Motor racing had been held in Tripoli since 1925, initially on improvised courses in the colonial capital of Italian Tripolitania, but early events struggled financially and one edition was nearly cancelled through lack of support. After driver Gastone Brilli-Peri was killed in an accident during the 1930 event, the prospect of a Tripoli Grand Prix seemed finished.
The turnaround came through the resilience of Egidio Sforzini, president of the Tripoli automobile club, who raised sufficient capital — partly through Italian government funding tied to a colonial fair — to construct an entirely new European-standard racing circuit. The Mellaha Lake track opened in 1933. It measured 13.140 km (8.165 mi) in length and occupied a salt flat between the main city and the coastal district of Tajura. The circuit's most distinctive landmark was a tall white concrete grandstand tower facing the main start-finish straight, which could accommodate up to 10,000 spectators. Mellaha was also equipped with starting lights, an innovation for the era, and its facilities rivalled the best permanent circuits in continental Europe.
The Tripoli Grand Prix was closely linked to a Libyan state lottery that added enormous commercial spectacle to the event. Tickets were sold in advance, and thirty holders were drawn at random eight days before the race, each assigned to a specific entry. The holder matching the race winner received three million lire, second place two million lire, and third one million lire. This lottery format made the race financially significant not only for the drivers and constructors but for tens of thousands of Italian lottery ticket holders, generating mass public interest across Italy.
Allegations of result-fixing surrounding the inaugural 1933 Mellaha race — first publicised in Alfred Neubauer's 1958 memoir — claimed that Tazio Nuvolari, Achille Varzi, and Baconin Borzacchini conspired with their respective ticket holders to share the lottery prize. Later research has characterised this story as a popular myth.
From 1933 to 1938 the Tripoli Grand Prix ran under Formula Libre regulations, placing no restrictions on engine size or car weight. This made Mellaha one of the fastest tracks in the world during the era of supercharged Grand Prix cars. From 1935 onward the German Silver Arrows — Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union — dominated the event as they did across European Grand Prix racing.
In 1937, Hermann Lang won in a Mercedes-Benz W125 developing well over 500 hp. When engine regulations were revised for 1938, limiting displacement to 3,000 cc, the new V12 Mercedes-Benz W154 still produced over 450 hp and Lang won again.
By 1939, Italian organisers — frustrated by continued German dominance — changed the regulations to a voiturette formula for 1,500 cc supercharged cars, introducing the Alfa Romeo 158/159 Alfetta and the Maserati 4CL. Mercedes responded by developing the purpose-built V8-powered W165 for the event; with only two cars entered, Lang won for the third consecutive time, in three different cars under three different regulations.
The final Tripoli Grand Prix was held on 12 May 1940, with Italy still formally neutral as the Phoney War concluded. Only factory Alfa Romeo and Maserati teams competed. Giuseppe Farina took his only major pre-war victory. The race was never held again; Italy entered the Second World War shortly after, and fighting engulfed the Mediterranean and North African theatre.
The Tripoli Grand Prix attracted Europe's leading drivers partly for its extraordinary atmosphere. Competitors stayed in the luxury Hotel Uaddan, with its casino and dinner theatre, and were entertained by the colony's Governor-General, Marshal of the Air Force Italo Balbo, at his palace. British driver Dick Seaman described Mellaha Lake as the "Ascot of motor racing circuits." The circuit's substantial total prize fund reinforced its prestige on the international calendar.
The Mellaha Lake Circuit represents the pinnacle of interwar colonial circuit design — a purpose-built facility in North Africa that rivalled anything in Europe for both spectacle and speed. Its intimate connection with the Libyan state lottery made it commercially unique among pre-war circuits, and its short history — just eight editions across 1933 to 1940 — was dominated by some of the fastest and most technically sophisticated Grand Prix cars ever built. The Mellaha Air Base, constructed inside the circuit, remains as the site of what is today Mitiga International Airport.