The Red Cadillacs and the Cuban Roads
By 1917, Garlasco was living in Havana, working as chauffeur and master mechanic to the wealthy plantation owner Bustamente while staying deeply embedded in local motorsport. His peerless mechanical instinct caught the attention of Guillermo Petriccione, a decorated hero of Cuba’s War of Independence, former Consul of Cuba in Paris, and the director of Havana’s General Agency for Cadillac at Marina 64.
Unlike competitors who built specialized, stripped-down racing machines, Cadillac took stubborn pride in fielding stock automobiles. Their engineering philosophy required standard production models to prove their superiority against dedicated race cars straight from the showroom floor. In Garlasco, Petriccione found a driver with the nerves and mechanical sympathy to push standard iron to the absolute brink.
Albino’s breakthrough arrived on September 8, 1918, along the public highway stretch of Guanajay–Artemisa–Guanajay, organized by the Red Cross of Guanajay. Piloting a bright red Cadillac emblazoned with No. 4, Garlasco ripped across the 36-kilometer course in 17 minutes and 30 seconds before 15,000 spectators, averaging an astonishing 127 kilometers per hour.
When he brought the car to a halt to claim the silver cup, a team of certified automotive experts descended on the machine. They found the spark plugs spotless, the oil cool and unburned, and the V8 engine humming without the slightest vibration—cementing Cadillac’s reliability and making Garlasco an instant national sensation.
“Albino Garlasco, coloso del timón, cosa que demostrará con un Cadillac que echa rayos.”
Translation: “Albino Garlasco, colossus of the steering wheel, which he will prove with a Cadillac that shoots lightning.”
Record Breaker at Oriental Park
In April 1920, Marianao’s famed Oriental Park hosted a massive two-day speed festival that packed the grandstands to overflowing. Garlasco entered a showroom-stock Type 59 Cadillac bearing No. 6—its fenders and running boards removed and four open exhaust headers thrust straight through the hood.
His young wife, Elvira, dressed boldly in a full driving suit and goggles, had served as his riding assistant through every high-speed practice session and planned to ride beside him in the race. When the track jury barred a woman from contesting the course on race day, Albino refused to recruit a substitute mechanic. He took the grid alone.
On Saturday, April 3, the premier 450-cubic-inch class lined up over 10 miles. Dropping the hammer at the flag, Garlasco launched directly into the lead. Refusing to lift through the sweeping turns, he pitched the heavy touring chassis sideways through blinding clouds of dust, holding off fierce challenges from Markham’s Cole, Stevens’s Mercer, and Sartoris’s Stutz.
He swept across the finish line half a mile clear of his nearest rival, clocking 9 minutes, 34.4 seconds. Averaging 62.67 mph (with top bursts reaching 69 mph), Albino shattered the Cuban track speed record. As the machine idled to a stop, Elvira leaped into the empty assistant’s seat and kissed her victorious husband before a delirious, cheering crowd.
The Duel with “El Fantasma”
Sunday afternoon brought the headline event: the 20-Mile Open Category race. Facing the stock entries was the dreaded “Mercer Fantasma” (The Phantom Mercer)—a formidable, 130-horsepower, 16-valve pure racing beast with twin carburetors and dual ignition built for sheer speed.
From the start, the Phantom Mercer surged out front, followed by Markham in his Cole, with Garlasco’s Cadillac hunting them closely from third. For five laps, Garlasco and Markham put on an electrifying exhibition of dirt-track driving, racing wheel-to-wheel and sliding inches apart through the turns. On the back straightaway of lap six, Garlasco executed a daring pass to seize second place, setting his sights solely on the howling Mercer ahead.
Lap after lap, Garlasco closed the distance, the refined purr of his Cadillac engine melding with the harsh pounding of the racing machine. On lap eleven, focusing on the grandstand straightaway at blistering speed, the Cadillac gave an enormous skid that threw it against the outer perimeter fence; it smashed through the wooden barrier and overturned on its side into the loose dirt.
A cry of horror swept through the stands as spectators feared the worst. Elvira, crying and frightened in the stands, sprinted toward the track. But through the dust and twisted iron wreckage, Albino rose completely uninjured. Walking back toward the grandstands with a measured step, he was greeted by a thunderous ovation of relief and admiration from the Cuban crowd.
From Havana Speedways to Manhattan Nightclubs
Having captured three silver cups and set speed records across the island, Albino stepped back from the dangerous limits of auto racing to raise his growing family. Returning to New York with Elvira in 1922, he transitioned seamlessly into the glittering, nocturnal world of high-society Manhattan, where the Garlasco name was already becoming an institution.
While his brother Francesco "Frank" Garlasco shaped the Broadway and cabaret circuit—running glamorous Jazz Age nightspots including the Lido, the Trocadero, Place Pigalle, and the Ted Lewis Club—Albino found his second calling at Sherman Billingsley’s world-famous Stork Club at 3 East 53rd Street. First tending bar and later holding court as the club's unflappable doorman, Albino greeted heads of state, Hollywood royalty, and café society with the same cool composure he once displayed behind the wheel. It was a proud family tradition that echoed into the next generation when his son, Albino Jr., stepped behind the very same Stork Club bar.
Though the roaring speedways gave way to the soft murmur of velvet ropes and late-night jazz, the memories of those sunlit Havana afternoons never faded—the crack of the Cadillac’s exhaust, the blinding clouds of track dust, and the daring spirit of an immigrant craftsman who had raced fearlessly into history.
Havana Periodicals & Race Programs
Original April 1920 magazine covers celebrating Albino Garlasco’s record-breaking Cadillac victories
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