"...You cannot do anything in Monaco..."

The Grand Prix de Monaco is an event which seems to have been a perennial fixture on the International Calendar since the dawn of motor racing. Actually, the Grand Prix is a relative newcomer to the ranks of the so-called "Classic Races," a triumph of the effectiveness of form over substance. Only since 1955 has the Grand Prix been run with any regularity. Between the 1937 and 1955 events, it was pretty much hit-or-miss for the event.

Today, the Grand Prix de Monaco has an aura about it that stubbornly refuses reflects any notions that it is as about as insane a venue for an event featuring Formula Onecars as one could imagine. Certainly a Spectacle, but scarcely Spectacular might be the best way to describe the current situation motor racing-wise.

The story of how the Grand Prix de Monaco came about is pretty much irrelevant to most F1 fans these days. It exists and that is sufficient. Why spoil it with any boring historical details? Indeed, most F1 fans have little idea as to how the event came about...

Although the Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo had been in existence since 1911, it was the product of the Sport Velocipedique et Automobile Monegasque (SAVM) - the Monaco Cycling and Automobile Sporting Association, which was formed in 1907. The Rallye was an early - and quite successful - attempt to marry up commerce in the form of tourism and motor sports. The Rallye added to the headcount during the days when the Principality might otherwise be in the doldrums.

In March 1925, there was meeting of the SAVM concerning the question of changing its name to the Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM). With but a single dissenting vote, the SAVM became the ACM. Once that was accomplished, Anthony Noghes was the young gentleman assigned the task to guide the newly formed Automobile Club de Monaco into the membership rolls of the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnu (AIACR), the forerunner of today's the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).

Noghes was the Commissionaire General of the ACM and in that role arranged to meet with the leadership of the AIACR in October of 1925 during one of its scheduled meetings. Noghes was made aware of the fact that merely having an automobile club did not automatically entitle one to membership in the AIACR. When Noghes mentioned that the annual Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo was perhaps the most successful event of its sort, he was reminded very quickly that while it may carry the title of the Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo it actually took much of The Continent to conduct the event. After all, as he was told, "...you cannot do anything in Monaco."

Noghes retorted that was certainly not the case and the ACM would sponsor an event which would be run through streets of the Principality. Not only that, they would do it next year! While certainly the sort of thing that legends are made of, the result was that the AIACR thanked Noghes for his time and sent him packing.

Returning to the Principality empty-handed, Noghes and the ACM set out to prove the AIACR wrong as to the issue of being able to do "anything" in Monaco. On the way back to the Riviera from his ill-fated meeting in Paris, Noghes later said that he mulled over what he had said to the President of the AIACR, Baron de Zuylen, and the others who had rejected the bid of the ACM for membership in their august organization.

Monaco is a principality wedged into a small strip of land on the French Riviera, the entire area measuring scarcely 150 hectares during the 1920s. Facing Monaco from the Mediterranean, the Monaco-Ville is to the east, perched upon the rock formation that juts up 60 meters from the sea. This is the original settlement which dates back to the time the Greeks who used the site as a trading post, "Monoikos" being the name originally given to the site and from which the name "Monaco" is derived. The harbor area to the west is the La Condamine district and Monte Carlo is the area to the east, just below the old village perched on the rock.

Upon that rock resided the ruler of Monaco, H.S.H Prince Louis II. Noghes enlisted Prince Peter to his cause in the campaign to gain royal approval for the notion of an automobile race through the streets of the principality and all the problems such a venture would encounter. Prince Peter immediately envisioned what Noghes suggested and saw the possibilities that such an event - la Course dans la Cite - could bring to Monaco. The approval of Prince Louis was gained and Noghes then went about the business of pulling the event together.

Not having much land to work with, Noghes began to carefully study the streets of the principality to figure out some way to use the streets as a racing circuit, but avoiding having to run the cars down streets bordered by residences on either side of the circuit. After much study, careful consideration and no end of checking and re-checking the route, Noghes finally decided upon a route for the circuit.

The natural starting point was the harbor area. The Boulevard Albert Premier was the point at which Noghes began his circuit. Up past the church at Ste. Devote and past the Beau Rivage into the Massenet Square and then the Place du Casino. Past the Casino and the Hotel de Paris, the circuit dips on its way down past the Hotel Metropole and then ran through the twisty Mirabeau section and past the railroad station. From the station, the circuit turned to the right at Portier to pick up the Boulevard Louis II which led to the Tir aux Pigeons and onto the Quai Etats-Unis and then onto the Quai Albert Premier, then past the hairpin at the Gasometre and back to the Boulevard Albert Premier. The circuit measured 3,180 meters.

With a circuit finally designated, the process of planning a race then proceeded, but it was quite a bit slower than Noghes and the other members of the ACM anticipated. There were some changes that had to be made to the proposed circuit, the steps at the Bureau de Tabac had to be replaced and an incline built connecting the Quai Etats-Unis and the Quai Albert Premier being the major project. Finally, all was in place and the ACM announced that it would host a Grand Prix in April 1929. In October 1928, the ACM was admitted to the AIACR, Noghes having accomplished his initial mission. There was still a race to run, however.

The world of Grand Prix racing in 1929 was quite a different one from that world 75 years later. The true monoposto was still several years away in Europe, although it was commonplace in America. This meant that the machines brought to Monaco for the first Grand Prix over the streets of the principality were not the sorts of cars that most would readily recognize today as "Grand Prix" machines, especially the hulking seven-litre Mercedes SSK of Rudi Caracciola.

Most of the other machines were in the two-litre range, Bugatti being the most numerous marque on the grid with the Types 35B (William Grover/"Williams" and Mario Lepori), 35C (Georges Bouriano, Philippe de Rothschild, Philippe Etancelin, Christian Dauverge, and Marcel Lehoux) , and 37A (Rene Dreyfus) represented, exactly half of the 16 starters. Three Alfa Romeo machines were on the grid, two 6C-1750s (Louis Rigal and Goffredo Zehender) and a 6C-1500 (Albert Perrot). Others were the La Licorne of Michel Dore, the Delage 15S8 of Raoul de Rovin, and the Maseratis of Guglielmo Sandri (Tipo 26) and Diego de Sterlich (Tipo 26B). Hans Stuck crashed his Austro-Daimler during practice and did not start the event, while Tennobud withdrew his Tracta.

Amazingly enough, the race was being run with the local racing hero, Louis Chiron, absent from the field! Chiron had been extremely helpful to Noghes during the period when the project was getting under way and had been invaluable in lending to the ACM his experience and inside knowledge of the way entrants and organizers operated. Chiron was already on his way to America with a Delage for the International Sweepstakes event on 30 May. It was a very different world, indeed.

On 14 April, the 16 cars lined up on the grid in the order that had been determined by the usual drawing of ballots. The practice sessions on Thursday and Friday (when it rained) were exactly that - sessions to practice and get the "feel" of the new circuit. Saturday was a day off, incidentally. The cars were arranged in rows of three, Perrot occupying the last row all by his lonesome. On the row ahead of Perrot was the white SSK of Caracciola, the draw placing him at the rear of the field. One of the "minor" problems the cars had to contend with on the Boulevard Albert Premier were the tracks for the tram system.

When the flag was waved to start the race, first up the hill towards Ste. Devote was Lehoux with Etancelin and "Williams" on his heels. "Williams" passed Lehoux on the Beau Rivage section and led into the Casino and the rest of the first lap. Left on grid was de Rovin who stalled and despite dire warnings and forecasts of catastrophe for the first racing lap, the only person to encounter any problems was Lehoux - his Bugatti getting away from him on the Quai Etats-Unis and hitting the sandbags lining the railings to keep the drivers out of the harbor.

Flying through the field from the fifth row was Caracciola. By the fifth lap the white Mercedes was in second place and gaining on the green Bugatti. "Williams" turned up the wick and opened the gap a bit, but then Caracciola closed it and on lap 30 he squeezed the big Mercedes past the Bugatti as they exited the Tir aux Pigeons and approached the chicane. Setting the fastest lap on lap 32 - 2 min 15 sec 84.8 kmph/ 52.69 mph - "Williams" began to pull the Mercedes in and gained the lead again on lap 35.

Just one lap short of half distance, lap 49, "Williams" stopped at his pit for fuel, allowing Caracciola back into the lead with Bouriano trailing just over a minute behind in second place, and "Williams" charging back after his pitstop. On lap 51, Caracciola pitted and not only added fuel but changed the rear tyres - the stop lasted an agonizing four and a half minutes. That essentially ended the race because "Williams" had managed to place a lap between himself and Bouriano.

The excitement was then watching Caracciola flinging the huge SSK around the circuit finally reeling in de Rothschild and then pushing as hard as he could to close within almost a minute of Bouriano and finishing in third place. The prize money handed out by the ACM was enough to make those who finished smile a bit more readily than they usually would after nearly four hours of driving: 100,000 Francs for first place and then 30,000, 20,000, 15,000, and 10,000 Francs for those finishing in that order, with an additional 1,000 Francs for the leader of each 10-lap mark and another 3,000 Francs for setting the fastest lap. "Williams" had a very good day at the races after all the monies were tallied.

William Grover - or "Williams" - was to gain his moment of fame with this victory, being the very first name on the list of winners of the Grand Prix de Monaco. Few seem to notice his name these days since they are usually more intent upon those of just the past several seasons. Unlike most of those on the list, Grover was to also qualify for the use of term "hero" in the true meaning of the word: in 1943, he was executed by the Nazis for his work as a member of the Resistance.

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