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Grand Prix History in Scale Models

1909, Julien Potterat, Nevalga, Russian Motorsport, Russo-Balt

1909 Russo-Balt C24/30 Potterat

In the 1909, first city-to-city run was held in Russia. It was a “Road Competition” from St. Petersburg to Riga and back, organized by St. Petersburg Automobile Club and Russian Automobile Society in August 1909. The run was not a speed event, but a reliability trial with penalty points for exceeding the time limit for passing checkpoints and for stops for repairs. The four-day run was divided into 4 stages with stops in Pskov, Riga and Pskov again on the way back. The total length of the distance was 1066,8 km. Twenty three cars started the run at Aleksandrovskaya near St. Petersburg, 21 continued from Pskov, 15 finished in Riga and went back to St. Petersburg where all 15 reached the finish line of the run. Eight cars covered the run without penalty points and were declared the winners in their appropriate categories – six classes were provided depending on piston diameter. Among the winners there were Samuel Suurmets in Opel, Fritz Erle in Benz, Vasily Vsevolozhsky in Pipe and others. The car No. 9 in the run was one of the first Russo-Balt vehicles recently built at Riga Russo-Baltique factory. The Russo-Balt C24/30 was a two-seater  equipped with a 4-cylinder engine with a power of 30 hp. The car was driven by Russo-Balt designer and engineer Julien Potterat. He was a Swiss car designer working for Fondu company which manufactured cars since 1906. The engines, main components and assemblies of Fondu cars were developed under the supervision of Potterat, and the body parts were supplied by the Decunsel studio.  In 1908, Fondu sold the license for the 24/30 vehicle to the Russian-Baltic Wagon Plant in Riga, and Potterat was sent to Russia to set up production. He worked at Russo-Balt till 1912.

SeasonSeriesEvent
1909Reliabilty RunsSt. Petersburg – Riga – St. Petersburg Run
Driver No.Entrant
Julien Potterat9Russo-Baltique
Scale ManufacturerCollection
1:43Nevalga
Cat. No.QualityRarity

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