1956 Swedish Grand Prix

The 1956 Sveriges Grand Prix took place on 12 August, at the Rabelövsbanan, Kristianstad. Although this was the second running of the race, it was the first time as a round of the F.I.A. World Sports Car Championship. The previous year’s race, won by Juan Manuel Fangio was the first big race held in Sweden, and the organiser, Kungl Automobil Klubben dealt with it so well, the F.I.A. promoted the race. For this year’s event, the circuit was widened and resurfaced.

A grand total of 29 racing cars were registered for this event, of which 28 arrived for practice and 27 for qualifying. Although this was the last round of the championship, there were only two manufacturers who could take the world title, namely Ferrari and Maserati. As a result, the entry list for this race was almost entirely Italian. Both teams were represented by five cars in the race. Ferrari send two 860 Monzas and three 290 MMs for their squad of 11 drivers, while Officine Alfieri Maserati was represented five Maserati 300S, and their team of 10. The only ray of hope from outside of Italy, were the trio of privately entered Jaguar D-Types.

During the three qualifying sessions held on three days prior to the race, everyone in the works Ferrari and Maserati teams drove all their team cars. After 570 minutes of qualifying, Maserati’s Stirling Moss emerged the fastest, putting his 300S on pole.

The race was held over 153 laps of the 4.062 miles, Rabelövsbanan, giving a distance of 621.472 miles (1,000.161 km). At 12 noon, in front of 37,500 spectators, Collins was first away, with both the Ecurie Nationale Belge cars having trouble starting, but getting away before the leaders returned to complete their first lap. A long line of scarlet red cars screamed across the line to complete the opening lap, led by the Ferrari of Peter Collins, with Stirling Moss, Mike Hawthorn, Benoît Musy, Wolfgang von Trips and Luigi Villoresi following chase behind. Already out was Piero Taruffi, having been hit by the Jaguar of Ron Flockhart when his brakes locked up. While Flockhart was able to limp back to the pits for repairs, Taruffi was out on the spot. After the first hour, the only change was that Hawthorn momentarily overdid things, and this let von Trips though into third.

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