1919 GRAND PRIX SEASON -

21 André Boillot
André Boillot
Peugeot L25

5 Antonio Moriondo
A. Moriondo
Itala 35 hp

18 Domenico Gamboni
D. Gamboni
Diatto 4-DC

TARGA FLORIO

Medio Circuito Madonie - Palermo (I), 23 November 1919.
Targa Florio: 4 laps x 108 km (67.1 mi) = 432 km (268.4 mi)

No.	Driver	Entrant	Car	Type	Engine

	Category V - 011 to 110 mm bore
1	Carlo Ferrario	C. Ferrario	Lancia		4.9	S-4
2	Giuseppe Baldoni	G. Baldoni	Nazzaro	Tipo 3	4.6	S-4
3	Giuseppe Campari	SA Italiana Ing. Nicola Romeo & C	Alfa Romeo	40/60 hp	6.1	S-4
4	Guido Landi	Fabbrica Automobili Itala	Itala	35 hp	4.9	S-4
5	Antonio Moriondo	Fabbrica Automobili Itala	Itala	35 hp	4.9	S-4
6	Giovanni Negro	G. Negro	Nazzaro	Tipo 3	4.6	S-4
7	René Thomas	Etablissements Ballot	Ballot	Indy	4.9	S-8
8	Eraldo Fracassi	E. Fracassi	Alfa Romeo	40/60 hp	6.1	S-4

	Category IV - 91 to 100 mm bore
9	Giorgio Zaniratti	G. Zaniratti	Fiat	3 Ter	4.4	S-4	DNA - Did not appear
10	Nino Franchini	SA Italiana Ing. Nicola Romeo & C	Alfa Romeo	1914 GP	4.5	S-4
11	Bozzi	Bozzi	Fiat	unknown			DNA - Did not appear
12	Carlo Masetti	Count C. Masetti	Aquila-Italiana	35/50 hp	3.5	S-6
13	Antonio Ascari	A. Ascari	Fiat	14B/57	4.5	S-4
14	Giulio Masetti	Count G. Masetti	Fiat	14B/57A	4.9	S-4

	Category III - 81 to 90 mm borec
15	Alfredo Gallanzi	A. Gallanzi	Gallanzi-Puch			S-4
16	Luigi Lopez	L. Lopez	Fiat	unknown
17	Giacinto Ghia	G. Ghia	Diatto	4-DC	2.8	S-4
18	Domenico Gamboni	D. Gamboni	Diatto	4-DC	2.8	S-4

	Category II - 71 to 80 mm bore
19	Samy Reville	S. Reville	Peugeot	L 25	2.5	S-4
20	Ugo Sivocci	Costruzioni Macchaniche Nazionali	CMN	15/20 hp	2.3	S-4

21	André Boillot	A. Boillot	Peugeot	L 25	2.5	S-4
22	Enzo Ferrari	Costruzioni Macchaniche Nazionali	CMN	15/20 hp	2.3	S-4

	Category I - 60 to 70 mm bore
23	Jack Scales	Eric, Campbell & Co.	Eric Campbell		1.5	S-4
24	Cecil Snipe	Eric, Campbell & Co.	Eric Campbell		1.5	S-4	DNS - Did not start

André Boillot wins the Targa Florio with Peugeot

by Hans Etzrodt

The Targa Florio was the second important race in 1919 and the first major race in Europe since the war, run to the free formula. The entries were divided into seven categories by engine bore. A severe rainstorm the day and night before the race had soaked the track with mud and snow covered the high mountain roads. The terrible road conditions made it more a contest of drivers than of cars. André Boillot, brother of famous Georges who died in the war, drove a small Peugeot with such determination and boldness until his total exhaustion winning the race, a ruthless way he would never drive again. His opponent was the veteran René Thomas with the fastest car in the 21-car field, a large 8-cylinder Ballot. For three laps the Peugeot was leading. When Thomas was eventually told after the third lap that he might lose, he started to chase after the Peugeot and in one of the many turns, he was too fast and crashed to let Boillot take the victory. This was the essence of the race.
The remaining 19 drivers never posed a danger to the two leaders. Moriondo (Itala) finished second, 30 minutes after the winner, Gamboni (Diatto) was third followed by Giulio Masetti (Fiat), Negro (Nazzaro), Carlo Masetti (Aquila), Sivocci (CMN) and Baldoni (Nazzaro) eighth. Ferrari (CMN) and Lopez (Fiat) exceeded the maximum time of 10 hours and were not classified. The rest of the 11 cars retired, most of them crashed, amongst those was Ascari, who was transported with his mechanic to the Palermo hospital, suffering minor injuries

The Targa Florio was named after its founder, Count Vincenzo Florio, President of the Automobile Club di Sicilia. 1919 was the 10th recurrence of the race. It was planned to take place in May but was postponed until September and finally took place on 23 November as the first major event in Europe.
The Targa Florio regulations, published in the September issue of the Allgemeine Automobil-Zeitung specified cars with 4-cyl. engines with a bore of 60 and 130 mm, divided into 7 categories, also allowing 6, 8 and 12-cylinder engines, provided that the bore was correspondingly smaller to assure that the power of the 4-cylinder engines was not exceeded.
1. category: 4-cyl. engines with 60-70 mm bore, 6-cyl. with 52-56 mm bore.
2. category: 4-cyl. with 71-80 mm bore, 6-cyl. with 57-63 mm bore, 8-cyl. with 51-55 mm bore.
3. category: 4-cyl. 81-90 mm, 6-cyl. 64-72 mm, 8-cyl. 56-62 mm bore.
4. category: 4-cyl. 91-100mm, 6-cyl. 73-83 mm, 8-cyl. 63-70 mm, 12-cyl. 53-60 mm bore.
5. category: 4-cyl. 101- 110 mm, 6-cyl. 84-94 mm, 8-cyl. 71-78 mm, 12-cyl. 61-68 mm bore.
6. category: 4-cyl. 111-120 mm, 6-cyl. 95- 105 mm, 8-cyl. 79-87 mm, 12-cyl. 69-77 mm bore.
7. category: 4-cyl. 121-130 mm, 6-cyl. 106-117 mm, 8-cyl. 88-98 mm, 12-cyl. 78-88 mm bore.
The cars had to cover four laps of the 108 km Medium Madonie circuit, equal to 432 km. It was in use for the first time in 1919 and included approximately 1500 turns per lap through the mountainous Madonie region of Sicily. The narrow circuit with its steep gradients was a true measure of both driver and car. The start and finish took place near Cerda train station just a few meters above sea level. The road led several miles up to Cerda village at 273 meters altitude. From here the course twisted uphill to Caltavuturo at 640 meters after which the tight, twisting road wound through the Madonie Mountains and turned back past a depot to refuel and change tires in the town of Polizzi, 917 meters above sea level. Tortuous hairpin bends followed next, snaking downhill through the mountain village of Collesano at 500 meters and then on to Campofelice, just 50 meters above sea level. From there it was downhill to the seven km fast coastal straight where it was possible to use top gear. Then the circuit turned inland to the finish near the Cerda train station.

Entries:
The Alfa Romeo 40/60 model for Campari was a works entry while Fracassi raced independent. The car was based on a 1913 design with a 4-cylinder (110 x 160 mm) 6082 cc engine, producing 82 hp at 2400 rpm, capable of 150 km/h with a racing weight of 1100 kg. Nino Franchini was also a works entry but he was assigned the 1914 Alfa Grand Prix car of which only one of the was made, taken out of storage and prepared for racing. The 4-cylinder (100 x 143 mm) 4490 cc engine, produced 88 hp at 2950 rpm with the car's weight 1050 kg and top speed 150 km/h.
The Ballot driven by René Thomas, was the same 8-cylinder type raced at Indianapolis, the fastest car in the field. For the Targa Florio the 4.9-Liter Ballot had the tail changed to carry two spare wheels. The car had a straight-8 (74 x 140 mm) 4900 cc engine with 32 valves, driven by two o/h camshafts, delivering 125 hp at 3000 rpm, with peaks of 150 hp at 4000 rpm.
The CMN factory entered two 15/20 hp, 2297 cc 4-cylinder cars for Sivocci and Ferrari who was CMN test driver.
Diatto entries were independent, with 4DC cars for Ghia and Gamboni, the corsa version of their 3-Liter cars, with 4-cylinder (85 x 120 mm) 2724 cc engine, producing 50 hp and had a top speed of 150 km/h.
Eric Campbell cars were British design of 1919 with 1505 cc 4-cylinder Coventry-Simplex engine. Paul Sheldon wrote: "The name was derived from Hugh Eric Orr-Ewing and Noel Campbell Macklin".
The Fiat entries were independent. Ascari had bought his prewar Grand Prix model, model, a 1914 racecar type 14B/S57 with a 4-cylinder (100 x 143 mm) 4492 cc engine producing 135 hp at 3000 rpm and a weight of 1150 kg, estimated maximum speed of 165 km/h. With this car he had already won the 1919 hill climbs of Parma-Poggio di Berceto and Coppa della Consuma. Count Giulio Masetti drove a type 14B/57A, which had a 4-cylinder (104 x 143 mm) 4859 cc engine producing 150 hp at 3500 rpm, a weight of 1170 kg and top speed of 180 km/h.
The Itala works arrived with 1914 type 35 hp cars with 4.9-L 4-cylinder rotary valve engine for Landi and Moriondo.
The Peugeot were independent entries for André Boillot and Samy Reville in the L25 type, with 2.5-L 4-cylinder (73 x146 mm), engines, designed in 1914 for voiturette racing. One of these cars had been driven by Boillot at Indianapolis.
A complete list of entries is at the beginning of this report.

Race:
On Saturday practice before the race, a violent storm was raging, shaking the waves and vegetation. All drivers were drenched in water and covered with mud. They expressed a rather dark picture of their predictions on the progress and outcome of the race. Thomas and Campari, who returned to Termini around noon, said they had to stop at certain points due to the violence of the wind and water. In the night before the race, it still rained heavily - a threatening storm had drenched the area. An abnormal coolness prevailed in the morning with snow covering the roads on top of the Madonie Mountains, five to eight cm high. Despite the terrible weather, an enormous pilgrimage of local enthusiasts arrived from Palermo by special trains, cars and on foot in the first hours of Sunday morning. The totalizator game had Ascari as the big favorite as he had won this year the hill climbs of Parma-Poggio di Berceto and Coppa della Consuma.
The starting order was decided by drawing lots for each category. All cars started individually in order of race numbers at intervals of three minutes. The starting times were determined beforehand according to the race numbers. Amongst the non-starters were Zaniratti, Bozzi and Snipe who before the start encountered engine damage on his Eric Campbell and abandoned the start. That left 21 starters for the 7:00 a.m. start with the last driver leaving at 8:06.