Race Car Driver
Portago began racing sports cars and won six big races, including the Tour de France automobile race, the Grand Prix of Oporto, and the Nassau Governor's Cup (twice). He once told a reporter, I like the feeling of fear. After a while a man becomes an addict and has to have it. In Nassau during the winter of 1956, Portago trailed the car ahead of him by inches while travelling at 150 mph (241 km/h). Portago used his skill to avert careening into a crowd after the driver ahead of him touched his brakes and both cars went into a 600-foot (180 m) skid. Among sports car enthusiasts Portago was known as a two-car man, because of the many burned-out brakes, clutches, transmissions, and wrecked cars for which he was responsible. He often needed several cars to finish a race.
He participated in 5 World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on July 1, 1956. His best result was a second place at the 1956 British Grand Prix (a shared drive with Peter Collins, and scored a total of four championship points. In 1953 he raced with Luigi Chinetti in the Carrera Panamericana. During the 1955 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Portago was thrown from his Ferrari while racing at 90 mph (140 km/h) after losing control on a patch of oil. He was hospitalized with a broken leg.
Read more about this topic: Alfonso De Portago
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