[faksta]

Grand Prix de SPAK

The finest hour of Russian motorsport and the most significant event up to the date has come on May 18, 1914, when Saint-Petersberg Automobile Club organized an International Grand Prix on the same roads near St.-Petersberg which accepted a SPAK International race a year before. In the beginning of 1914 invitations have been sent to many European clubs and manufacturers.
Unfortunately, the event turned out to be not so great as it could be – most manufacturers have been preparing to an ACF Grand Prix which had to start within a month and a half, and the only works driver on GP de SPAK was Aquila Italiana’s Beria d’Argentine (apart from Russo-Baltique's own Ivan Ivanov), but even his car was basically a sportscar with a racing body. The only two racing cars were a 15-liter Benz entered by Willy Scholl and Slubsky’s Excelsior, which he drove a year ago in SPAK International race – the latter was a car bought from Joseph Christiaens after he has finished a Brussels-St.-Petersberg run in 1913. This time two classifications have been imposed – an ordinary one, in a finish order, and depending on a regularity with a most mechanical impact, which was counted by a very moderate formula.
The distance, which was planned to be 360 versts (12 laps) has been cut to 210 versts (7 laps) because of the governor’s ban to take the road for more than 5 hours.
Starting list for the first and still the last Grand Prix race in Russia looked like this:

#1 – Scholl (D) Benz
#2 – Slubsky (R) Excelsior
#3 – Ghisser (R) Benz
#4 – Ivanov (R) Russo-Baltique C24/60
#5 – Ovsiannikoff (R) Vauxhall 30/98E
#6 – Sadyker (R) Sunbeam
#7 – d’Argentine (I) Aquila Italiana
#8 – Samsonova (R) Hupmobile
#9 – Boboshko (R) Hupmobile
#10 – Wern (R) Hupmobile
#11 – Rashevsky (R) Vauxhall
#12 – Neugebauer (?) Rochet-Schneider
#13 – Grebenschikoff (R) Buick
#14 – Sokoloff (R) Argyll
#15 – Jamoida (R) NAG

Three of fifteen entrants – Ghisser, Neugebauer and Jamoida - did not start, so the race consisted of only 12 cars. Scholl started first and didn’t let anyone to overtake him during the whole race, along the way setting a new lap record – 13 minutes 55,6 seconds – almost half a minute faster than Ivanov a year before. Slubsky could have had a chance of getting Scholl, but spent some 20 minutes trying to fix the clutch. 7 cars have finished that race, with 6 classifed, as Sokoloff drove his Argyll to a finish already after the timing was closed.
Final classification:

1. Scholl (1:48.32,2)
2. Ovsiannikoff (+10.29,6)
3. d’Argentine (+13.08,6)
4. Slubsky (+28.38,0)
5. Rashevsky (+40.59,8)
6. Boboshko (+1:10.24,8)
7. Sokoloff (not classified)
DNF Samsonova (3L)
DNF Sadyker (2L)
DNF Ivanov (1L)
DNF Wern (1L)
DNF Grebenschikoff (1L)

This year Ivanov has once more modified his Russo-Baltique. The engine was bored again and the output rose to about 60hp. A new body has been installed with a German-esque sharp radiator. This was the last modification of a Monte Carlo car.
Six weeks after the race Franz Ferdinand d’Este was killed in Sarajevo, in 1917 the socialist revolution happened in Russia, which led to a civil war and motor racing has been nearly forgotten for quite a long time.

Pictures:

1. Willy Scholl - the winner of the only Grand Prix race in Russian history.
2. Ovsiannikoff's Vauxhall 30/98E (note that Vauxhall is written with cyrillic letters, which was a common practice those days).
3-4. The only foreign works driver - Beria d'Argentine and his Aquila Italiana.
5-6. Next generation of Ivanov's car - Russo-Baltique C24/60.