Alfonso Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, 11th Marquess of Portago (11 October 1928 – 12 May 1957), best known as Alfonso de Portago, was a Spanish aristocrat, racing driver and bobsleigh driver. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Besides his motor racing, larger than life Spanish aristocrat Alfonso de Portago (Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Angel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton) was an all round sportsman, who competed at Jai-Alai (Pelota), swam competitively, won a tennis title and took up top-level polo, yachting and shooting and competed in the Grand National steeplechase and entered the Winter Olympics. He was a leading amateur rider in France, being amateur steeplechase champion three times, and took one of those titles by riding a winner over hurdles with a broken collar-bone.
He was born in London, then educated in France, and was fluent in four languages. His father was Antonio Cabeza de Vaca, who died during half time at a polo match while his mother, Olga Leighton, was an Irish nurse and among his ancestors were an explorer (Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca), a Governor of Madrid, and a war hero.
After having flying lessons in Lynchburg, Virginia, he qualified as a pilot when he was 17, but lost his license soon afterwards. In Palm Beach, a hotel chef bet him $500 that he could not fly underneath a bridge (whose span was only 20 feet above water); he won the bet but landed in jail. On a later occasion, he was flying in France when his plane suddenly developed a problem but he managed to put it down in a field, where he said he landed “on a cow.”
He began racing sports cars in 1953 after Luigi Chinetti asked him to be his co-driver in the Carrera Panamericana. He then bought a Ferrari 250MM Vignale and began racing himself, finishing second in the 1954 Buenos Aires 1000kms (with Harry Schell) and would win several major races. He also raced a Maserati A6GCS/53, being tutored by factory tester Guerrino Bertocchi, and at Le Mans he had been leading the 2-litre class but had to retire and then scored his first road-racing win at Metz.
He then entered an OSCA (bought by his mother)in the sports car race supporting the German GP at the Nurburgring. In practice he was sixth fastest, which was a good showing considering it was his first time at the Nurburgring and the race included Porsches, Borgwards, E.M.W. and Lotus cars plus another OSCA driven by Wolfgang Seidel. The race was run over seven laps and although Hans Hermann shot off into the lead, Alfonso raced strongly in third place just behind H.Hanstein. However, he crashed and turned the Osca over, though luckily was uninjured but he objected as he was put into an ambulance, punched the driver and put him in the back, and drove back to the paddock. In his own words describing the crash, he said “The Porsches were bumping me in the corners.. Of course I bumped them back. It worked very well until I got behind Herrmann the leader… that’s how I went off.” He spent the evening at a x and the $10,000 he won went towards purchasing a Ferrari Monza.
He travelled to the Bahamas for 1954’s Nassau Speed Week, and again the following year, where he won the Governor’s Trophy on both occasions. 1955 also saw him competing in non championship F1 races with a Ferrari 625, though he sustained a broken leg during practice for Silverstone’s International Trophy. He returned to co-drive a Ferrari 750 Monza with Mike Hawthorn in the Goodwood 9-Hours although he was dismayed to realise Hawthorn was five seconds a lap faster; however, Hawthorn liked him and coached him (plus drank and socialised with him!).
In 1956 he raced in four World Championship F1 Grands Prix, with a Ferrari D50 in France, Britain, Germany and Italy and his best result was second at Silverstone (sharing the drive with Peter Collins). In Germany he was again asked to hand his car over to P.Collins but he didn’t object, stating “one day someone will be asked to hand over to me”. Racing in sports cars, he shone in his 250GT, winning at Oporto and Castelfusano (Rome), then won the Tour de France, with Ed Nelson, beating Stirling Moss/Houel’s Mercedes SL. He won races at Kristianstad and the Nürburgring 1000km but though he won at Montlhery, it was marred by the deaths of two friends, Benoit Musy and Louis Rosier. Louis Rosier had asked Alfonso to drive his car but then changed his mind at the last moment.
During the year, he enlisted his cousins to help represent Spain in their first ever bobsleigh team at the Winter Olympics, and with Alfonso steering, the two-man bob finished an impressive fourth. His third visit to Nassau added a third place finish to his record there and from there he travelled to the Alps for the winter sports season. On the Cresta Run, a particular record had stood for 25 years but he beat it.
In 1957 he won a bronze medal in the two-man bob event at the World Championships in St. Moritz and his motor racing season started with the Argentinian GP (taking fifth place with J.Froilan Gonzalez in a Ferrari D50). In sports cars, at Cuba he had been ahead of Fangio in his 860 Monza until a fuel line failure, but he finished third in the 1000km Buenos Aires (with E.Castellotti and P.Collins) plus was seventh at Sebring with Luigi Musso.
But then came tragedy, with an horrific accident in the Mille Miglia in May. He had been uncharacteristically nervous about the race, believing it too dangerous to run such a long course as it was almost impossible to know every corner, even with a navigator. He had planned to run the 250GT but damaged it in reconnaissance and Ferrari then provided him with a 4.1-litre V12 335S, which was the most powerful works car he’d driven. During the race he and co-driver Ed Nelson were running third but in Guidizzolo, around 40 miles from Brescia, a tyre exploded and they died instantly in the crash, which also claimed the lives of ten spectators, among them five children, and 20 others were injured. Immediately afterwards, all car and motor-cycle races on public roads were suspended in Italy.
Alfonso was interred in the vault of the related Linares family, at San Isidoro in Madrid. Enzo Ferrari attended his funeral and Fangio said of him, ”I considered him one of the most courageous of all “the racing drivers..a good driver and an excellent comrade.”
The Portago Corner at the St. Moritz-Celerina Olympic Bobrun is named in his honour and there is a Portago curve at Jarama in Spain.
In 2013 Alfonso’s 1955 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Competitizione was auctioned at Pebble Beach, California. He had raced this at Nassau in 1955, and sold it shortly before the Mille Miglia, and it reached $6,500,000.
As to his lifestyle, he himself stated “If I’d lived 600 years ago I’d have been killing dragons or helping maidens in distress, but nowadays the only man who can help a maiden in distress is a doctor.”
Alfonso de Portago – The playboy who became a Ferrari racing driver – from 
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