The 45° Targa Florio took place on 30 April 1961, on the

Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie The Targa Florio was a public road endurance automobile race held in the mountains of Sicily near the island's capital of Palermo. Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event, part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 ...

, (

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

). It was the second round of the F.I.A. World Sports Car Championship, and third round of the FIA GT Cup.

Report

Entry

The event attracted fewer cars than in previous seasons, with 64 racing cars were registered for this event, instead of the 78 in 1960, of which 57 arrived for practice. Only these, 54 qualified for, and started the race. Reigning World Champions, Ferrari had entered two of their

Ferrari 246 SP The Ferrari SP (also known as the Ferrari Dino SP) was a series of Italian sports prototype racing cars produced by Ferrari during the early 1960s. All featured a rear mid-engine layout, a first for a Ferrari sports car. Major racing accolades in ...

and a 250 TRI 61 for their squad of drivers;

Willy Mairesse Willy Mairesse (1 October 1928 – 2 September 1969) was a Formula One and sports-car driver from Belgium. He participated in 13 World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 19 June 1960. He achieved one podium and scored a total of seven champio ...

, Ricardo Rodríguez,

Wolfgang von Trips Wolfgang Alexander Albert Eduard Maximilian Reichsgraf Berghe von Trips (; 4 May 1928 – 10 September 1961), also known simply as Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips and nicknamed 'Taffy' by friends and fellow racers, was a German racing driver. He w ...

Olivier Gendebien Olivier Jean Marie Fernand Gendebien (12 January 1924 – 2 October 1998) was a Belgian racing driver who was called "one of the greatest sportscar racers of all time". Rally racer Gendebien spent some years in the Belgian Congo. On his return ...

Phil Hill Philip Toll Hill Jr. (April 20, 1927 – August 28, 2008) was an American automobile racing driver. He was one of two American drivers to win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, and the only one who was born in the United States ( ...

and Richie Ginther. As like 1960, there was no other factory entrants in the S3.0 class, their main opposition would come from the works Porsche 718 RS 61s of

Hans Herrmann Hans Herrmann (born 23 February 1928) is a retired Formula One and sports car racing driver from Stuttgart, Germany. In F1, he participated in 19 World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 2 August 1953. He achieved 1 podium, and scored a ...

Edgar Barth Wilfried Edgar Barth (26 January 1917 in Herold – 20 May 1965 in Ludwigsburg) was a German (East German until 1957, then West German) Formula One and sports car racing driver. Racing career Barth was born in Herold. He began his care ...

Jo Bonnier Joakim Bonnier (31 January 1930 – 11 June 1972) was a Swedish sportscar racing and Formula One driver who raced for various teams. He was the first Swede to both enter and win a Formula One Grand Prix. Early life Jo Bonnier was born in Stockh ...

Dan Gurney Daniel Sexton Gurney (April 13, 1931 – January 14, 2018) was an American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner who reached racing's highest levels starting in 1958. Gurney won races in the Formula One, Indy Car, NASCAR, Can-Am, ...

Graham Hill Norman Graham Hill (15 February 1929 – 29 November 1975) was a British racing driver and team owner, who was the Formula One World Champion twice, winning in and as well as being runner up on three occasions (1963, 1964 and 1965). Despite ...

and

Stirling Moss Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of comp ...

, despite these were smaller engined cars and less powerful, the marque had won the last two Targa Florios.

Race

At the start, Moss would take an immediate lead, which would eventually build up to around 90 seconds, with his team-mate Bonnier in second place. The leading Ferrari was that of von Trips and he would be trailing along further behind, yet it seemed more than obvious the Ferrari 246 SP just couldn’t match the overall performance of the nimble Porsches The Ferrari of Phil Hill and Ginther suffered an accident of the very first lap, and was one of 24 cars that didn’t reach half distance. After a few laps, Moss would have to hand the car over to Graham Hill. Hill’s inexperience of the event was coming into play. While he would stay out of trouble and would have a decent pace, it wouldn’t be fast enough as the Ferrari of von Trips and Gendebien took the overall lead by nearly 80 seconds, while Bonnier/Gurney fell back to third. Still, Hill had done his job, he complete a couple of laps and would hand the car back to Moss for the remainder of the race. Moss picked up the pace quite dramatically and was soon right back up with the leading Ferrari. He wasn’t going to be stop and he soon was back in the lead. In reply, von Trips set an amazing fastest lap, with an average speed of 67.019 mph. Still heading into the final lap, he followed Moss in the running order. Moss headed into the last lap with a lead of more than a minute over the Ferrari. By this point he had covered more than 440 miles, when the differential failed. He was just a few miles around from victory. The Ferrari of von Trips/Gendebien inherited the lead, to take the victory, completing 10 laps, covering 447.388 miles in just under 7½ hours of racing, averaging a speed of 64.272 mph. Second place went to the works Porsche of Bonnier and Gurney in a Porsche 718 RS 61, albeit over 4½ mins adrift. The podium was complete by another works Porsche, of Herrmann and Barth who were further 12 mins behind.

Official Classification

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

, 40:03.2secs (67.019 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 3 results out of the 5 races could be retained by each manufacturer. Points earned but not counted towards the championship totals are listed within brackets in the above table.