Alfonso Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton (1928-1957)

One of the most versatile sportsmen ever, Alfonso de Portago was a Spanish nobleman with a complicated lineage. Born in London England in 1928, his mother was Irish and the widow of a wealthy financier. His father, the 16^th Marquis de Portago, fought alongside General Franco in the Spanish Civil War.

As you can imagine, with this background, money was never in short supply and 'Fon' (as he was known to his friends) easily accepted the lifestyle of a typical European playboy.

Alfonso rapidly became an excellent all-round sportsman, first trying to polo, fencing and riding, he then learned to fly and eventually even attempted the bobsleigh, with a 4^th place for Spain in the two-man event durng the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina.

Despite turning his hand to a multitude of sporting events, Alfonso's major successes were in two fields:

Horseracing

Alfonso was a highly successful amateur jockey, winning the French Amateur Jockey title on three separate occasions, securing one of these titles by winning whilst racing with a broken collar bone. He went on to ride in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1950 (finishing 3^rd) and twice running in the world famous Grand National at Aintree, near Liverpool.

Motorracing

As befits his status as a playboy, Fon started racing seriously in 1954 after purchasing his very own Ferrari. His first race was the Buenos Aires 1000 miles, finishing in second place. In 1955 he purchased a Formula 1 Ferrari directly from Enzo Ferrari himself, unfortunately he crashed this car in a race at Silverstone in England, breaking his leg.

However, despite this apparent setback, Enzo Ferrari hired him the following year as a junior driver in the Ferrari team (alongside Fangio¹, Peter Collins, Luigi Musso and Castellotti).

1956 started well for Alfonso, his best result was at Silverstone, in the British Grand Prix, where he achieved the unusual feat of finishing in both 10^th and 2^nd position.

This strange situation came about on lap 92 of 100, when his senior team mate, Peter Collins who was running in second place, suffered a mechanical breakdown. The Ferrari team called de Portago into the pits - at the time he was running in 10^th and last position (some 17 other drivers having retired already). The team then pulled him out of his car and gave it to Collins, in an attempt to salvage Collin's second place. The tactic worked, Collins finished behind his teammate Fangio in second place, but the podium position was jointly awarded to both drivers - de Portago and Collins.

The final year

1957 started well for de Portago, a shared fifth place in the Argentinian Grand Prix in January gave him his first point of the new season. Just a week later he gained a third place in the Bueonos Aires 1000 miles (one place lower than his 1955 result).

The next two months saw more races: A third place in the 'Gran Premio de Cuba'²; Seventh in the Sebring 12 hour race in the US and finally a win in the Coupe de Vitesse in Monthlery, France.

In May 1957, de Portago entered one of the most famous road races of its era, the Mille Miglia in Italy. Five hours and 17 minutes into the race, a tyre blow-out caused Portago and his co-driver - Edmond Nelson to crash. The horrific outcome of the crash was that not only the two young men, but also ten spectators, five of whom were children, died instantly.

Within days the Italian authorities had banned all road racing and Enzo Ferrari, as owner of the car, spent the next four years fighting manslaughter charges as a result of the tragedy.