The 1954 1000 km Buenos Aires was a motor race for sports cars which was held on January 24 at the Autódromo Municipal-Avenida Paz, (

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

). It was the opening race of the

1954 World Sportscar Championship The 1954 World Sportscar Championship season was the second season of FIA World Sportscar Championship motor racing. It featured a series of six endurance races for sports car racing, sportscars, contested from 24 January to 23 November 1954. The ...

and was also the inaugural

1000 km Buenos Aires The 1000 km Buenos Aires was an endurance sports car event held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The race mostly run on the Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, although it would run the Costanera circuit in 1957. Besides a single race in Carac ...

. The race was won by

Giuseppe Farina Emilio Giuseppe Farina, also known as Giuseppe Antonio "Nino" Farina, (; 30 October 1906 – 30 June 1966) was an Italian racing driver and first official Formula One World Champion. He gained the title in 1950. He was the Italian Champion in ...

and

Umberto Maglioli Umberto Maglioli (5 June 1928 – 7 February 1999) was a racing driver from Italy. He participated in 10 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 13 September 1953. He achieved 2 podiums, and scored a total of 3 championship ...

, driving a

Ferrari 375 MM :''See Ferrari 375 F1 for the 375 used in Formula 1 racing, and 375 America, a GT car'' The Ferrari 375 MM, was a sports racing car produced by Ferrari in 1953 up to 1955 for the road cars. It was named "375" for the unitary displacement of one ...

Circuit-callejero-buenos -aires-1000km-1954-(openstreetmap)

Report

Entry

A grand total 38 racing cars were registered for this event, of which only 36 arrived for practice and qualifying. This being the first major sports car races of the year, the race was supported by the work of teams of

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

and

Maserati Maserati S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914, in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021. Ma ...

. Both teams were represented by one car in the race. Ferrari with a 375 MM, which was piloted by

and the young

. The factory Maserati was piloted

Emilio Giletti Emilio Giletti (20 April 1929 – 4 January 2020) was an Italian racing driver. He made a name for himself in the early 1950s, after the racing experience took possession of the family factory, and was later the owner of Giletti S.p.A. His son ...

and

Luigi Musso Luigi Musso (28 July 1924 – 6 July 1958) was an Italian racing driver. In 1955 he joined the Ferrari team, entering into a fierce rivalry with Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins, which boosted the performance of the team, but also encouraged ...

. With Osca came another factory teams from Italy. France was represented by

Gordini Gordini () is a division of Renault Sport Technologies (Renault Sport). In the past, it was a sports car manufacturer and performance tuner, established in 1946 by Amédée Gordini (1899–1979), nicknamed "Le Sorcier" (The Sorcerer). Gordini be ...

, and from the UK came

Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is an English manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with ...

’s entered by David Brown with

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

prepared and raced by

Ecurie Ecosse Ecurie Ecosse (French: "Scotland Stable") was a motor racing team from Edinburgh, Scotland. The team was founded in November 1951 by Edinburgh businessman and racing driver David Murray and mechanic Wilkie Wilkinson. Its most notable achieveme ...

. Also, the German works team of

Borgward The former Borgward car manufacturing company, based in Bremen, Germany, was founded by Carl F. W. Borgward (1890–1963). It produced cars of four brands, which were sold to a diversified international customer base: Borgward, Hansa, Go ...

took the long journey to Buenos Aires.

Qualifying

Carroll Shelby Carroll Hall Shelby (January 11, 1923 – May 10, 2012) was an American automotive designer, racing driver, and entrepreneur. Shelby is best known for his involvement with the AC Cobra and Mustang for Ford Motor Company, which he modified duri ...

took

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

for the privateer entry from Roy Cherryhomes team, in their Allard-Cadillac J2X.

Race

The race was held over 106 laps of the 5.888 miles Autódromo Municipal-Avenida Paz, giving a distance of 624.162 miles (1,000 km). In the race, the factory Ferrari won ahead of the privately entered

Ferrari 250 MM The Ferrari 250 MM was a sports racing car produced by Ferrari in 1953. After the initial racing successes of the 3.0-litre ''Colombo'' V12 engine, introduced in the 250 S one-off, Ferrari produced a serial racing model. It is best recognisable ...

Alfonso de Portago Alfonso Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, 11th Marquess of Portago, GE (11 October 1928 – 12 May 1957), best known as Alfonso de Portago, was a Spanish aristocrat, racing and bobsleigh driver, jockey and pilot. Born in London to a prominent famil ...

and

Harry Schell Henry O'Reilly "Harry" Schell (June 29, 1921 – May 13, 1960) was an American Grand Prix motor racing driver. He was the first American driver to start a Formula One Grand Prix. Early life Schell was born in Paris, France, the son of expatri ...

, as well as the

Aston Martin DB3S The Aston Martin DB3S is a sports racing car that was built by Aston Martin. Following the failure of the heavy and uncompetitive Aston Martin DB3 designed by Eberan Eberhorst; William Watson, employed as Eberhorst's assistant, presented an alter ...

by Peter Collins and

Pat Griffith Pat Griffith (26 April 1926 – 28 January 1980) was an English racing driver, who raced for the works Aston Martin team during the early 1950s, winning the 1953 RAC Tourist Trophy. However, after a bad crash the 1954 12 Hours of Hyères, he re ...

. At the lap 14, car number 42 (private Aston Martin DB3 chassis number one) driven by Greene and Stabile) got under fire and caused death of Eric Forrest Greene. Car number 10, driven by Farina and Maglioli took an impressive victory, winning in a time of 6hrs 41:50.8 mins., averaging a speed of 93.197mph. Second place went to de Portago and Schell , albeit three laps adrift. The podium was complete by the winner of the

1953 RAC Tourist Trophy The 1953 RAC Tourist Trophy was a motor race for sports cars, held on 5 September 1953 at the Dundrod Circuit in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was the sixth round of the 1953 World Sportscar Championship, held just six days after the previous ...

, Collins and Griffiths who in turn were a further lap down.

Official Classification

''Class Winners are in Bold text.'' * Fastest Lap:

, 3:34.6secs (98.779 mph)

Class Winners

Standings after the race

*Note: Only the top five positions are included in this set of standings. Championship points were awarded for the first six places in each race in the order of 8-6-4-3-2-1. Manufacturers were only awarded points for their highest finishing car with no points awarded for positions filled by additional cars. Only the best 4 results out of the 6 races could be retained by each manufacturer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1954 1000 km Buenos Aires 1000 km Buenos Aires