Belgrade Grand Prix

The Belgrade Grand Prix is a former grand prix from the Grand Prix motor racing era - precursor to Formula One. It was held on the streets of Belgrade, the capital of Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Serbia's largest city. Only one championship event was held, on 3 September 1939. This race saw 5 drivers take part - two Mercedes-Benz in their Silver Arrows, two Auto Unions (modern Audi) and a Bugatti, which finished 19 laps down - and was won by Tazio Nuvolari. The Kalemegdan Park circuit is no longer operational.

The international race was organized on Sunday, 3 September 1939, and was planned as the main event within the scope of the celebration of the 16th birthday of the King of Yugoslavia, Peter II, which was on 6 September. It was organized by the Automobile Club of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, while the patrons were the Queen mother, Maria and the Politika newspapers. Queen Maria herself was a passionate driver and was often seen driving her Rolls-Royce through Belgrade during the Interbellum. She stopped driving on her own after her husband, King Alexander I of Yugoslavia was assassinated in the car, in 1934 in Marseille.

The circuit was set as a round course surrounding the Belgrade Fortress, popularly called Kalemegdan, after the park in the fortress. The start was at the entrance into the Kalemegdan from the Knez Mihailova Street, at the kafana "Srpska Kruna" ("Serbian Crown"), which is today a location of the Belgrade City Library. The cars then went north, down the street of Maršala Pilsudskog (today Tadeuša Košćuškog) to the Dušanova Street in the neighborhood of Dorćol. The course then turned left, next to the Institute for the sewing of the military uniforms (later Beko factory, demolished in the 2010s), and then continued around the Fortress and the Nebojša Tower, along the right bank of the Sava river, constantly swirling to the left. After reaching the beginning section of the Karađorđeva street in the neighborhood of Savamala there was another turn to the left next to the Embassy of France, and then up the Knez Mihailov Venac (today Pariska Street) back to the "Srpska Kruna". First races were shorter, while the final, Grand Prix race, consisted of 50 laps.

The track was considered a challenging one, as it had a hilly section, partially was made of cobblestone and intersected with the tram tracks.

The entire event comprised 8 separate races. First 7 included car races with lesser known drivers in the less powerful automobiles, motorcycle race and a race for motorcycles with a sidecar and a balancer. A balancer's duty was to sit in a sidecar and to prevent the motorcycle from tipping over, by leaning on one side or another when motorcycle runs into the curve in full speed. Reporters wrote that it was on the "edge of suicide". The most important race, Grand Prix, was saved for last.

At the time, Belgrade had a population of 360,000 and the race attracted 100,000 spectators, so the organization of the event was challenging. At the request from the organizers which wanted as much audience as possible, the railway reduced ticket prices to Belgrade from other parts of Yugoslavia (Niš, Sarajevo, Ljubljana, Split) by 66%. On 26 August, the airplanes flew over larger cities in the entire kingdom (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Zagreb, Skopje, Niš, Sarajevo) throwing pamphlets with invitations for everyone to "use all the benefits and discounts and not to miss the greatest sports event". The post office issued a special series of 4 stamps marking the occasion. The Cvijeta Zuzorić Art Pavilion in Kalemegdan was temporarily adapted into the post office where visitors could buy a special envelopes and stamps, with also special postmarks.

Several grandstands were constructed, near the entrance into the Kalemegdan. Both were stretching downhill, in the direction of Maršala Pilsudskog to the north and Knez Mihailov Venac to the south. Along the almost entire track, 2.7 km (1.7 mi), rooms for the standing spectators were built. The tickets for seating were 10 times higher than those for standing. Due to the great popular interest, one additional grandstand was added. As it was hastily built, to convince the public that it was properly and quality constructed, the organizers summoned 600 soldiers who tested the grandstand.

The contestants began to arrive in the late August 1939. The Belgraders waited for the famous drivers, though they never visited Belgrade, but highly popular journals about them were shown before every show in cinemas. The most popular were Hermann Lang and Manfred von Brauchitsch from Mercedes-Benz and Tazio Nuvolari and Hermann Paul Müller from Auto-Union. Though announced, Nuvolari did not arrive. He was in Italy and the ban on leaving the country due to the international situation was introduced. German authorities intervened with its Italian counterparts, so Nuvolari arrived in Belgrade, being one day late. French and Hungarian teams also arrived, but the rivalry between the two German teams was the main attraction. The journalists besieged the Belgrade hotels ("Pariz", "Moskva") where the drivers stayed. However, the greatest crowd was in front of the "Srpska Kralj" where the team members of Auto-Union were. Starting on 25 August, a members of the German teams travelled in their cars for 1,400 km (870 mi) from Germany to Belgrade, having their own tank trucks with them. The drivers from United Kingdom didn't arrive because of the safety concerns while, due to the ban on leaving Italy, Alfa Romeo and Maserati were also absent.