30/6/1913 - 13/5/1956
Record updated 13-May-09
One of Sweden's top drivers in the late 1940s and early 1950s
A farmer from Arla, a small village near Eskilstuna in Sweden, Wahlberg was one of the country's top drivers. He raced a BMW 328 (B 9524) and won a number of races and rallies in Sweden in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Gunnar Wahlberg then raced the ex-Glöckler 1.5 litre Veritas (51995) and in 1953 he aquired Hermann Holbein's 1948 HH48 single seater F2 car. The HH48 featured a spaceframe mounted on a solid box section chassis with bodywork by Huber. It weighed just 510 kg which made it the lightest of the contemporary Formula 2 cars. Wahlberg raced it in Nordic Specials but when the series ended in 1953, he switched back to racing his old Veritas.
He then had the Holbein rebuilt as a sportscar for 1955 and fitted it with the BMW engine from his Veritas.
He was driving the modified HH48 in a race on the dirt trotting track in Solvalla when he crashed. He ran wide and hit the concrete retaining wall that was only protected by a few staw bales. He was killed instantly.
historicracing.com