The 1958 1000 km Buenos Aires took place on 26 January, on the Autódromo Municipal-Avenida Paz, (Buenos Aires, Argentina). It was the fifth running of the race, and once again, it was opening round of the F.I.A. World Sports Car Championship. For this event, it returned to the Autódromo, after having a one-off race at the Circuito de la Costanera Norte, however its layout was not generally well received.

The sport’s governing body, F.I.A. and its Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI) dictated several technical changes to the 1958 Sports Car rule book, under teams completing now see their cars’ engines limited to three litres.

Report

Entry

A grand total of 30 racing cars were registered for this event, of which all 30 arrived for practice and 26 for qualifying for the race. Although this was the first major sports car race of the year to be run since CSI’s rule changes, but as in previous years, the race was poorly supported by the works teams. Only Ferrari sent works cars from Europe. They had entered three of the stunning Ferrari 250 TRs for Peter Collins/Phil Hill, Wolfgang von Trips/Mike Hawthorn and Luigi Musso/Olivier Gendebien.

As for the other works teams from 1957, Aston Martin opted not to do the long trek to South America, while the Jaguar D-Types were no longer eligible to under these new rules, due to their 5-litre engines. As for Maserati, it was announced that due to financial difficulties, they would not continue to operate as a works team.

Qualifying

After a three-hour qualifying session held on the days prior to the race, it was Collins who took pole position for Scuderia Ferrari in their 250 TR.

However, Stirling Moss and Jean Behra were originally entered to share a Maserati 300S, but when this car broke its crankshaft during a practice session, they were offered a Porsche 550 RS.

Race

The race was held over 106 laps of the 5.888 mile, Autódromo Municipal-Avenida Paz, giving a distance of 624.162 miles (1,004.49 km). Due to the lack of opposition, it was left to Ferrari to battle amongst themselves. However, the last minute change of mount for Moss and Behra would bring some excitement to the race, added in part by what was literal invasion of Lepidopterous on race day. Butterflies tended to cover up the cars’water radiators, a problem which air-cooled cars like the Porsche did not have...

In the race, the Scuderia Ferrari of Collins and Hill, won ahead of their teammates von Trips/Gendebien/Musso. Car number 2, took an impressive victory, winning in a time of 6hrs 19:55.4 mins, averaging a speed of 98.572 mph. Second place went to the second Ferrari, albeit 3:14.4 mins. adrift. The podium was complete by the winner of the 1957 Swedish Grand Prix, Moss and Behra who despite their small engine, were just 9.8 seconds behind.

The race was marred by the death of a driver named Jorge Magnasco, following an accident on lap seven, when the driver overturned his Maserati 300S.

Official Classification

Class Winners are in Bold text.

Pos No ClassDriver Entrant Chassis Laps Reason Out 1st 2 S3.0 Peter Collins Phil Hill Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 250 TR 58 6hr 19:55.4, 106 2nd 4 S3.0 Wolfgang von Trips Luigi Musso Olivier Gendebien Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 250 TR 58 6hr 23.08.0, 106 3rd 48 S2.0 Stirling Moss Jean Behra Huschke von Hanstein Porsche 550 RS 6hr 23:17.8, 106 4th 26 S3.0 Piero Drogo Sergio González Piero Drogo Ferrari 250 TR 102 5th 50 S1.5 Edgar Barth Anton von Döry Roberto Miéres Porsche Porsche 550 RS 99 6th 34 S2.0 Gino Munaron Luciano Mantovani Ferrari 500 TR 98 7th 28 S3.0 Luis Milán Antônio Mendes de Barros Maserati 300S 98 8th10 S3.0 Maurice Trintignant François Picard Ferrari 250 GT LWB Scaglietti 97 9th 44 S1.5 Ricardo Grandio Eduardo Kovacs-Jones Osca F2/S 1500 95 10th 52 S1.5 Jaroslav Juhan Hubert Wiesse Porsche 550 RS 94 11th 38 S2.0 Julio Guimarey Carlos Guimarey Maserati A6G 80 DNF 42 S1.5 Roberto Bonomi Luigi Piotti Osca S1500 75 Gearbox DNF 40 S1.5 Alberto Rodríguez Larreta Maria Teresa de Filippis Osca TN 1500 71 Electrics DNF 24 S3.0 Celso Lara-Barberis Eugênio Martins Ferrari 750 Monza 57 Engine DNF 32 S2.0 Jo Bonnier Masten Gregory Maserati 200S I 47 Brakes DNF 22 S3.0 Alvaro Piano Franco Bruno Ferrari 625 TF 42 Accident DNF 36 S2.0 Gerino Gerini Giuseppe Musso Maserati 200S I 30 Fuel system DNF 62 S3.0 Stuart Monro Eduardo Dibós-Chappius Mercedes-Benz 300 SL 30 Differential DNF 12 S3.0 Juan Manuel Fangio Francisco Godia-Sales Scuderia Centro Sud Maserati 300S 24 Accident damage DNF 54 S1.5 Pedro von Döry Curt Delfosse Porsche 550 21 Gearbox DNF 30 S2.0 Giorgio Scarlatti Antonio Negri Bevilacqua Maserati 200S I 15 Accident DNF 20 S3.0 Patricio Badaracco Federico Mayol Aston Martin DB2 15 Accident DNF 14 S3.0 Jorge Magnasco Juan Manuel Bordeu Jorge Magnasco Maserati 300S 8 Fatal accident(Magnasco) DNF 8 S3.0 John von Neumann Wolfgang Seidel John von Neumann Ferrari 250 TR 7 Rear Axle DNF 46 S1.5 Alejandro de Tomaso Isabelle Haskell Isabelle Haskell Osca F2/S 1500 5 Axle DNF 6 S3.0 Luigi Musso Olivier Gendebien Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 250 TR 0 Accident DNS 56 S1.5 Tomas Mayol Osvaldo Jose Mantega Porsche 550 DNS DNS 16 S3.0 Stirling Moss Jean Behra Scuderia Centro Sud Maserati 300S Engine in practice DNS 58 S1.5 Horacio Durado Horacio Carlomagno Simca Huit DNS DNS S3.0 Alberto Gómez Alberto Gómez Lancia D23 DNS

Fastest Lap: Stirling Moss, 3:47.6secs (105.830 mph)

Class Winners

Class Winners Sports 3000 2 Ferrari 250 TR 58 Collins / Hill Sports 2000 48 Porsche 550 RS 1.6 Moss / Behra Sports 1500 50 Porsche 550 RS Barth / Mières / von Döry

Standings after the race Pos Championship Points 1 Ferrari 8 2 Porsche 4

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, excepting the RAC Tourist Trophy, for which points were awarded on a 4-3-2-1 for the first four places. 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. Points earned but not counted towards the championship totals are listed within brackets in the above table.

References