Alfonso Gomez-Mena

Alfonso Gómez-Mena contested the Sebring 12-hour race in 1958 in a Ferrari 500TRC

Alfonso "Alfonsito" Gómez-Mena was a Cuban racing car driver .

Racing career

Alfonso Gómez-Mena was a member of the Gómez-Mena family, who owned the New Gomez-Mena Sugar Company , which controlled the sugar trade in Cuba for many decades . After Fidel Castro and the Communist Party of Cuba came to power , the family's property was expropriated. Gomez-Mena emigrated to the United States in the early 1960s and became a US citizen.

Alfonso Gómez-Mena was one of the most famous Cuban racing drivers in the 1950s. In 1950 he had won a street race in Havana and in 1957 was sixth in a Jaguar D-Type in the Cuban Grand Prix . The race was won by Juan Manuel Fangio in a Maserati 300S, ahead of Carroll Shelby , who drove a Ferrari 410 Sport . Also in 1958 he was reported in the Grand Prix, but did not go into the race. It was the racing event at which Juan Manuel Fangio was kidnapped in advance.

In 1958 , Gómez-Mena made his debut in eighth place in the Sebring 12-hour race , where he competed four times. He had his only start at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1958 when he drove a Ferrari 250TR with Piero Drogo . He left after an accident.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1958	Fernand Tavano	Ferrari 250TR	Piero Drogo	failure	accident

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1956	Alfonso Gomez-Mena	Jaguar D-Type	Santiago Gonzales		Rank 8
1957	Alfonso Gomez-Mena	Jaguar D-Type	Santiago Gonzales	Ernie Erickson	failure	Piston damage
1958	Scuderia Cuba	Ferrari 500TRC	Santiago Gonzales	Manolo Perez de la Mesa	Rank 27
1959	Auto Sport Club Havana	Ferrari 250 GT LWB	Juan Montalvo		Rank 20

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1956	Alfonso Gomez-Mena	Jaguar D-Type	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
				8th
1957	Alfonso Gomez-Mena	Jaguar D-Type	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
				DNF
1958	Scuderia Cuba Fernand Tavano	Ferrari 500TRC Ferrari 250TR	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
				27			DNF
1959	Auto Sport Club Havana	Ferrari 250 GT	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
			20th

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

• About Gómez-Mena
• Alfonso Gómez-Mena at the Driver Database
• Alfonso Gómez-Mena at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 1957 Grand Prix of Cuba
2. ↑ 1958 Grand Prix of Cuba
3. ↑ The kidnapping of Juan Manuel Fangio in Cuba in 1958