Nascimento Junior fastest of the Brazilians

This was a local Brazilian affair with no foreign entries. Nascimento Junior took the lead in his Tipo B followed by Chico Landi in a "Monza" and Querino Landi with a Fiat. Soon Mário Valentim in a Ford passed for third while up at the front Nascimento opened up the gap. Querino Landi had engine problems and eventually had to retire. Braga took over Cañedo's "Monza". At half distance Nascimento was leading by over 80 seconds from Chico Landi, who held an even greater gap to Valentim, whose third position was challenged by Braga and Avellar in a Ford. Nascimento took it easy during the second half of the race to win from Chico Landi with Braga finishing third after some rule confusions.

With the Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix turning international there was a concern that local drivers no longer were able to participate with any chance of success and thus would be scared away from the events. Therefore Automóvel Clube do Brasil decided to arrange a race for Brazilian drivers only.       The competitors were to run 20 laps on the infamous Gavea circuit known as the "devil's trampoline". The event was to be run in two classes, race cars and "carros adaptados" i.e. rebuilt "specials" mostly with engines of American origin. The rules demanded a minimum weight of 500 kg for the cars.       In honour of Sabbado D'Angelo, an industrialist who had been engaged in car racing and was the main sponsor of the event, the leaders of the Automobile Club of Brazil decided to name the race after him.       There was 39.5 million réis in total in prize money of which 29 million was distributed on the top five finishers, who were receiving as follows: winner 15:000$000, second: 7:000$000, third 3:500$000, fourth 2:000$000, and fifth 1:500$000 (Note 2) The remaining 10.5 million réis were distributed along the top five in the "special" class as follows: 5:000$000, 2:500$000, 1:500$000, 1:000$000 and 500$000. There was also a one million special price for the first positioned of the cars specially built for this event.

Entries: The fastest car in the entry list was without doubt Arthur Nascimento Junior's Alfa Romeo Tipo B/P3, a first series narrow type known just as "SF39" (SF standing for Scuderia Ferrari) that had been sold to Brazil in early 1937. Francisco "Chico" Landi entered an Alfa Romeo Monza. An Alfa Romeo 1750 was run by George Azevedo Macedo in practice and taken over by Newton Teixeira for the race.       The rest of the field consisted mostly of rebuilt cars. One can mention Chico Landi's brother Querino Landi with a Fiat, Rubem Abrunhosa in a Bugatti with Studebaker engine, Dr. Geraldo Alfonso de Avelar with a Ford, Domingos Lopes with a Hudson and Maurício Gonçalves de Carvalho, who was son of racing driver Joaquim Sant'Anna, with a Fiat.       Benedicto Lopes was excluded from the race as he refused to leave his car to scutineering and the Automobil Club took away his racing licence.

Practice: The grid order was determined by the practice times, only thereafter the cars received their race numbers. Nascimento was fastest, newspaper A Noite giving a time of 8m01.1s while Napoleão Ribeiro claims it in fact was 8m11.0s. Domingos Lopes, Jung and de Carvalho did not take part in the qualifying.

Race: There seem to have been a conflict between Luis Cañedo and someone named Cassine about the ownership of an Alfa Romeo Monza. Cañedo finally withdrew the car from the event and asked the police to sort out the ownership. After winning the case Cañedo, who had not taken part in the qualifying, tried to re-enter the car and was finally allowed to race with special permission from the organizers as entry #40. Cañedo announced he would do only the first laps before giving over the car to Joao Alfredo Braga       There were two changes in the driver line-up. Arthur Bertoni raced Chrysler #14 instead of Seraphim Rodrigues de Almeida. And Newton Teixeira raced Alfa Romeo #22 instead of George Azevedo Macedo/Marques.       It was free access for spectators to see the race but there were fewer watching this event than a usual Rio Grand Prix. However there were still plenty of people around Rua Marques de Sao Vicente where the cars were lined up for the start.       Rubem Abrunhosa did not appear so there were only three cars at the front row. It was then noticed that the car numbers painted on the ground had been done the wrong way at least for the front row with the pole man to the left instead of to the right as usual at Gavea but the organizers quickly managed to re-arrange the cars and the Mayor of the Federal District, Dr. Henrique Dodsworth, was able to drop the flag promptly on time at 9 a.m. to start the race.

8 (Abrunhosa) Bugatti 8m22.4s 6 C Landi Alfa Romeo 8m19.0s 4 Valentim Ford 8m15.4s 2 Nascimento Alfa Romeo 8m11.0s? 16 Bianco Bugatti 8m45.6s 14 Bertoni Ford 8m44.8s 12 Q Landi Fiat 8m30.6s 10 Avellar Ford 8m26.4s 24 Botelho OM 9m25.0s 22 Teixeira Alfa Romeo 9m11.7s 20 Carvalho Chryseler 8m53.0s 18 Gonçalves Ford 8m54.4s 30 Burlini Fiat 9m41.7s 28 Castello Bugatti 9m41.0s 26 Villafranca Stutz 9m38.5s 40 Cañedo Alfa Romeo 38 Carvalho Fiat 36 Jung Ford 34 Lopes Hudson (Note 3)

Arthur Nascimento Junior took the best start to take the lead. Bertoni stalled his Ford and was only able to get away far behind the other drivers after assistance from both mechanics and organizers.       Right after the curve of Hotel Leblon, the Chrysler engine cars of Bianco and Botelho hit each other at 80 km/h and ricocheted. Bianco's Bugatti climbed up the mountainside while Botelho crashed his OM on the seaward side of the road. Neither driver was able to continue. Botelho suffered a fractured left rib and had to be sent to hospital.       Nascimento led after the first lap followed by Chico Landi, Querino Landi, Valentim, P. Carvalho, Gonçalves, Cañedo, Jung, Lopes, Avellar and M. de Carvalho. Castello in his Bugatti made a pit stop to change a burst tyre and to fix some engine trouble.       On the second lap Domingos Lopes' engine failed on Avenida Niemeyer and he slowly came in and made a pit stop for repairs. Norberto Jung also had engine trouble and was forced to retire.       Nascimento led after three laps followed by Chico Landi. The duo had opened up a gap to the rest of the field led by Querino Landi. Behind him followed Valentim, P. Carvalho, Avellar, Gonçalves, M. de Carvalho and Villafranca. At the end of the lap Luis Cañedo stopped and gave over the Alfa Romeo Monza to Alfredo Braga as planned.       Nascimento made the fourth lap in 8m15s opening up a gap to Chico Landi. Then followed Querino Landi, Valentim, Avellar, P. Carvalho, Gonçalves, M. De Carvalho, Villafranca, Burlini, Teixeira and Castello. But most of the homemade specials had no chance against Braga in his Monza who advanced fast through the field.       Nascimento made the fifth lap in 8m10.9s and his advantage over Chico Landi was now 54 seconds. The latter had made his lap in 8m 25.5s. Valentim moved up to third when Querino Landi had to make a pit stop to change plugs, dropping from third down to 12th position. Apart from Braga, who already had advanced to fifth, the order stayed the same.       Nascimento kept control of the race and made the sixth lap in 8m09.8s? against Chico Landi's 8m20.2s.       After seven laps the order was Nascimento, C. Landi, Valentim, Avellar, Braga and Gonçalves. Then followed Villafranca, M. de Carvalho, Burlini and Teixeira , all of them already having been lapped by the leader. M. de Carvalho stopped in pit at the end of the 7th lap to change a plug. When he left his engine was still not well and was making smoke. Bertoni got his Ford into a wild skid and crashed his car violently against a pole that fortunately was protected by a sandbag.       The duel at the top continued with Nascimento making the eighth lap in 8m09.2 while C. Landi made his lap in 8m09.6s. Querino Landi had been unable to get the engine on his Fiat to work properly despite plug changes so he decided to call it a day.       On the ninth lap Chico Landi managed to close in a bit on Nascimento as did Avellar to Valentim in third position.       Halfway through the race Nascimento, doing the lap in 8m04.9s, had managed to increase the gap over Landi to 1m20s5s. There was a bigger gap down to Valentim, Avellar and Braga, who all three were close together fighting for third position. Valentim and Avellar run almost side by side past of the grandstand to the joy of the spectators. Gonçalves was in sixth position a lap down and he was followed by Villafranca, Burlini, Teixeira and M. de Carvalho.       The fight for third position continued as Avellar tried to get past Valentine, who did not yield on Avenue Niemeyer. The fight continued on the mountain range and in the curves of the trampoline Avellar finally found a way past to finish lap 11 in 3rd position. Meanwhile Nascimento had opened up the gap to Landi further and Teixeira had made a 3 minute pit stop. Castello, still running, had passed M. de Carvalho to put the latter down to last in the race.       After the 13th lap Landi had managed to close the gap to the leader back to 1m08s. On the next lap Nascimento unwilling to let Landi get too close went down to 8m06.4s, the fastest lap achieved until then in the race, but Landi equalled it, thus keeping the gap the same as earlier.       On the 15th lap Nascimento increased his speed further doing 8m02.4s while Landi answered with a time of 8m04s. Avellar, Valentim and Braga followed. Braga was challenging Valentim, the "Monza" going up side by side with the Ford in the corners. Gonçalves, Villafranca and Burlini were two laps behind in 6th, 7th and 8th positions while Teixeira and M. de Carvalho were several laps down. Villafranca made a pit stop to the box and returned to the race without losing any positions. Castello made a pit stop as well.       Nascimento made the 16th lap in 8m13.7s keeping his distance to Landi. On the next lap Braga found a way past Valentim and closed in fast on Avellar in third position. Burlini lost the left front wheel in a corner but the driver managed to get his little Fiat-Wanderer to a stop without crashing.       Braga passed Avellar for third position and as they passed the finish line after 19 laps the order was as follows:: 1. Nascimento (Alfa Romeo) 2. Landi (Alfa Romeo) + 1m04s 3. Braga (Alfa Romeo) + 7m11.1s 4. Avellar (Ford) + 7m15.1s Nascimento took it easy on the last lap doing it in 8m28s to take the chequered flag and then made a spectacular braking manoeuvre in front of Hotel Leblon. 43.3 seconds later Landi arrived as well.       It is claimed that Braga suffered a violent skid on the street Marques de S. Vicente on the last lap but he managed to stop with the car pointing sideways across the road. Anyway Avellar arrived to the finish line just in front of him. Now an odd event followed. Avellar naturally thought he had finished third but the organizers referred to what they called "international rules" claiming that the event finished the very second Nascimento took the flag and that the rest were to be classified according to the laps they had finished by that time. This is of course a very bad misunderstanding of the rules saying that all cars should be flagged of once the winner has taken the flag. So Landi, Braga and Avellar were classified for their positions after lap 19 despite having done all 20 laps with Braga thus taking third position. (From the published times one can easily see that Braga and Avellar had started their 20th lap 1m16.9s and 1m12.9s before Nascimento took the flag. Also Valentim started his 19th lap over 9m 9.3s before and must have finished the lap right behind Nascimento but was still only classified for 18 laps.)       By chance there was a similar confusion at the Brazil GP 65 years later.

Floyd Roberts' greatest moment.

The 1938 Indy 500 was run to the Grand Prix formula. Pole man Floyd Roberts in an Wetteroth-Miller owned by former race driver Lou Moore and Jimmy Snyder in an Adams-Spark each lead 92 laps but with the latter having to retired at 3/4 distance with a broken supercharger Roberts took the victory from Wilbur Shaw and Chet Miller. During the race a spectator lost his life when hit by a wheel from Emil Andres' car.

Entries:

Practice:

Race:

23 Roberts Wetteroth 14 Snowberger Snowberg 8 Mays Alfa Romeo 17 Gulotta Stevens 3 C Miller Summers 2 Horn Wetteroth 1 Shaw Shaw 34 Stapp Weil 27 Rose Maserati 16 Householder Adams 26 Brisko Stevens 5 Meyer Stevens 22 Thorne Shaw 54 Ardinger Miller 6 Snyder Adams 7 Cummings Miller 29 Wearne Adams 38 Gardner Rigling 15 Connor Adams 47 Cantlon Stevens 35 Petillo Wetteroth 55 A Miller II Miller 36 Putnam Stevens 21 Tomei Miller 45 McQuinn Marchese 10 Willman Stevens 37 Hall Nowick 42 Andres Adams 12 Bailey Weil 58 DeVore Stevens 33 Banks Miller 9 Bergere Stevens 43 Nalon Fengler