Swede Widengren dominates the first Finnish Grand Prix

The first Finnish Grand Prix was a race between five Finnish drivers and five Swedes. Widengren in his Mercedes SSK took the lead early in the race and then dominated it totally. Ebb in another SSK was unable to keep up with Widengren's speed and also lost his second position to Sundstedt's Bugatti but when the latter struck problems late in the race Ebb was able to retake his position. Keinänen did a bad start but then worked his way up through all the field and was finally able to catch and pass both Sundstedt and Ebb to finish second. Even a lack of score boards and a mostly non functional public information system did not hinder the race from becoming a success for the spectators.

The idea of a Finnish GP race started in 1931 among some drivers on a ship returning to Finland from the Solvalla trotting track car race in Sweden. The drivers contacted Suomen Automobiili Klubi (SAK) but found no interest there. They then turned to Helsingin Moottori Kerho (HMK), a club that mostly had experience in motor cycle races and received a much more positive response. To secure a echonomic base for the project race drivers Ebb, Keinänen and Ramsay decided to invest the considerable sum of 150,000 FIM each.       A fitting track was found that circled the city greenhouses in the Eläintarha park (Djurgården in Swedish) between the old legendary wooden athletics stadium and the hippodrome. However, it remained to convince city mayor Erik von Frenckell and the city council to accept the idea. After long hesitation the city finally gave the race a go for one test year after guarantees from the organizers that they would assure complete spectator safety. The city kept the right to stop the race in case of any accidents involving spectators. Even a successful race would not guarantee that the event should be permanent. The main problem was that the track was located near three hospitals, the Epidemic and the Tuberculosis Hospitals on the Nordenskiöld street and the Deaconess Institute on the other side of the railroad. The noise of the race cars was regarded as a highly disturbing factor. The track that probably was planned by Ebb, was in its initial form a little bit over 2 km long and followed along the roads through the park.       The main straight with pits, start and finish went parallel to the railway embankment, making a unique arrangement possible. A series of special open train coaches were built as a grandstand and moved with spectators on race day by locomotive from the main railway station to its place near the track. From the main straight the race track turned right and went slightly downhill through the kiosk section before coming down to the street in a sharp right hander. Circling the city greenhouses, the track made another right turn that for some curious reason later would be called the death curve. The track continued uphill back into the park, passing close to the place where the Olympic stadium would be built a few years later, before turning left and going sharply downhill in a blind S-bend known as moukaripörssi (the hammer ring), named after a practice ring under the hill. This proved to be a bend with no room for mistakes. If a car would go wide to the left it would go over a slope and end up on top of the hammer ring itself. Passing the Eläintarha sports field, which also functioned as a paddock, the cars came to the Nordenskiöld Street where a last right hander returned the cars to the main straight.       Sand bag barriers and rows of hay bales were built on the Nordenskiöld Street to keep the race track separated from the trams and other traffic. Eight rescue stations with equipment were spread out along the route. There were to be races for motorcycles in class B and C and for race cars.       The entry fee for the car drivers was 1000 FIM. The prizes for the top three finishers in the car class were 25,000 FIM, 12,000 FIM and 7,500 FIM. There were also special awards for the driver who kept the highest speed during either laps 30-40 or 40-50.

Entries: The number of entries for the car race was restricted to ten. It consisted of the Finnish and Swedish racing elite, five from each country. Ebb entered his recently obtained Mercedes-Benz SSK (#35998, plate A-4005). It is believed that the person originally ordering the car from the factory had cancelled his order. Then a Finn named Rolf Parviainen, a son of a millionaire, saw the car in Berlin in June 1929 and bought it. In 1931 Ebb borrowed the car for a race at Solvalla, Sweden, and then later bought the car from Parviainen.       There were two Finnish Chrysler entries, S.P.J. Keinänen and Baron Ramsay. Keinänen had improved his car with the help of the prize money from the Rämen race but had the disadvantage of a three-speed gear box while Ramsay's yellow car had four speeds. Asser Wallenius entered a more or less standard looking four door Ford V8, tuned into race form by Valdemar Lahtinen, while Nikolai Nenonen arrived with a Delage.       Among the Swedish entries, Per Victor Widengren had a grey Mercedes-Benz SSK. There were two Swedish Bugattis, Einar Lindberg in a T43 and Knut Gustav Sundstedt with his ex-Chiron T35B. "Mas-Harry" Larsson, a Ford dealer from Mora, appeared with a brick red Ford, claimed to deliver 137 bhp, and Börje Dahlin entered a little Amilcar.       Ebb and Keinänen were considered the favorites. The rather unknown Per Viktor Widengren was a bit of an outsider while his brother Henken was considered as a bigger name back then.

Practice: The Swedish entries arrived one by one. Widengren and Larsson were travelling via Turku on Tuesday and Dahlin on Wednesday. On Ascension Thursday Lindberg and Sundstedt drove their Bugattis from Turku to Helsinki in pouring rain, while Keinänen drove from Kuopio the same night in his Chrysler, having to confront the same weather conditions.       Some Swedish race fans arrived as well, 300 of them, coming on the old steamer Kastelholm.       Ramsay was the first one to check out the track on Wednesday and was soon followed by Ebb and Widengren, who claimed he had put in a 1m12s lap (unofficially). The two Mercedes drivers also took the opportunity to test each other's cars. The interest in the event was high and on Friday over 4000 spectators turned up watching the Swedes practice. There were no safety arrangements for that kind of crowd. The drivers and police had a difference of opinion about what speed the cars should be allowed to have. The police insisted on the city maximum 40 km/h rule. It all ended with arguments, an interrupted practice and a closed down track.       The clutch on Dahlin's Amilcar broke during practice and as Dahlin was unable to repair it he became a non-starter.

Race: It rained cats and dogs during the night before the race but on Sunday morning the sun started slowly to break through the clouds and fog.       Officially there were 21 000 paying spectators but numbers of 30 000 and even 40 000 were mentioned in the local papers and the 500 area guards and ticket sellers had a full time job. When the 30 coach grandstand train had arrived from central station the motorcycle race could begin at 2:00 p.m. Immediately there were some serious problems. The public information system (and its users) proved not to be up to the demands set upon it, and as there were no score boards either it became very hard for the spectators to follow the race proceedings. The media reporters received hardly any press releases or results information throughout the event and the flag marshalling failed miserably. After the motorcycles had completed the planned distance, the race went on for an additional six laps before someone finally made the decision to flag it off. When the public information system finally woke up, announcing the wrong winner!       After a 40 minute break the car race finally started about 4:00 p.m. when the weather had turned beautiful.

1 Wallenius Ford 2 Larsson Ford 3 Keinänen Chrysler 4 Lindberg Bugatti 6 Ramsay Chrysler 7 Nenonen Delage 8 Ebb Mercedes-Benz 9 Sundstedt Bugatti 10 Widengren Mercedes-Benz

The cars were arranged according to their drawn race numbers, with a gap left in the grid where Dahlin's car should have been. When the flag was dropped Larsson in the Ford was first off, followed by Wallenius, Lindberg, Ramsay, Widengren, Ebb and Sundstedt. Ebb and Widengren were able to use the gap in the grid left by Dahlin to gain positions. Keinänen found himself out of room and went wide while Nenonen immediately seemed to struggle with the Delage.       After having led for one and a half lap Larsson found that the water in the radiator was boiling and he came to a halt at the Nordenskiöld street while Widengren took over the lead. He was followed by Wallenius, Ebb, Lindberg, Sundstedt Ramsay, Keinänen, and last after a considerable gap, Nenonen.       On the next lap Widengren had opened up a gap to Ebb in second position with Sundstedt, Wallenius, Lindberg, Ramsay and Keinänen following and Nenonen already half a lap behind the leader.       During the next few laps the winner of the race became apparent as Widengren totally dominated the event. Sundstedt in third place was gaining on Ebb who had started the race well but now seemed to struggle. A few late decision changes by Ebb had proved to be more of harm than benefit. After five laps Widengren was already lapping Nenonen for the first, but definitely not for the last time.       On the seventh lap Larsson managed to get his Ford going again, but after one more lap he decided to retire for good.       After nine laps Widengren lapped Nenonen for the second time. and his lead over Ebb had opened up to half a lap.       Keinänen had reached sixth placed Ramsay and the two Chryslers swapped positions on lap 11. On the next lap Ramsay came to a halt in front of the main stand.       At the beginning of lap 16 Keinänen found himself lapped by Widengren, who continued unchallenged in the lead. The Mercedes went past at the end of the main straight and then Widengren went on to pass also Wallenius in the Ford, who had lost his fourth position to Lindberg.       On the next lap Sundstedt caught and passed Ebb for second position and started to pull away immediately.       At around 19 laps it was Lindberg's turn to retire when his Bugatti developed gearbox problems. Keinänen, who had increased his pace with the Chrysler, was now challenging Wallenius for fourth and it did not take long before Keinänen had found a way past.       Ebb was unable to keep up with Sundstedt and on lap 22 his Mercedes was lapped by the other SSK. Wallenius was falling back while Keinänen was closing in on Ebb.       After 33 laps Nenonen, who during the race had made several excursions among the trees, called it a day with brake failure after having been lapped seven times. On the same lap Widengren put himself a lap ahead of second positioned Sundstedt, who held a seemingly secured second place.       But then, a few laps later, Sundstedt's Bugatti started to smoke and he fell back fast. At 39 laps that created a wild struggle between Sundstedt, Ebb and Keinänen for second position. That exciting battle went on for a few laps but on the 42nd lap Sundstedt's smoking Bugatti could not take it anymore and he was passed by the two Finns to fall further back. On the 43rd lap Ebb went wide in the death curve, the big Mercedes careening dangerously in the grass, and Keinänen went by to take second position. Sundstedt, still going slowly, was lapped for the second time by the race leader and with two laps to go Wallenius caught up with Sundstedt but was unable to get by.       After fifty laps Widengren passed the line but did not take the chequered flag as the flag marshalling was still scandalously imperfect. Widengren therefore decided to push on. He drove another lap. No flag! Yet another lap and lapping Ebb for the second time. Still no flag! On the third extra lap Widengren finally was convinced by the spectators' gesticulations that the race indeed was over and that he could slow down. That came as a great relief as he had injured his hand while selecting gears and it was bleeding. Keinänen finished second, Ebb third and Sundstedt managed to keep his fourth position with a 0.3 s margin over Wallenius, as the Bugatti had a speed advantage on the main straight.       But the day belonged to Widengren who had been totally in his own class.

Legat wins as Bouriano retires

The 12 cars were divided into several classes but the main competitors were the two 2.3 litre Bugattis of Bouriano and Longueville . With the latter being an early retirement, nothing seemed to stop Bouriano from taking an overwhelming victory. But Bouriano overdid it and crashed leaving the field open for voiturette driver and Chimay veteran Legat (Bugatti) to repeat his 1931 victory.

Created by Jules Buisseret the little Frontières Grand Prix was a rather unique Belgian event that was organized from 1926 all the way to the 1970s. It was run on the 10.87 km long road circuit over the fields west of the city of Chimay. The roads are mostly bordered by cow pastures enclosed by barbed wire.       In 1932 the race was divided into no less than five classes, all starting together with the cycle cars flagged off after 10 laps and the other classes doing 15 laps.

Entries: The entry list consisted mostly of Belgian drivers but one of two drivers in the largest class was a French amateur driver Flipo from Roubaix, just across the French-Belgian border. He had entered a 9 year old Lorraine-Dietrich. He was to race against "Freddy" Théllusson in a big 4.1 litre Chrysler.       Georges Bouriano was returning to Belgium after having unsuccessfully tried to make a professional racing career in Europe. He was to run his red Bugatti T35B in the 3-litre class. Willy Longueville entered another T35B. The third starter in the class was someone called Beugnies, who had entered a Mathis "Emysix" Sedan with a 2288 cc (?) engine.       There were two entries in the 2 litre class: Herbert-Élie "Emile" Cornet with a Bugatti T35 and Georges Puissant from Louviére in a T35A "Tecla".       In the 1.5 litre voiturette class last year's winner Arthur Legat in his supercharged T37A, raced against the un-supercharged cars of Constant Lauvaux and French driver Herbaux. Legat had taken part in all Frontières GPs since the 1926 apart from the 1928 race.       Finally, in the cycle car class Georges Bultot in an Amilcar CGS met Jules Bury in a Rosengart.

Race: Race day came with sunny and hot weather. The race cars were lined up on the grid two and two for the 2:30 p.m. start:

Bouriano? Bugatti Longueville? Bugatti 4 Cornet Bugatti 6 Legat Bugatti 8 Herbaux Bugatti

Bouriano from the first row immediately took the lead, followed by Longueville, Legat, Cornet, Lauvaux, Herbaux, Théllusson, Flipo, Beugnies, Puissant and the cycle cars of Bultot and Bury.       But much of the excitement in the race was lost almost immediately as Longueville had to retire on the second lap with a broken magneto. Beugnies had an incident at Virage de Beauchamps, bending the front axle of his Mathis, so he became another retirement.       With Longueville gone no one else was able to do anything against Bouriano, who started to pull away at an almost ridiculous rate, increasing the gap by some 40s a lap even to second positioned Legat and making a new lap record of 5m13s on the way. After only eight laps he had lapped all his opponents. Legat and Cornet were still holding second and third positions while Lauvaux and Herbaux in their voiturette Bugattis had a good duel for fourth position.       But at all came to an end at lap 12. Bouriano went off road and collected a barbed fence with his Bugatti. The driver was lucky to escape from that accident with just a torn shirt. But the carburettor on the car had caught fire and despite Bouriano's efforts the fire spread and the Bugatti went up in flames.       Now, having already lost one and a half lap to Bouriano, Legat, with the luck on his side, suddenly found himself in the lead and keeping it to the end of the race he repeated his 1931 victory with his voiturette Bugatti. Cornet finished second and Herbaux won the duel with Lauvaux to finish third.       In the cycle car class, flagged off at 10 laps, Bultot defeated Bury.

A race with a curious ending

First female voiturette victory

A small field but a good race

Privateer Falchetto's surprise victory