Juan Gaudino and the Fuerza Libre

Do you remember our Quiz # 189 from October 2006? We showed the Chrysler of Juan Gaudino, but didn’t know much about either driver or car. A new book by Guillermo Sánchez changed all that. It’s titled Fuerza Libre and deals with the history of racing in Argentina under the Fuerza Libre formula. The book contains stories about many unsung racing drivers, but also has lots of details about the cars and circuits of the Argentine Pampas and Patagonia. Tracing the history of Juan Antonio Gaudino we read that he made his motor racing debut in 1924, but soon after the Argentinean importers of Chrysler asked him to drive for them. Gaudino preferred road-races, but also performed well on the circuits. He won several important races in 1926, 1927 and 1928 with his simple, almost standard Chrysler Imperial 80. He had his share of crashes and injuries too, and once his wounds had to be stitched with guitar strings! In 1932 Gaudino was invited to participate in the Indianapolis 500 Miles race, which he did with his newly built Chrysler Insignia de Oro (Golden Seal) and finished 26th. After winning some more races in Argentina, Gaudino retired from racing in 1937.

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