Driving the Targa Florio circuit

The pits complex on the old Little Madonie circuit near Cerda.

Just after my visit to this year’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, I was off to Sicily and the Little Madonie circuit in the North of the Island.  By doing this I was in the footsteps of the World Sports Car Championships of 1967, 1971 and 1972 when the Spa 1000kms was followed by the Targa Florio.  In other years the Targa Florio was often followed by the race at Spa.   In many ways these two circuits were miles apart, both in terms of geography and nature, but there were also similarities as neither the original Spa circuit nor the Little Madonie circuit survived the increasing speed of the cars and the increasing safety concerns of the seventies.  Also both were true road circuits, being run entirely on public roads.

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The three main routes taken over the years by the Targa Florio.

The first Targa Florio was on the 6^th May 1906 and by the early seventies was the oldest continuously run race in the world.  From 1955 to 1973 it was normally a round of the World Sports Car Championship and thus an important race internationally.  Over the year a number of great drivers won the race including Tazio Nuvolari and Stirling Moss.   It also had the distinction of being the longest circuit in the world.  In later years the Targa Florio was run on the Little Madonie circuit that had a length of just 45 miles or 72 kms.    The original version had been 92 miles or 148 kms long and then this was shortened to  67 miles or 108 kms.  The race was also run pre-first World war on an even longer circuit that ran around the whole Island of Sicily.

The parc naturel Madonie is a beautiful part of the world.

For my visit, I started in the town of Caltavuturo and drove through Scillato to Collesano and then through Campofelice di Roccella to Cerda.  Shortly after Cerda the original route becomes impossible to follow.   Around some parts of the route the roads are falling into extreme disrepair but it is still possible to get a real impression of the challenge of this magnificent circuit.  I was worried that it might be difficult to follow the original circuit but in most places the route is obvious and there are lots of helpful signs.   The must see places are the pits to the north of Cerda and the town of Collesano.  Little Targa Florio museums exist in Cerda, Collesano and Campofelice but my itinerary didn’t give me time to visit them.

Fiat 500 in Caltavuturo.

As soon as I reached Caltavuturo there were signs of the Targa Florio and the adventure began.  It was great to see an old Fiat 500 as these both competed in the race and also spectator’s Fiat 500s feature in a number of famous photos and paintings of the Targa Florio.

Amazing scenery and bumpy roads.

As soon as you start the drive out of Caltavuturo towards Scillato you appreciate both the amazing scenery and the torturous winding route that the circuit took.  Every few metres another corner!

One of the many information boards around the old circuit.

Along the route there are a number of information boards about the circuit and the race.  It is great to this old race being celebrated.

Entering Collesano.   Imagine racing through these narrow streets with spectators on each side of the road!

One of the most famous and most photographed corners on the Targa Florio.

As I drove downhill into the town of Collesano I suddenly had a big smile on my face.  I had found that famous corner that features in so many Targa Florio photographs.  It is still recognizable today but lacks the Viva Vaccarella sign, which is a shame.

The 1970 Targa Florio and the Porsche vs Ferrari battle.

Throughout the town of Collesano are a number of ceramics celebrating the famous races, cars and drivers.   On the outside of that famous corner is a ceramic of Jo Siffert and Brian Redman’s victory in 1970 in a Porsche 908/3.  To drive a car like that, with such a low amount of driver protection, around roads like this needed a special type of person.

Ceramics in Collesano.

A little further down the road are some further ceramics reminding us of some of the great drivers and cars who raced here.  No surprise that local boy, Nino Vaccarella is amongst them.  He lived in Collesano and owned a school in nearby Palermo.  However, racing was his passion and he drove in F1 and took victories in Sports Cars around the World including at the 1964 Le Mans 24 Hours and three times the 12 hours of Sebring.  He also, importantly, won the 1965 Targa Florio for Ferrari and the 1971 Targa Florio for Alfa Romeo.   The 1965 victory was with Lorenzo Bandini, so one can imagine how popular that victory was for the locals.  In 1975 Nino Vaccarella took another victory for Alfa Romeo but by this time it was just a national race.

Ceramics in Collesano.

The Ceramics also remind us of other great sports car drivers.  One of the most successful Targa Florio drivers was a Belgian, Olivier Gendebien.  He was obviously popular as all three of his victories were for Ferrari.  These victories came in 1958, 1961 and 1962.  Another driver with a successful Targa Florio record was Joakim Bonnier who won for Porsche in 1960 and 1963.  The Madonie circuit was a happy hunting ground for Porsche.  Although, Alfa Romeo took the most victories of all marques in the Targa Florio, Ignazio Giunti pictured below could only manage second in 1968 in his T33.  He also shared the third place Ferrari 512S with Nino Vaccarella in 1970.  Anyone who drove a 512S around here deserves a plaque.

Ceramics in Collesano.

I remember reading of Vic Elford’s drive in the 1968 Targa Florio and immediately become a fan of this British racing driver.  At the time he was still also a rally driver and had won the Monte Carlo Rally earlier that year.  He followed that up with a win in the Daytona 24 hours.  Later in the year he made his F1 debut at the French GP and came fourth.  A different world!   However, at the Targa Florio he made up a large deficit from an early puncture to win the race and set fastest lap.  He set fastest lap again the following year.  One of Elfords skills was memorizing very long tracks such as the Madonie circuit or the Nurburgring – amazing!

Ceramics in Collesano.

Another driver celebrated on the ceramics is Rolf Stommelen.  Like so many of the Targa winners, he eventually was killed in a racing car but not before he had won the Daytona 24 hours four times and the Targa Florio once in 1967 for Porsche.  The Targa Florio itself was not as dangerous as you might imagine.  There were only 9 fatalities in 61 years that the race took place.  Considering the era this was not that bad. 

Another ceramic in Collesano.

The Targa Florio is named after its founder Vincenzo Florio and Targa refers to the plaque awarded to the winner.  The first race was in 1906 and was one by Alessandro Cagno in an Itala.  It must have been a real test of endurance on mountain dirt roads!  A ceramic picture in Collesano celebrates the first race.

The Targa Florio circuit as it approaches the coast at Campofelice.

The Targa Florio pits as they are today in 2018.

After Collesano the road is very mixed with some very poorly maintained stretches.   Eventually you reach the nice coastal resort town of Campofelice.  Then comes the long straight stretch on the road towards Palermo.  Nothing of real interest along here but as soon as you leave the coast road towards Cerda you happen upon the well preserved pits and grandstand complex.

Ferrari 312PB poster.

A lot was done for the 100 years celebrations in 2016 and some remains.   A picture of the 1972 Ferrari 312PB that took victory in the hands of Arturo Merzario and Sandr Munari reminds me of a couple of things.  Firstly, how successful rally drivers were at this venue.  We have already talked about Vic Elford but other rally drivers also did well.  Sandro Munari was another winner here as was Gerard Larrousse.   Leo Kinnunen put in a fine lap record in 1970 in finishing second with a sick Pedro Rodriguez, and Bjorn Waldergard came fifth the same year.   It is also interesting to note that Sandro Munari went on to be a World Champion at rallying, in 1977, but no one ever won both the Targa Florio and the Formula One World Championship for drivers.

Sicily is an amazing vacation destination for its history, its beautiful architecture, its food, its weather, and many other reasons.  However, if you go do visit the parc naturel Madonie and its amazing old circuit.  Drive around slowly and be amazed that the average speed here was over 70 mph for such a long, twisty, narrow, bumpy circuit

Don't expect to drive fast around the old circuit.  However, many visitors soon suspect that speed limit signs in Sicily are minimum speeds rather than maximum speeds.  Go there to find out what i mean!

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Poster of some famous cars that raced in the Targa Florio.

My Top Ten B.R.M. Drivers

B.R.M. F1 cars parade at the 2010 Goodwood Revival including a
1968 P126 followed by the Yardley era cars P153 and P160.

I was always a bit of a fan of the B.R.M. Formula One team and many of my favourite drivers raced
for them at some time in their careers as you can read below.   It is always fun coming up with Top Tens, so why not a Top Ten of B.R.M. drivers.  See if you agree with my list below

No. 10    Reg Parnell
Reg has to appear on the list somewhere because he scored the first World Championship points for B.R.M. (fifth in the 1951 British G.P.) and scored their first ever win (the non-championship Goodwood Cup 12 lap race in September 1950).  On the same day as the Goodwood Cup he took another win in the longer Goodwood Trophy. These successes were all achieved in the unreliable and difficult to drive V16 P15.  At his second meeting in the BRM at Barcelona he started at the back of the grid but overtook 17 cars on the opening lap to show the BRMs potential but the BRM as usual retired.  The next year at the British GP he survived bad fumes and burnt legs from the heat in the BRM to take fifth place ahead of one of the works Alfa Romeos.  At last after two years BRM had a good result after a really brave drive by Reg.

Reg scored third place in the very first ever F1 World Championship race driving for Alfa Romeo and had a successful sports car career including fifth place in the 1953 Mille Miglia for Aston Martin. In my view a somewhat under-rated driver.


No. 9      Dickie Attwood
A relatively early Motor Racing memory was reading about Dickie Attwood's chase of Graham Hill in the 1968 Monaco G.P.  After 80 laps he finished less than three seconds behind the Monaco maestro in the Lotus to take second place and fastest lap.    Thus this drive gets Dickie 9th place in my Top Ten BRM drivers list.  The rest of the year wasn't so good as the B.R.M. P126 was not a competitive car.

However, it must be said that Dickie was a winning B.R.M driver as he finished first in the 1966 Tasman Series race at Levin.   I also cheered him on to victory in a BRM at Goodwood in 2010 - see picture below.

Something of a Monaco specialist he won the Formula Junior race there in 1963 and as well as his great drive in 1968, scored points there again for Lotus in his last F1 race in 1969 when he finished fourth.   He of course won Porsche's first Le Man victory in 1969 partnering Hans Hermann in the 917.

Dickie Attwood's BRM P261 winning at the Goodwood Revival in 2010 in the Glover Trophy 1.5 litre F1 race from Frank Sytner's Lotus Climax 24.

No. 8     Jean Behra
Living in France, I cannot miss the great Jean Behra off the list of top B.R.M drivers.   He won two non-championship races for them in 1957 (Caen and the International Trophy at Silverstone) as well as coming 3rd in the 1958 Dutch G.P.

Jean never was quite in the right place at the right time and his Latin temperament didn't help so he never won the Championship G.P. that his talent deserved.  He did have success in Sport Cars, notably the 1957 Sebring 12 hours.

1950s B.R.M. P25s at the 2010 Goodwood Revival

No. 7     Peter Gethin
A winnng member of the successful 1971 B.R.M. team, Peter Gethin came first in that year's Italian G.P. slipstreamer at an amazing 151 M.P.H.   Although he had been only 11th fastest in practice he kept with the leading group and made a great move on the last lap to beat Ronnie Peterson, Francois Cevert, Mike Hailwood and team mate Howden Ganley in an incredibly close finish.  Peter also won the sad end of season non-championship Victory Race at Brands in which Jo Siffert died and was thus stopped after just 15 laps.

Peter Gethin is most remembered as one of the most successful Formula 5000 drivers winning the 1969 and 1970 championships plus the 1974 Tasman Championship.    Not forgetting of course, that he won the 1973 Race of Champions in a F5000 car, beating all of the F1 cars.

No. 6    Joakim Bonnier
Jo Bonnier had a long Formula One career (1956 to 1971) but never really achieved that much despite winning B.R.M.'s first ever World Championship victory in the Dutch G.P. at Zandvoort in 1959.  He was a BRM driver for the 1957, 1958 and 1960 seasons. His win came in the unreliable P25 but following this he never did better than fifth place in a World Championship GP.  However, apart from a stint with Porsche he drove mainly for privateer teams.  Bonnier's win was not an inherited one as he took pole position, overtook Gregory and Moss and beat Jack Brabham to take victory.

Jo did have a number of important sports car successes including the Targa Florio, Sebring 12 hours, and Nurburgring 1000kms.

No. 5    Jo Siffert
Jo Siffert has the unlucky distinction to be the only F.1. driver to be killed in a B.R.M.   This was at Brands Hatch at the end of the 1971 season and was only shortly after he had won the 1971 Austrian G.P. for B.R.M. that helped them get 2nd place in that year's constructor's championship.  In Austria in 1971 Jo took pole on the great Osterreichring circuit and led from start to finish despite pressure from Stewart and Fittipaldi.  He had another B.R.M. powered victory, that nowadays many forget, driving a Brabham-B.R.M. in the 1964 Gran Premio del Mediterraneo at Enna beating none other than Jim Clark.

Jo also of course won the 1968 British G.P. for Rob Walker's privateer Lotus team and was one of the all time sports car "greats".

No. 4     Jean-Pierre Beltoise
Although much more associated with Matra rather than with B.R.M., Jean-Pierre did spend a few seasons with them from 1972 and scored B.R.M.'s last ever World Championship victory and his first and only GP victory.  This was in the rain soaked 1972 Monaco G.P. where in his B.R.M. P160B he scored a flag to flag victory leading all of the 80 laps around this torturous circuit and beating renowned wet weather driver Jacky Ickx in the Ferrari and other great drivers such as Emerson Fittipaldi and Jackie Stewart.   A truly great victory.  In his last F1 season, JPB finished in second place for Motul BRM in the South African GP after driving through the field from 11th on the grid and holding off a challenge from Hailwood's McLaren.

Jean-Pierre had won at Monaco previously, winning the prestigious F3 race there in 1966.  He went on to become European F2 champion in 1968.   Driving for Matra in F1 his best results were two second places.

No. 3     Pedro Rodriguez
I was always a Pedro Rodriguez fan so he had to be in my top three.  In 1968 he took their top finish with a second place in the Belgian Grand Prix at the old long Spa Franchorchamps circuit and then beat that with a victory for B.R.M. at the same race and same circuit in 1970.  A second B.R.M. victory was in 1971 in the non-championship Oulton Park Spring Trophy race.   1971 could have been Pedro's year in F1 and he was high in the championship when he was killed in a sports car race at the Norisring.  Both his team mates were to win races later in the year.

Pedro had a long and successful career in Sports Cars and although he is best remembered for his Porsche 917 drives, he won the 1968 Le Mans 24 hours in a Ford GT40 and had many success in NART Ferraris.  His only other GP win had been in South Africa in 1967 in the last victory for the Cooper-Maserati after local John Love had had to pit for fuel.

No.2      Jackie Stewart
Only two men scored more than one World Championship Grand Prix victory in a B.R.M. and Jackie Stewart was one of them.   Jackie spent his first three seasons driving for the team and scored the first of his two B.R.M. championship victories at the 1965 Italian G.P. in his debut season.   Another victory came in the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix.  The 1967 season was much more difficult due to the uncompetitive nature of the car but he did get a second place at Spa.

Jackie won the 1966 Tasman Series for B.R.M. with four victories.   His other B.R.M.victory was his first ever F.1. win the 1965 International Trophy at Silverstone.

After his stint at B.R.M.,  Jackie joined Ken Tyrrell's new F1 team and went onto win three World Championships before retiring at the end of 1973.

No. 1     Graham Hill
As he scored ten of their seventeen World Championship victories and was the only driver to win a World Championship in a B.R.M., there is no doubt as to who is in the number one spot.  It has to be Graham Hill.   He took the championship for B.R.M in 1962 with victories in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and South Africa.  In 1963, 1964 and 1965 he finished second in the championship after a hat trick of wins over the three years in both the Monaco G.P. and the United States G.P.

Graham also scored a number of non-championship victories for B.R.M.

After leaving B.R.M. following a non-competitive 1966 season he won a second World Championship driving for Lotus in 1968.   He is also the only F1 World Champion to have also won both the Indianapolis 500 (for Lola in 1966) and the Le Mans 24 hours (for Matra in 1972).

BRM P578 1962 F1 car at the 2010 Goodwood Revival

Honourable mentions:

Perhaps rather sad that I couldn't find a place for Jackie Oliver who I saw put in a number of stirring

drives for B.R.M. in 1970 but he hardly ever finished a
race for them.    I'd also have liked to have added Clay Regazzoni to the list if only for his pole position in the 1973 Argentine G.P.

Probably the biggest omission from this list is Riche Ginther who finished 3rd in the World Championship driving a B.R.M. in 1963 with second places in Monaco, Italy and the USA. However, he never managed a win for B.R.M. After leaving them he did at least score a victory for Honda in the last race of 1.5 litre era in the 1965 Mexican G.P.

Probably the greatest driver ever to drive for B.R.M. was Juan-Manuel Fangio who had a stirring drive for them in 1953 at Albi including winning the first heat but he never finished a race in the unreliable V16.

Some drivers who did score minor wins for the works B.R.M. team included Froilan Gonzales (2 wins at Goodwood in 1952) , Ron Flockhart (1959 Lady Wigram Trophy and Silver City Trophy) Ken Wharton (1953 Goodwood).  In 1955 Peter Collins won a couple of Formula Libre races for BRM in the P30.

Tony Marsh scored a minor non-championship win in his privateer Climax engined B.R.M. P48 at Brands Hatch in 1961 winning the Lewis-Evans Trophy.  He went on to drive BRMs in British Hillclimbs but was more successful in his own car. A driver who scored some great hillclimb successes with a B.R.M. was Maurice Trintignant, including winning the great Mont Ventoux Hillclimb in 1964 in his own BRM P57.   Another hillclimber, Peter Lawson, won the 1968 British Hillclimb Championship in the 4WD BRM P67.

Jim Clark never drove for B.R.M. but he did score the only Championship win for the B.R.M. H16 engine in 1966 when it powered his Lotus to victory in the 1966 U.S. G.P.

Stirling Moss drove the BRP entered B.R.M P25 to second place in the 1959 British G.P. and also tried out the V16 car which he detested.

Niki Lauda drove the 1973 season for B.R.M. but despite later becoming a multiple World Champion his best result was a fifth place in Belgium.   Other great drivers who drove for B.R.M. without much success included John Surtees, Mike Hawthorn and Dan Gurney.

If you enjoyed reading this post click on the "1965" button at the top of this page to read how BRM drivers such as Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart fared during the 1965 season.

All of the photos accompanying this blog post are my own and I assert my copyright.  However, I am happy for you to post them elsewhere on the web as long as you accredit me, John Etherton, as photographer and Rouenlesafx.blogspot.com as the source and provide a link to this web page.

Please feel free to tell me who your favourite B.R.M. driver was and who I should have given a mention to.  Add it to the comments below.