# 1955 Targa Florio

The 39a Targa Florio took place on 16 October, around the Circuito delle Madonie, Sicily, Italy. It was also the sixth and final round of the F.I.A. World Sports Car Championship as the Carrera Panamericana was cancelled and the Targa was allowed to take the late season slot, as a second Italian round after the Mille Miglia in May. The title lay between Ferrari, Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz, with Ferrari leading 19 points from one win to 16 from the other two marques which had two wins each, but no other results. Mercedes had skipped the first two heats and withdrew from Le Mans after the disaster, while leading the race. Jaguar did not show up in Sicily at the unknown 72 km long road track, but Mercedes came three weeks early to practice with seven cars. Finishing 1-2-4, Mercedes secured the championship.

## Report
### Entry

A grand total of 65 racing cars were registered for this event, of which 64 arrived for practice and qualifying. Scuderia Ferrari entered a pair of Ferrari 750 Monzas for Carroll Shelby and Gino Munaron, and Umberto Maglioli and Sergio Sighinolfi, alongside a 860 Monza for the partnership of Eugenio Castellotti and Robert Manzon. One of their closest championship rivals, Jaguar, did not enter not all, leaving it to just one locally entered Jaguar XK120 to take up to the fight. Meanwhile, Officine Alfieri Maserati sent a total of six works cars across the Strait of Messina to keep their very slim championship hopes alive. Amongst their line-up was Luigi Musso, Giorgio Scarlatti and Franco Bordoni.
The third marque chasing the title, Daimler-Benz AG entered three of their Mercedes-Benz 300SLRs to tackle the 44.64 mile circuit. They had decided to quit racing at the end of the 1955 season, but one last major attempt was made to wrest the World Sports Car Championship away from Ferrari. The cars were to be driven by Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling, Stirling Moss and Peter Collins, and John Fitch with former Jaguar driver, Desmond Titterington.

### Race

The race was held over 13 laps of the 44.64 miles of the Circuito delle Madonie Piccolo, giving a distance of 581.604 miles. Each team of drivers was expected to navigate approximately 10,000 curves during almost 10 hours of driving combined. The Daimler team manager, Alfred Neubauer was planning on each driver being able to run four lap stints.
The first car, an Alfa Romeo 1900 TI started off at 07:00, with subsequent cars departing every 30 seconds. The first of the main competitors, the Ferrari 750 Monza driven by Luigi Piotti and Franco Cornacchia would leave at 07:24:30. Very quickly, Moss set a blistering pace and broke the track record by two and a half minutes. Although his Mercedes was one of the last to be flagged off, he had passed everyone by the end of lap one.
Castellotti's Ferrari split the Mercedes of Moss and Fangio. At the end of the fourth lap Castellotti was in first place and Moss was in a ditch. Moss had crashed but the Mercedes was still in working order if slightly bruised. After help from some spectators Moss was back on the road but now in fourth place. Collins exchanged places with Moss and took up the chase. Fangio passed the leading Ferrari and handed his car to Kling. Mercedes were now in first, third and fourth. The Mercedes of Moss and Collins would certainly have its fair share of obvious moments, scattered all around the car’s body. Still, it was going very fast. The area around the headlights were badly damaged, front corners on both sides were stripped away. And the right side panel looked as though they had had a number of encounters with buildings as the two Englishmen pushed the 300SLR hard through the Sicilian countryside.
On one occasion, Moss pushed at a bit too hard and would go careening off the side of the track. The car avoided heavy damage, and with the help of some local spectators, Moss would rejoin the race, still leading. Trouble struck again when Collins drove straight up a stone wall, his front wheels spinning in the air. Fortunately he was able to put his car in reverse and rejoined the battle. Collins worked his way up to first before returning the car to Moss.
Moss drove the only way that he knew how and won going away or in the words of Peter Collins "despite Stirling's efforts and my own to write the machine off!" Mercedes won the race and with it the sports car championship only to quit racing for the second time.
As a result, car number 104 (Daimler-Benz AG), took an impressive victory, winning in a time of 9hrs 43.14 mins., averaging a speed of 59.832 mph. Second place went to Fangio and Kling, for the second race in a row, 4mins and 41 seconds adrift. The podium was complete by the Ferrari 857 S of Castellotti and Manzon, a further 5mins 25 behind. Meanwhile, the third Mercedes of Titterington and Fitch were fourth. Next home was the first of the Maserati’s, in hand of Carlos Manzini and Francesco Giardini.

## Official Classification

Class Winners are in Bold text.
| Pos | No | Class | Driver | Driver | Entrant | Chassis | Laps | Reason Out |
| 1st | 104 | S+2.0 | Stirling Moss | Peter Collins | Daimler Benz AG | Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR | 9hr 43:14.0, 13 | |
| 2nd | 112 | S+2.0 | Juan Manuel Fangio | Karl Kling | Daimler Benz AG | Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR | 9hr 47:55.2, 13 | |
| 3rd | 116 | S+2.0 | Eugenio Castellotti | Robert Manzon | Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari 857 S | 9hr 53:20.4, 13 | |
| 4th | 106 | S+2.0 | Desmond Titterington | John Fitch | Daimler Benz AG | Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR | 9hr 54:53.4, 13 | |
| 5th | 76 | S2.0 | Carlo Manzini | Francesco Giardini | Officine Alfieri Maserati | Maserati A6GCS | 10hr 41:15.0, 13 | |
| 6th | 82 | S2.0 | Giuseppe Musso | Giuseppe Rossi | Officine Alfieri Maserati | Maserati A6GCS | 10hr 48:53.2, 13 | |
| 7th | 64 | S1.5 | Giulio Cabianca | Piero Carini | Automobili OSCA | Osca MT4 1500 | 10hr 51:37.4, 13 | |
| 8th | 78 | S2.0 | Giorgio Scarlatti | Osvaldo Lippi | Officine Alfieri Maserati | Maserati A6GCS | 11hr 03:28.0, 13 | |
| 9th | 92 | S2.0 | Luigi Bellucci | Maria Teresa de Filippis | Officine Alfieri Maserati | Maserati A6GCS/53 | 11hr 22:53.0, 13 | |
| DNF | 16 | GT | Armando Zampiero | Luigi Villotti | | Mercedes-Benz 300 SL | 12 | DNF |
| 10th | 84 | S2.0 | Gaetano Starrabba | Salvatore La Pira | | Maserati A6GCS | 12 | |
| 11th | 6 | TS+1.3 | Elio Zagato | Ovidio Capelli | | Fiat 8V Zagato | 12 | |
| 12th | 72 | S2.0 | Alberico Cacciari Azzurro Manzini | Vincenzo Sorrentino | | Maserati A6GCS | 12 | |
| 13th | 4 | TS+1.3 | Giuseppe de Sarzana | Clemente Ravetto | | Fiat 8V | 12 | |
| 14th | 42 | S1.1 | Domenico Rotolo | Luigi di Pasquale | Automobili OSCA | Osca MT4 1100 | 12 | |
| 15th | 36 | GT | Francesco Arezzo | Gennaro Alterio | | Fiat 8V Zagato | 71 | |
| DNF | 30 | GT | Ottavio Guarducci | Mario Lietti | | Fiat 8V | 11 | DNF |
| 16th | 88 | S2.0 | Guido Perrella | Mario Sannino | | Alfa Romeo 1900 | 11 | |
| 17th | 86 | S2.0 | Enzo Lopez | Ferdinando Lopez | | Maserati A6GCS | 11 | |
| 18th | 52 | GT | Guy Michel | Alfredo Fondi | | Renault 4CV | 11 | |
| 19th | 70 | S2.0 | Bruno Gavazzoli | Gastone Crepaldi | | Maserati A6GCS | 11 | |
| 20th | 20 | TS+1.3 | Vincenzo Arena | Gianfernando Tomaselli | | Lancia Aurelia | 11 | |
| DNF | 120 | S+2.0 | Umberto Maglioli | Sergio Sighinolfi | Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari 750 Monza | 10 | Lost wheel |
| DNF | 100 | S+2.0 | Luigi Piotti | Franco Cornacchia | | Ferrari 750 Monza | 9 | DNF |
| DNF | 12 | TS+1.3 | Guido Cestelli-Guidi | Guerci | | Alfa Romeo 1900 TI | 8 | DNF |
| DNF | 56 | S1.1 | Hans Finke | Fritz Kornekauer | | Kieft-Climax 1100 | 8 | DNF |
| DNF | 22 | GT | Domenico Tramontana | Giuseppe Alotta | | Lancia Aurelia | 7 | DNF |
| DNF | 74 | S2.0 | Franco Cortese | Antonio Pucci | | Ferrari 500 Mondial | 7 | Accident |
| DNF | 40 | S1.1 | Francesco Spinel | Armando Soldano | | Siata 1100 GT | 6 | DNF |
| DNF | 54 | S1.1 | Bruno Ricciardi | Angelo Sbordone | | Osca MT4 1100 | 6 | DNF |
| DNF | 62 | S1.5 | Giovanni Buoncristiani | Piero Altini | | Ermini-Fiat | 6 | DNF |
| DNF | 102 | S+2.0 | Mario Ricci | Piero Scotti | Franco Bordoni | Gordini T24S | 6 | DNF |
| DNF | 24 | GT | Alfonso Vella | Pietro Termini | | Jaguar XK120 | 5 | DNF |
| DNF | 48 | S1.1 | Francesco Mentesana | Gaetano Marotta | | Cisitalia 202 | 5 | DNF |
| DNF | 110 | S+2.0 | Carroll Shelby | Gino Munaron | Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari 750 Monza | 5 | Accident |
| DNF | 10 | TS+1.3 | Baldassare Taormina | Pasquale Tacci | | Alfa Romeo 1900 TI | 4 | DNF |
| DNF | 28 | GT | Mennato Boffa | Giuseppe Ruggero | | Lancia Aurelia | 4 | DNF |
| DNF | 94 | S2.0 | Fernando Mancini | Benoît Musy | Tony Parravano | Maserati 150S | 4 | Oil pipe |
| DNF | 118 | S+2.0 | Luigi Musso | Luigi Villoresi | Officine Alfieri Maserati | Maserati 300S | 4 | Rear axle |
| DNF | 2 | TS+1.3 | Nicola Musmeci | Alessandro Perrone | | Alfa Romeo 1900 TI | 2 | DNF |
| DNF | 14 | TS+1.3 | Charles de Cortanze | ”Eldé” | | Peugeot 403 | 2 | DNF |
| DNF | 38 | S1.1 | Ugo Mauthe | Rosario Montalbano | | Siata 1100 GT | 2 | DNF |
| DNF | 44 | S1.1 | Francesco de Roberto | Pietro Fiordelisi | | Stanguellini Bialbero | 2 | Accident |
| DNF | 58 | S1.1 | Francesco Siracusa | Pasquale Placido | | Stanguellini Bialbero | 2 | DNF |
| DNF | 32 | GT | Vittorio Colocci | Gioacchino Vari | | Lancia Aurelia | 1 | DNF |
| DNF | 80 | S2.0 | Mike Young | Geoff Richardson | | Lotus-Connaught Mark VIII | 1 | Accident |
| DNF | 90 | S2.0 | Giovanni Bracco | Franco Bordini | Officine Alfieri Maserati | Maserati 200S | 1 | Accident |
| DNS | 8 | TS+1.3 | Raffaello Matteucci | Alfonso Thiele | | Alfa Romeo 1900 TI | | |
| DNS | 18 | GT | Franco Bertani | | | Alfa Romeo Giulietta | | |
| DNF | 26 | GT | Natale Gotelli | Bensi | | Mercedes-Benz 300 SL | | |
| DNS | 34 | GT | Ignazio Consiglio | Rocco Finoocchiaro | | Fiat 8V | | |
| DNS | 46 | S1.1 | Otello Biagiotti | Piero Altini | | Ermini-Fiat | | |
| DNS | 50 | S1.1 | Mario Piccolo | Giuseppe Sapienza | | Giaur | | |
| DNS | 60 | S1.5 | Ernst Lautenschlager | Rudi Scholl | | Porsche 550 | | |
| DNS | 66 | S1.5 | Wolfgang Siedel | | | Osca MT4 | | |
| DNS | 96 | S2.0 | Azzurro Manzini | | | Maserati A6GCS | | |
| DNS | 98 | S+2.0 | Hauret | | | Talbot Sport | | |
| DNS | 108 | S+2.0 | Luigi Bordonaro | Enrico Anselmi | | Ferrari 750 Monza | | |
| DNS | 114 | S+2.0 | Melchiorre Scaminaci | Antonio di Salvo | | Ferrari 750 Monza | | |
* Fastest Lap: Stirling Moss, 43:07.400secs (62.248 mph)

### Class Winners

| Class | Winners | | |
| Sports +2000 | 104 | Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR | Moss / Collins |
| Sports 2000 | 76 | Maserati A6GCS | Manzini / Giardini |
| Sports 1500 | 64 | Osca MT4 1500 | Cabianca / Carini |
| Sports 1100 | 42 | Osca MT4 1100 | Rotolo / di Pasquale |
| Grand Touring | 36 | Fiat 8V Zagato | Arezzo / Alterio |
| Special Touring +1300 | 6 | Fiat 8V Zagato | Zagato / Capelli |

## Standings after the race

| Pos | Championship | Points |
| 1 | Mercedes-Benz | 24 |
| 2 | Ferrari | 22 (23) |
| 3 | Jaguar | 16 |
| 4 | Maserati | 13 (15) |
| 5 | Aston Martin | 9 |
* 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. 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 7 races could be retained by each manufacturer. Points earned but not counted towards the championship totals are listed within brackets in the above table.