yore VIII - Boavista Portuguese Grand Prix

Well past the Christmas and into the new year, the season of 2003-04 was not going the way  Manchester United hoped for. Arsenal were continuing their unbeaten streak in the Premiership and then came knock out stages of Champion’s League.  United’s record at  Champion’s League looked good until the last-minute tackle by Phil Neville (which was so silly and needless), free-kick by Costinha, half-hearted save by Tim Howard and the goal, the elusive away goal powered Porto to quarterfinals and they went on to win the Champion’s League.

Jose Mourinho became a legend and very soon became the toast of European football, known as one of the ‘thinkers’ of the present day football. That was his time at Porto. 2004 apart  I can recall from my interest in Champion’s League winners history,  Porto had also won the 1986-87 Champion’s League. Football and Porto have a long history.

In search of more sporting history at this fanatic city in North of Portugal, I found Oporto (other name for Porto) hosts alternatively (Lisbon and Porto) an annual cricket tournament that awards the Kendall Cup to the teams formed by the representatives from Lisbon and Porto. The tournament traces its history back to 1861 and it became a regular event in 1920 when the man himself Mr. A.C Kendall presented the trophy in memory of Lt. Rawes, a WWI martyr who lived and played cricket in Portugal. Barring the 5 years hiatus during WWII, this tournament has been a regular to this present day.

Alongside cricket, I also managed to dug up the fact of Oporto being the first Portugal city to host a F1 race. In the eight part of the ‘Lost Track’ series I put forward my views based on what I have read on races that took place in Boa vista circuit in Porto.

Since its start, F1 World Championships has attracted many cities across Europe; like every other European country even Portugal wasn’t far behind. Boa vista circuit (Porto) and Monsanto circuit (near Lisbon) were the early players under the banner of Portuguese Grand Prix welcoming many sports car competitions in the 1950’s. Although, the races were unofficial it did generate a lot of interest and paved the way to host the inaugural F1 Portugal Grand Prix in the year 1958 at Boa vista. The circuit included the famous ‘Esplanade do Rio de Janerio’, a harbor front in Porto continued along the Avenue of Boa vista, narrow twisting roads on small neighborhoods before reaching the start-finish line.

Pole and the race belonged to the Brit driver Moss; his fellow country man and title rival for 1958 Mike Hawthorn came in second. The race was not just about Moss and his drive but the other side of it, the humane side and the sportsmanship he displayed. During the course of the race, Hawthorn had an off-road excursion disrupting the normal traffic (since the track featured roads connecting tram lines, small roads and cobble stoned roads) which prompted the race officials to disqualify from his second place. Moss persuaded the officials to not take such an action and in the end Mike Hawthorn kept his second place and more importantly the 6 points. At the end of the season, Mike Hawthorn ended up winning the championships by a mere one point over Moss.

Sir Stirling Moss is arguably considered the best driver never to have won the World Championships and such was his passion for racing that, he took it seriously, was ruthless in his driving but fair when it came to approaching the sport in general.  

After the inaugural edition at Porto, it was the turn of Monsanto Park at Lisbon to host the second edition of Portuguese Grand Prix. The race returned to Boa vista in 1960 where Jack Brabham, the reigning World Champion won the race in his Cooper-Climax, helped by many retirements owing to engine failures and few accidents.

The 1960 race was the last time a F1 race was held at Boa vista. The Formula One Portuguese Grand Prix discontinued after 1960 till its revival in 1984 at Estoril. 

The revival of Boa vista track happened in the year 2005 and since then it has hosted auto-shows, the FIA WTCC Race of Portugal (2007, 2009 and 2011) which includes racing programs such as International Formula Master (formerly Formula Super 2000) and other Portuguese national competitions.