John Ford’s iconic phrase about the creation of myths in the classic Western said, “When the legend becomes reality, print the legend.” The Man Who Killed Liberty Valance (1962)And this is RACC, the alma mater, godfather and promoter motorsport in Catalonia, and one of the ancestors of the current Formula 1 in Barcelona. Book La Penya Rhin, RACC and Formula 1. A story of passion and perseverance (Vienna Editions), promoted by the 800,000-member mobility club, details 116 years of automobile racing in Barcelona, as well as the city’s historical ties with great circus figures from Tazio Nuvolari to Max Verstappen.
Original
“We had to give importance to the history of the city, the RACC and F1, recognizing the efforts of those who promoted the first races,” Josep Mateu summarized.
“The idea of creating this book came about a year ago, when there was a lot of noise about Madrid and F1,” RACC president Josep Mateu observed at the presentation in Barcelona yesterday. “It was necessary to give importance to the history of the city, the RACC and F1, recognizing the efforts of those who promoted the first race of the Catalunya Cup in 1908 on the Vilafranca circuit, the race on the Terramar circuit of Sitges. 1923 which were created by some enlightened people, the elite of the time, the Penya Rhine and Pedralbes Circuits, the Montjuic Circuit and the Montmelo Circuit with Sebastia. Salvado; A history of pioneers and innovators,” Mateu summarizes, highlighting F-1’s contribution “to the transformation and economic and social development of Catalonia.”
Image of the urban circuit with Barcelona’s Diagonal in the 1949 GP Penya Rhine, precursor to the F1 race
The result of this editorial commission by journalists Josep Maria Miret, Valenty Fradera and Josep Viaplana on behalf of RACC is a complete 320 page book, with original photographs and great documentary value of the car races that took place in Catalonia. Beginning of XX century.
“If today we have F-1 in Catalonia it is because a group of madmen from Penya Rhin spent money on bringing the race to Barcelona,” explains journalist Fradera, an expert in the history of motorsports. “Without that legacy, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya would not have been a country project had it not come about through spontaneous generation.”
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Start of the 1973 Spanish GP race at Montjuic
Those crazy people of Penya Rhine – name adopted from the extinct Rhine café in Plaza Catalunya – were a group of friends, businessmen fond of racing, such as Frick Armañague, Joaquim Molins or Salvador Fàbregas, who organized some great races between Was organised. 1916 and 1954. Award in Barcelona. His publicity work was done by RACC. The first race of the F-1 World Championship in Pedralbas, Barcelona in 1951 is his contribution.
Works on the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmeló in 1990
The book, a collaboration with La Vanguardia journalists Raymond Blancafort, Josep Luis Merlos, Emilio Pérez de Rosas, Francesc Rosas, Fabio Marchi and Tony López Jorda, reviews episodes such as Ferrari’s debut at the Pedralbes circuit outside Italy in 1948, Fangio Is. The trip to Barcelona and victory in 1951, the success and tragedy of Montjuic, the construction of the Montmelo Circuit, the Alonso incident, or the Jovés pilot program to boost the Catalan pool of drivers who would reach F1.
Fernando Alonso, King Juan Carlos I and Pedro de la Rosa at the Spanish GP in Montmelo, 2001
With a first edition of 1,000 copies, the book can be purchased from Abacus Co-operative Establishments.
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