Car Racing Ban Demands In Italy

Press, Volume C, Issue 29616, 12 September 1961, Page 13

Car Racing Ban Demands In Italy

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) MONZA (Italy), September 11. A new outcry arose today for a limit or ban on car racing after yesterday’s tragedy in which one driver and 13 spectators were killed, the Associated Press reported. Twenty-three are still in hospital.

Wolfgang von Trips, of » Germany, the leading contender tor the 1961 world drivers" championship was killed when his red Ferrari ran off the track in the second lap of the Italian Grand Prix on the fast Monza circuit The car rocketed through a guard rail at more than 100 miles per hour and ploughed through spectators jammed elbow to elbow, too stunned to move. Other cars continued to roar around the super-speed track for two hours past the crumpled dead, sprawled at the trackside and covered with newspapers. Ambulances rushed other victims to hospitals. The toll was greater than in the accident in 1957 which doomed the Mille Misha Italy’s greatest and often blood-stained open road race In that accident the Marquis de Portago's car ent into a group of roadside spectators killing de Porta so his co-driver and 10 othet people. In the outcry which followed, open road racing in Italy was banned and thMille Miglia has since been whittled down to a speedlimit car rally. The same cries were being heard today against track racing in newspapers throughout the country. In Milan, “Il Giomo" said: “Car races are only one aspect—and not the most serious one— of our folly “It is easy to say. ’One ear die on the Sundav hichwavas well as on the grass of Monas.* There are sports which are risky to all. “If one wants to he safe all this is a lie. Gladiator games also were risky and bloody But one day man d»eided to stop them " The race was won by P Hill of the United States, in a Ferrari. His victory brought him the world drtv. ing championshio D Gurney (United States') was second. and B McLaren (New Zealand) third Hill did not know anyone had been killed in the accident After the race he stood beaming with jov as the American national anthem was played for his victory

Then he learned about the dead. He turned white with shock and collapsed on a bench. Companions led him away in a stunned condition. The British driver, J. Clark, whose Lotus figured in the three-car crash that led to the tragedy, described the accident. “Von Trips was running close to the inside of the track. I was following him closely, keeping near the outside. At one point von Trips veered sideways so that my front wheel collided with his back wheel. “It was the fatal moment. Von Trips’ car spun twice and went into the guard rail along the inside of the track. Then it bounced back and struck my car and bounced into the crowd on the outside.” A second Lotus, driven by G. Ashmore (Britain) tangled with the other two cars Clark was thrown from his car. but got up after a moment, apparently unhurt Ashmore suffered minor injuries. The steep-banked Monza track has been regarded as one of the safest in the world—and one of the fastest In major races over the last three years there had never been a fatality. But it was an unlucky track for von Trips He was hurt there in 1956 and 1958.