Moises Solana

BIOGRAPHY

Before Formula One

In 2011, Sergio Perez becomes the first Mexican driver in Formula One for 30 years, and only the fifth in the history of the World Championship. Before him came the hard-trying Hector Rebaque and, most famously, the brothers Pedro Rodriguez and Ricardo Rodriguez. Indeed, the Mexico City track which held the Mexican GP in the 1960s and from 1986 to 1992 is named the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Pedro and Ricardo’s honour. At the end of the long front straight of the Autodromo, however, lies the Moises Solana complex of corners, named after the only other Mexican to have graced the Grand Prix grid. Whilst little known outside of his homeland, and now little more than a footnote in the F1 annals, Moises - and in fact the whole Solana clan - was every bit as famous as the Rodriguez family in the Mexican motorsport scene of the 1960s. Had he ventured to race in Europe, undoubtedly his profile would not be appearing on this website.

Now it has to be said that the story of Solana’s career does not fall neatly within our usual before, during and after F1 format. He drove mainly in Mexican GPs from 1962 to 1968, in between which he maintained a thriving domestic career. His domestic exploits up to 1968 will be covered in the ‘before F1’ section. The ‘after F1’ section will detail his brief forays in more international events up to 1968, as well as his achievements in 1969 prior to his untimely death in a hillclimbing accident in the middle of that year. Moises Solana Arciniega was born into a car-loving family. His father Jose Antonio, for one, had been friends during his studies in France with Jean Bugatti, the son of Bugatti founder Ettore Bugatti. In Mexico in the late 1930s, he built small-scale cars for his sons Hernan and Moises which set them on their way, but during his teeange years Moises also proved adept at other sports, namely baseball and jai-alai, a high-intensity catch-and-throw version of Basque pelota, which in turn is similar to squash.

Indeed, throughout the 1950s and 1960s he was one of best jai-alai forwards going around, playing in tournaments in Mexico City, Acapulco and Miami and earning more than enough to fund his motorsport hobby. At the tender age of 18 in 1954 he entered his first event - no less than the gruelling and fearsome Carrera Panamericana road race. Despite being the youngest competitor in the field, he finished 32nd overall and 6th in the TS class in a Dodge V-8 shared with Enrique Doblado, an amazing feat. In 1956 he won an event in Puebla in a car built by his uncle Javier, powered by a 1500cc Opel engine, and by the end of the decade he was regarded as being in the same league as the Rodriguez brothers. When the Mexico City circuit (then known as Magdalena Mixhuca) opened in 1959, it staged a 500km race which played host to an epic battle between Solana and Ricardo Rodriguez, both in Alfas, and Pedro Rodriguez in a Volvo. The elder Rodriguez prevailed, with Moises 2nd and Ricardo 3rd.

Not only did this mean that Moises was incredibly at the top of two entirely different sports at the same time, but it also set the scene for Solana and Pedro Rodriguez in particular to become the spearheads of Mexican motorsport throughout the 1960s. The Solana and Rodriguez families were relatively close, and whilst Pedro would pursue a career in Europe and Moises would mainly stay in Mexico so that he could play jai-alai at the same time, their paths often crossed, especially at major events. Racing predominantly at home allowed Moises to demonstrate an extraordinary versatility, both in the breadth of cars that he drove and the variety of events he entered, often all on the same day. Whilst details of his results are not easy to come by, we know that from 1961 to 1968 he competed in everything from Lotus 18 and Lotus 22 Formula Junior cars, to a Chevy II, a Chevelle, a Corvette, a Mini Cooper, a Volvo, a Ford Galaxie, a Ford Cobra, a Mustang, a Renault, a Lola T70 Chevrolet and a McLaren M6B!

And the astonishing thing is that he tasted success in just about everything he drove, in completely different types of races, from hillclimbs to circuit races to cannonball-style city-to-city events, and from sprint races to endurance events. And it was not as though he would use different types of cars to suit different events. For example, he used his Lotus 22 open wheeler in hillclimbs, circuit events and city-to-city time trials, and took the car to victory lane in all three disciplines. Arguably his greatest win in the Lotus 22 was in a Formula Junior race in Mexico City in 1962. On a soaking wet track, Ricardo Rodriguez was the favourite in his Cooper, thanks to his European experience and the fact that he was regarded as the most talented Mexican driver at the time. But with disc brakes in his Lotus compared to the drum brakes on Ricardo’s Cooper, Moises rounded up Rodriguez on the third lap and romped away to an 11-second victory.

The Mexico City track would prove to be something of a happy hunting ground for Solana, and on 3 July 1966 he won four races in a day there. He also won races in Acapulco, Avandaro, Queretaro, Sahagun, Tecamachalco, Toluca, Lake Guadalupe and Guadalajara. He took out the Pachuca hillclimb no fewer than eight times from 1962 to 1968, including twice in a day in different classes on 23 June 1963, when he triumphed in both a Chevrolet Chevy II and a Volvo. He also made the city-to-city time trials his own, scoring victory in the Mexico City to Cuernavaca event eight times between 1962 and 1968 (including twice in a day in different classes on 17 May 1964), and twice in the Mexico City to Puebla event in 1965 and 1967. With such an illustrious record on home soil, it was little wonder that when the international stars came to town each year for the Mexican Grand Prix, Moises had the confidence to take them on.

Formula One

The first Mexican GP took place in November 1962, as a non-championship race with a view to joining the championship calendar the following year. But it would prove to be a horror meeting, for it was during practice that Ricardo Rodriguez perished in a gruesome accident in a Lotus 24. It was a tragically early end for the 20-year-old younger Rodriguez, who had qualified on the front row in his F1 debut at Monza the previous year, and who had driven in four GPs for Ferrari during the course of 1962. Solana had also been entered in a Cooper T58 with a BRM engine, and while the official records state that Moises withdrew from the event because the car was too slow, the reality is that he pulled out as a sign of respect for his fallen comrade and so that he could help console Ricardo’s anguished brother. There would, after all, more than likely be another opportunity the following year, when the Mexican GP became a round of the World Championship.

And so it proved. Pedro picked up from where Ricardo left off, making his own F1 debut in the US GP at Watkins Glen in a works Lotus, which he would also drive in Mexico. Solana joined him on the grid in a BRM P57 entered by Scuderia Centro Sud, becoming the only car fielding the number 13 to ever start a World Championship race. But whilst Moises qualified in a very creditable 11th out of the field of 21, only half a second behind Jack Brabham, Pedro had had a troubled practice and would only start 20th. But in the race, Rodriguez quickly charged up into the midfield, where he was soon dicing with Solana and Ferrari driver Lorenzo Bandini. The two Mexicans were proving their worth, when Rodriguez retired after 26 laps with suspension failure. Bandini himself dropped out after 36 laps with ignition trouble whilst running 6th, and suddenly Solana was in with a chance of scoring points in his first F1 race, until he too fell out after 57 laps with engine failure, which saw him eventually classified 11th.

The following year, Lotus approached Rodriguez to drive a third car in Mexico again alongside Jim Clark and Mike Spence, but Pedro had already signed to drive a Ferrari run by the North American Racing Team. He recommended Solana to Colin Chapman, and Moises was duly taken on. Once again Solana performed commendably, qualifying 14th out of 19 and finishing 10th and two laps down, with Rodriguez claiming a point for 6th in a race which saw John Surtees dramatically seal the title on the last lap. Solana's association with Team Lotus continued into 1965, when once again he was placed in a third car for both the US and Mexican GPs. The race at Watkins Glen did not go so well, possibly due to Moises' unfamiliarity with the American circuit. He started 17th out of 18, and in the race held in difficult wet conditions, he was classified 12th but some 15 laps behind Graham Hill's winning BRM. However, the time he had spent acclimatising with the Lotus 25 held Moises in good stead for the Mexico City round.

On home turf, he qualified an excellent 9th out of 19 entrants, only 1.38s slower than Clark on pole and a mere 0.02s behind Jackie Stewart's BRM. Come race day, with the likes of Clark, Brabham and Stewart retiring, Solana found himself moving smartly up the field and fending off Ronnie Bucknum in the Honda. He was in 5th place with ten laps to go when his ignition failed. Hill, who was ahead at the time, would retire the following lap, and Bucknum eventually was 5th. Once again a points finish had gone begging. For 1966, with the introduction of the 3-litre engine formula, Lotus elected not to field a third car in Mexico, but Moises was able to rent a drive in a third works Cooper T81 powered by a Maserati engine alongside Surtees and Jochen Rindt. It would prove to be an unsuccessful outing though, with Solana feeling as though his car was under-engineered compared to the team's two main entries. He was only able to qualify 15th, and he retired after a mere nine laps when the Maserati motor overheated.

However, in 1967 Lotus had put together the package of the Lotus 49 chassis and the Cosworth DFV engine, and Moises was able to secure drives in a third car alongside Clark and Hill in the US and Mexican GPs again. The Lotus 49 was fast but fragile, and Solana posted a time that was good enough for 7th on the grid after only nine laps in practice. At one stage he had lapped even faster than Clark, and afterwards the Scotsman gave Solana a pair of his driving gloves in appreciation of the Mexican's efforts. Solana's race was short-lived, with ignition troubles sidelining him after only seven laps, but the race in Mexico City presented another opportunity to shine. Qualifying did not go quite as well as he would have hoped, and with a time that was 2.96s slower than Clark the local hero would only start 9th. However, he took advantage of confusion at the start when the starter did not drop his flag cleanly, and by the end of the first lap found himself in 5th ahead of Denny Hulme, Stewart and Surtees.

Suddenly Moises found himself in a position where he could potentially influence the outcome of the World Championship, which had come down to a two-horse race between Brabham's antipodean team-mates Brabham and Hulme. The Australian (Brabham) needed to win the race with the New Zealander (Hulme) no higher than 5th. And yet here was the local interloper Solana, comfortably staving off Hulme and keeping the increasingly frustrated Denny in 6th! At one stage Solana even set the fastest lap of the race up to that point, but eventually Hulme found a way past the Lotus. Moises was still running steadily in 6th on lap 13 when the unreliability of the Lotus 49 struck again. A front suspension failure forced him out, but yet again he had demonstrated his ability to match the world's best. Despite being essentially a once-a-year Grand Prix driver, for the third time in five years he had been in a position to score points.

Those outings in 1967 would prove to be the pinnacle, though, as things began to unravel for Solana in 1968. As discussed below, there was an opportunity with Ferrari and undoubtedly other teams would have been interested in securing Moises' services, but he was also keen to remain in Mexico to maintain his lucrative jai-alai career. Also, his friendship with Pedro Rodriguez came under some strain due to political tensions that began to grip Mexico. Rodriguez had been a supporter of former Mexican President Adolfo Lopez Mateos, who had presided over Mexico's successful bids for the 1968 Olympics and the 1970 World Cup. Solana, on the other hand, was closely connected with Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, who had taken over the Presidency in 1964. Moises was even the godfather of Diaz Ordaz's grandson. But Diaz Ordaz was controversial, not least because of his tight grip on power and the way he stamped down on industrial action.

By 1968, Rodriguez had been trying to build his F1 career in Europe, but apart from winning the 1967 South African GP for Cooper he had found himself stuck in middling teams. He was also publicly outspoken against Diaz Ordaz, and there was now a suspicion that the government would start to back Solana's racing career over his own. Come the Mexican GP, Solana was once again in a third works Lotus, but he was given a Lotus 49 chassis rather than the upgraded 49B which Hill and Jackie Oliver had. Moises qualified 11th, 0.13s ahead of Rodriguez's BRM, but his race ended after 15 laps when his high-mounted rear wing collapsed, such wings having come in vogue during the year. Unhappy with his treatment by Lotus, Solana vowed never to drive for Colin Chapman again, and given the debate at home over which Mexican driver the government would back, his F1 future in the years to come was unclear. As fate would have it, that question would not need to be resolved.

After Formula One

Apart from the 1965 US GP, 1967 was the first time that Solana competed outside his homeland. Amongst the merry-go-round of cars that he competed in was a Lola T70 Mk 3 sports prototype powered by a Chevrolet engine, which was eligible to compete in the US Road Racing Championship (later to become better known as Can-Am). Solana took the car to the first two rounds of the USRRC at Las Vegas and Riverside, finishing 5th and 8th respectively. 1967 also saw Moises race in Europe for the only time, when he was invited by Lotus to compete in the Formula 2 round that inaugurated the Jarama circuit. On paper, he was driving a Lotus 48 just as Clark and Hill were; Clark won and Solana finished 13th and last, five laps down. But there was more to the story. A deeply superstitious man, he had seen a black cat and a funeral procession on the morning of the race, thought it was an omen of death, and had decided to take it easy rather than risk life and limb.

For 1968, in addition to the Lola T70 Solana also acquired a McLaren M6B prototype. The USRRC had become the North American Road Racing Championship, since it now included rounds in Canada and Mexico, and the round in Mexico City kicked off the championship. Moises entered his McLaren under the Aztec Racing banner, with his brother Hernan competing in the Lola, but Moises’ McLaren only arrived on the Monday before the race. In addition, it was fitted with an outdated iron Chevy V8 engine, unlike the M6B which others had, including the Penske car of Mark Donohue, which had an aluminium monobloc engine. Indeed, when Donohue’s engine broke in practice, he was offered one of Solana’s spare engines but he refused on the basis that it was not a monobloc motor, a decision which angered the locals and left Penske and Donohue pilloried by the Mexican press. It also left Solana with a point to prove come race day.

He started the race cautiously, having only done around 20 laps in practice, but once he got into his stride he set off after leaders Skip Scott, Peter Revson and Sam Posey who were about half a minute up the road. With the advantage of track knowledge, he ate into the deficit at an enormous rate, catching the Americans with ease and eventually taking a very sweet victory by 13 seconds. Having proved that his M6B with its iron engine was no inferior package, he sent the car to Riverside for the next round. Whilst in transit, someone decided that Solana’s McLaren needed a new colour scheme, and proceeded to deck the white car in gold. When Moises saw the car, he thought it unusual that a competitor would have a gold car so similar to his, until he was told that it was in fact his car! With it, he finished 5th at Riverside but retired at Laguna Seca, before withdrawing from the series and returning to Mexico when he couldn’t obtain a monobloc engine ... and promptly painting the car white again.

There were two other opportunities in 1968 that Moises allowed to pass by. Firstly, Enzo Ferrari came calling and offered Solana a test in an F2 car at Modena. Moises promptly broke the lap record and Ferrari was set to offer him a deal to race in F2, with the possibility of some F1 drives on the side. But Solana was only prepared to leave his jai-alai career behind for a full-time F1 ride, plus Ferrari had put him up in the same hotel and room that Ricardo Rodriguez used to stay in. Once again Solana’s superstitions took over and the two factors in combination were enough for him to turn down Maranello’s offer. 1968 also saw Pedro Rodriguez offer to team up to race in the Le Mans 24 hours. But again, Moises considered his busy schedule and decided against his countryman’s suggestion. Instead, Rodriguez teamed up with Lucien Bianchi in one of the famous Gulf-liveried Ford GT40s ... and went on to win the Sarthe classic.

In 1969, Solana continued his frenetic involvement in the domestic scene, and the success kept coming. He won three races in a day at Avandaro in a McLaren, a Mustang and even a Datsun. He took out the Mexico City to Cuernavaca and Toluca time trials in the M6B. He won the Zempoala hillclimb in a Mustang. He even competed twice in the Pachuca hillclimb on the one day in a Volvo and a Chevelle, before taking a helicopter to Zacatenco in Mexico City to take part in a race in a Chevy II, which he won. Tragically, on 27 July he competed in the Avandaro hillclimb on the road between Valle de Bravo and Bosencheve in his McLaren M6B. During his run he clipped a kerb which pitched the car over a bridge into the ravine 10 to 20 feet below. It happened so quickly there were not even any skid marks. When the car made impact it burst into flames and burned for around two hours. Moises was trapped inside and sadly perished in the blaze, at the age of 33.

Now it was Pedro Rodriguez’s turn to console the Solana family, just as Moises had done when Ricardo Rodriguez died. But tragedy continued to stalk both families; Pedro himself perished at the Norisring in 1971, and Moises’ brother Hernan died whilst navigating in a tarmac rally in 2010. The 1960s had been the high watermark of not just Mexican motorsport, thanks to the Rodriguez brothers and the Solanas, but of Mexican sport in general, with the Olympics in 1968 and the World Cup in 1970. The passing of Ricardo, Moises and Pedro, and the end of the Olympics and the World Cup, marked the end of an era. But Solana’s contribution to Mexican motorsport and sport in general would not be forgotten. In 1996 he became one of the first inductees into the Mexican sporting Hall of Fame, for his exploits in both jai-alai and motorsport. There are also moves afoot to have the road from Valle de Bravo to Bosencheve renamed the Moises Solana highway. Moises would have deserved nothing less.

CAREER SUMMARY

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