Venezuelan G.P.

The winner of the 1958 Venezuelan G.P., which this year was run as a road race for Gran Turismo cars, was won by Jean Behra in a 250 G.T. Ferrari on November 23rd.  One of the last town-to-town races, it was run from Palmarejo to Caracas, a distance of 469 miles, which Behra completed in a time of 4 hr. 45 min. 58.2 sec,  a speed of 98.18 m.p.h. The roads were in a very poor state of repair and the tortuous route took its toll of the competitors. A good time for the trip in a fast sports car is around 10 hours, so  Behra’s drive must rank very highly, as must the drive of Huschke von Hanstein, who drove his Porsche into eighth place overall and first in the class, averaging 89.07 m.p.h.

The race was run on Mille Miglia lines with the smaller capacity cars starting first. The first four places were filled by 250 G.T. Ferraris, followed by a lone Mercedes 300 SL.

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Results

1st:     J.Behra (Ferrari)  —  4 hr.  45 min. 58.2 sec.  —  98.18 m.p.h.

2nd:    J. Pola (Ferrari)  —  4 hr.  56 min.  52.0 sec.

3rd.     G. Munaron (Ferrari)  —  4 hr.  57 min. 44.0 sec.

4th:     M. Toselli (Ferrari)  —  5 hr.  2 min.  37.0 sec.

5th:     E. Morrison (Mercedes-Benz)  —  5 hr.  2 min.  43.0 sec.

6th.     H. Tosa (Ferrari)  —  5hr.  4 min. 25.0 sec.

7th.     H. Chimeri (Ferrari)  — 5 hr.  12 min.  23.0 sec.

8th:     H. von Hanstein (Porsche)  —  5hr. 17 min.  51.5 sec.     

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