Autodromo della Mellaha

Autodromo della Mellaha

Tagiura , Italian Libya
Route type:	semi-permanent
Owner:	Automobile Club Tripoli
Architect:	Attilio Arcangeli, Luigi Maruffi
Start of building:	January 15, 1934
Opening:	May 6, 1934
Decommissioned:	1940
Track layout
Route data
Important events:	Gran Premio di Tripoli
Route length:	13.1  km (8.14  mi )
Audience capacity:	8000 grandstand
Records
Course record: (fastest lap)	3: 25.73 min. ( Hans Stuck , Auto Union , 1937)

Coordinates: 32 ° 53 '24.8 "  N , 13 ° 18' 9.4"  E

Racing scene from 1937

Grandstand and start-finish straight 1935

The Autodromo della Mellaha was a motorsport race track in the Italian colony of Italian Libya in the 1930s .

history

After the Gran Premio di Tripoli in 1930 was overshadowed by the fatal accident of the popular Italian Gastone Brilli-Peri and also became a financial disaster for the organizers, it was not held in the following two years. The president of the Tripoli Automobile Club, Egidio Sforzini , had the almost 13-kilometer-long ring east of Tripoli built for the 7th Grand Prix in 1933. The race track was ready for the race on May 7th, but the Autodrom was not even under construction. Italo Balbo , governor of Italian Libya since November 1933, had the Autodrom built in a hundred days from January 1934 with the help of 2,750 workers. The new Autodromo di Mellaha was officially opened for the 8th Tripoli Grand Prix on May 6, 1934 as part of the Grand Prix races . The racetrack was used until the Tripoli Grand Prix on May 12, 1940, a month before the Italian entry into World War II . After the end of the war, the parts that had not been destroyed during the African campaign were torn down.

location

The route was east of Tripoli, on the Mellaha Salt Lake, in the Tagioura district . Nearby was the Italian air force base Mellaha, today's Mitiga International Airport .

route

The approximately 13 km long route was considered one of the fastest courses at the time and allowed average speeds of up to 220 km / h.

Winners list

German drivers like Rudolf Caracciola and Hermann Lang also won the car races in Tripoli.

1933

space	driver	Manufacturer	time
1.	Achille Varzi	Bugatti	2: 19: 51.4
2.	Tazio Nuvolari	Alfa Romeo	+ 0.2
3.	Tim Birkin	Maserati	+ 1: 31.8 (fatal accident)

1934

space	driver	Manufacturer	time
1.	Achille Varzi	Alfa Romeo	2: 48: 53.8
2.	Guy minor	Alfa Romeo	+ 0.2
3.	Louis Chiron	Alfa Romeo	+ 22.2

1935

space	driver	Manufacturer	time
1.	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	2: 38, 47.6
2.	Achille Varzi	Auto Union	+ 1.06.6
3.	Luigi Fagioli	Mercedes Benz	+ 2.16.3

1936

space	driver	Manufacturer	time
1.	Achille Varzi	Auto Union	2: 31.25.4
2.	Hans Stuck	Auto Union	+ 4.4
3.	Luigi Fagioli	Mercedes Benz	+ 1 lap

1937

space	driver	Manufacturer	time
1.	Hermann Lang	Mercedes Benz	2: 27,57.67
2.	Bernd Rosemeyer	Auto Union	+ 9.65
3.	Ernst von Delius	Auto Union	+ 1.14.18

1938

space	driver	Manufacturer	time
1.	Hermann Lang	Mercedes Benz	2: 33, 17.14
2.	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	+ 4.38.50
3.	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	+ 5.03.62

After the dominance of German manufacturers in the races of 1937 and 1938, the decision was made to only hold races in the Voiturette class in Mellaha from 1939 onwards . Despite the change, last year's winner Hermann Lang was able to triumph again in a Mercedes-Benz W 165 in the race for the European Grand Prix Championship in 1939 . It was not until the last race of the Tripoli Grand Prix at the Autodromo della Mellaha on May 12, 1940 that the later first Formula 1 world champion Nino Farina won in an Alfa Romeo 158 .

Web links

Commons : Autodromo della Mellaha  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Autodromo della Mellaha at THE GOLDEN ERA OF GRAND PRIX RACING (English)
• Il nuovo autodromo di Tripoli PDF (Italian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Piste della memoria: Mellaha, l'autodromo nell'oasi. In: automotorfargio.wordpress.com. Retrieved April 30, 2020 (Italian).