Achille Varzi, in the Alfa Romeo 158 “Alfetta”, set the 2nd fastest time for Heat 1 behind the Alfa 158 of Carlo Trossi.
Photo: Ed McDonough Collection
Motor racing, especially at the Grand Prix level, had reached a frenzied pace before World War II but was brought to a halt in 1940. When the war was over, Mercedes and Auto Union were gone from racing but it wasn’t too long before Alfa Romeo announced that it would be returning to the competition scene. By September 1945, a group of racing stalwarts organized the first post-war event in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. It was a minor race to commemorate those in racing who had been killed in the war. Jean-Pierre Wimille, Raymond Sommer, Etancelin, “Levegh”, Maurice Trintignant, Chaboud and a few others put on a good show, and Wimille won the race in an old Bugatti.
