When Fangio was kidnapped in Cuba

One of the most extraordinary episodes in motor racing played out 65 years ago this month. The setting was the Hotel Lincoln in central Havana where on the evening of February 23 1958 the five-time reigning world champion Juan Manuel Fangio was chatting to friends in the lobby when a gang burst in, pointed a gun at him and told him to get into the waiting car.

Fangio was in Havana for the Cuban Grand Prix, which so far has taken place on just three occasions: in 1957, 1958 and 1960. The race had been dreamt up by the military dictator Fulgencio Batista. History does not record whether Batista was a racing fan, but he did see the potential of a glamorous event attended by world-renowned drivers in increasing Cuba’s profile and attracting more tourists – especially Americans – to the casinos of his capital.

The fact that the island had no dedicated race tracks was no barrier: a street circuit had been hastily designed around the Malecon district of Havana with the main straight running along the seafront. Spectators simply stood by the roadside to watch the action.

Fangio had won the 1957 race driving a Maserati 300S, from Carroll Shelby in a Ferrari 410S. By 1958 however, revolutionary fervour, led by Fidel Castro, against the decadence and corruption of the regime was building.

It was against this backdrop that Fangio found himself face to face with a member of the socialist revolutionary 26th of July Movement holding a gun. Years later one of the kidnappers, Angel Paya Garcia, recalled what happened next: “Fangio thought we were joking until he saw the gun, and when we warned the others that Fangio would take the consequences if anyone tried anything, the racing driver said, ‘Let’s go.’ Would we have used our pistols? I don’t think so. We weren’t murderers. Fangio remained very calm.”

The kidnapping of the world champion made headlines around the world but amazingly the race itself went ahead the next day – and it would be one that you could argue Fangio did well to miss. According to Nigel Roebuck, in Motor Sport, the grand prix was chaotic and tragic in equal measure: “There was bedlam on race day. A crowd estimated at over 250,000 packed in around the circuit with not so much as a fence between them and the cars.

“Hours late the race finally got underway. Six laps in, Moss and Masten Gregory were disputing the lead when a local driver lost control of his Ferrari, hit a kerb and scythed through the crowd. Six people were killed instantly, and at least 40 more injured. From race control they couldn’t see what had happened and it was left to Phil Hill and Bob Said to stop and tell them to put out a red flag.” Moss was eventually declared the winner.

As for Fangio, his kidnappers – overawed with their prize – took him on a mini tour of friends and family where he dined and signed autographs. He listened to the race with his captors on a radio and was later released to the Argentinian embassy. A few days afterwards he left Havana and travelled to New York for an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. “I had won the world championship five times and I had raced and won at Sebring,” he reflected, “but what made me popular in the United States was the kidnap in Cuba.”

Batista’s regime barely saw out the year – the dictator fled to the Dominican Republic on New Year’s Day 1959. The Cuban GP didn’t take place in 1959 but it reappeared in 1960 where Castro rebranded it as the Gran Premio Libertad — the Freedom Grand Prix, and was won again by Moss. With post-revolution Cuba ostracised by the US, the race folded the following year becoming a footnote in racing history.

Recalling these events it is easy with the passing of six and a half decades to think such hair-raising drama is consigned to the history books. Mercifully, mass casualties at races have been. But in other areas as ever with motor sport, things aren’t so simple.

As we prepare for the new Formula 1 season, remember that this time last year saw F1 cars take to the track on the Friday before the second race of the season under a cloud of smoke billowing from an oil refinery that been hit by a missile attack, subsequently claimed to be the work of Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Just a few weeks before, preparations for that year’s Dakar Rally were rocked by an explosion ahead of the start of the race which left French driver Philippe Boutron seriously injured. It was an accident according to Saudi officials, although French investigators concluded that the explosion had been caused by an improvised explosive device. In November the FIA was forced to clarify that the 2023 Brazilian GP would go ahead despite widespread political and civil unrest.

For better or worse motor racing plies its trade in unpredictable parts of the world – and always has done. Perhaps all we can do is channel the same sang-froid as Fangio displayed in the face of his kidnappers: “He told us what went through his mind when we pointed the gun at him in that hotel lobby,” recalled one of them. “He thought to himself: ‘I’m about to enter a dangerous curve and in this case, I’d better know how to handle the car.’”

A call to our readers: we are planning a series of features celebrating the 75th anniversary of Goodwood motor circuit. We would like to hear from any readers who have memories of attending races there between 1948-1966. All memories and, if you have them, photographs, are welcome. Please contact us by email at [email protected] or send us a letter including a contact number. Thank you and enjoy the magazine!

Joe Dunn, editor
Follow Joe on Twitter @joedunn90

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