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Ahead of this weekend’s ePrix in the glamourous Uruguayan resort of Punta del Este, Formula E looks back at the history of motor racing in the South American country.
Uruguay’s history in motor racing dates back over 100 years as the nation hosted its first race in 1913. But it was during the 1950s when the country started to make a big impact on world motorsport. Local drivers including Alberto Uria, Oscar González, Asdrúbal Fontes Bayardo and Carlos Dánvila competed in races across the country as well as the rest of South America in imported Ferrari and Maserati machines using V8 Chevrolet engines.
With the formation of the Formula 1 world championship at the beginning of the decade, which included a round in neighbouring Argentina, the Uruguayan aces used this race to demonstrate their skills to the European teams and drivers. In 1956 Uria and Gonzalez shared the former’s Maserati A6GCM/250 and finished a creditable sixth place, just outside the points, in a race won by Juan Manuel Fangio and Luigi Musso at Buenos Aires.
Eitel Cantoni entered three Formula 1 races in 1952 and recorded a highest place finish of 11th at the Italian Grand Prix, while Bayardo travelled to Europe in 1959 and entered the French Grand Prix at Reims, but the Montevideano failed to qualify for the race.
In the 1960s, Uruguayan drivers took advantage of the lack of import duty on touring cars in their country to acquire machines including the SAAB 96, Alfa GTA and Ford Escort Mk I that were much faster than those driven by their Argentinean and Brazilian rivals. Using these cars, Uruguayan drivers notched up a number of class wins in the multiple stages, open road Gran Premio Internacional de Turismo races for touring cars that were held in Argentina between 1957 and 1975.
In the single-seater world at the same time, Uruguay’s brightest hope was Alberto Passadore – a driver on the rise in junior formula championships in South America. Tragically he was killed in 1964 at the first round of the Argentine Temporada for Formula Junior cars in a brand new Lotus 27. Passadore’s brother Pedro entered a number of British Formula 3 races in the early 1970s but failed to score any victories and returned to compete in South America.
Gonzalo Rodriguez was arguably Uruguay’s most famous and successful racing driver. Rodriguez raced for three seasons in Formula 3000 between 1997 and 1999 where he scored three victories at the famous Spa-Franchorchamps, Nurburgring and Monaco circuits. Gonzalez finished in third place in the Formula 3000 standings in consecutive seasons in 1998 and 1999, and in the latter year he was attempting to forge a successful career in open-wheel racing in North America. After finishing 12th on his CART debut for Team Penske in Detroit, Gonzalez was killed during practice for his next race at Laguna Seca.
In recent years Uruguayan drivers have competed in a number of racing series around the world. Punta del Este local Juan Caceres finished in 15th place in the 2006 Champ Car Grand Prix at Road America and in 2014 Santiago Urrutia finished 23rd overall in the GP3 championship standings.
Over the years, Uruguay has held motor races at a number of different circuits. The long abandoned Piriápolis Autodrome famously hosted a two-round series of races in 1952 that featured a number of top level drivers including Juan Manuel Fangio, José Froilan González, Maurice Trintignant and Prince Bira in contemporary Formula 1 machinery.
In addition to tracks at the Autódromo Punta Frías, the El Pinar Autodrome – just north of capital city Montevideo – and Colonia del Sacramento, Punta del Este has hosted several championships on various street layouts. Formula 2 CODASUR and Formula 3 Sudam have both raced around the glamourous seaside resort, as has the famous Argentinean TC 2000 touring car championship. In 2007 and 2008 Martin Basso won the Punta del Este rounds and when the series returned in 2010, current WTCC champion Jose Maria Lopez took the honours on the 3.4km circuit.