On this day in Motor Racing's past

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#46

Post by Cheeveer »

Bottom post of the previous page:

10/1/1978
The first Champ Car race to be held in Europe takes place at Silverstone, UK on 10/1/78 and is won by A.J. Foyt in a Coyote-Foyt.
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Andrea de Adamich, born on this day, 3rd October 1941.

Profile for Andrea de Adamich
Nation ITALY
Town Triestre
Birth 1941-10-03
FirstRace 1968-01-01 Kyalami
Last Race 1973-07-14 Silverstone
Races Run 36
Victories 0
Podium 0
Pole Position 0
Fastest Lap 0
Finish in points 2
Points 6.00
Seasons 5
Tracks 19
Teams 5

Image

Tall and friendly, the bespectacled de Adamich began racing while still a law student, making his name driving for the works-backed Autodelta Alfa Romeo team in the European Touring Car Championship which he won in 1966 in a GTA coupe. Some promising runs in an Alfa Romeo T33 sports car subsequently attracted Ferrari's attention and he was recruited to the famous Italian Formula 1 team for the non-Championship 1967 Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama. The following year he was scheduled to drive full-time alongside Amon and Ickx, but crashed during practice for the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch and suffered neck injuries. He returned to win the Argentine Temporada Formula 2 series the following winter with the powerful Ferrari Dino 166. In 1970 he drove an Alfa Romeo-engined McLaren and a similar arrangement followed in 1971 when he used the same power unit in a works March 711, again to little effect. In 1972 de Adamich turned to Team Surtees, running a third works TS9B alongside Tim Schenken and Mike Hailwood in which he scored the best Formula 1 result of his career with fourth in Spain. Switching to Brabham he duplicated that result in the 1973 Belgian Grand Prix and then suffered a badly broken leg in the multiple pileup at Silverstone which brought that year's British Grand Prix to a premature halt. That marked the end of his career and de Adamich later carved out quite a reputation as a TV commentator.








Also born on this day,

1969 - Massimiliano Papis

1982 - Timo Glock
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#48

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The last dirt-track race ever to count as part of the Champ Car series took place on 10/4/70 in Sacramento. The race was won by Al Unser Sr. There were five dirt races on the schedule in 1970, all won by Unser.

Taken from www.champcarworldseries.com
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#49

Post by PTRACER »

Happy Birthday! to Michael Andretti (44), Jose Froilan Gonzalez (84), Klaus Ludwig (57) and former BTCC privateer Owen McAuley (33).

One year ago today...Raikkonen wins the Japanese GP. :wink:

On this day in...1974 - The Lancia Stratos took its first Wolrd rally Championship win on the Rally of San Remo.

On this day in...2001 - Blaise Alexander died during an ARCA race at Charlotte Speedway in the USA.
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Carlos Pace Formula 1 Driver

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Profile for Carlos Pace
Nation BRAZIL
Town
Birth 1944-10-06
1977-03-18
FirstRace 1972-03-04 Kyalami
Last Race 1977-03-05 Kyalami
Races Run 73
Victories 1
Podium 6
Pole Position 1
Fastest Lap 5
Finish in points 16
Points 58.00
Seasons 6
Tracks 22

Teams 3

The Brazilian Grand Prix is often held in Sao Paulo at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, but few fans today remember the man after whom Interlagos is named.

A debonair and charming man, Pace - who was known to his friends as Moco - was a school friend of Wilson Fittipaldi and started racing in 1963 at the wheel of a Renault Dauphine. He went on to become Brazilian champion in 1967, 1968 and 1969 with an Alfa Romeo T33.

In 1970 he headed for Europe to race in the British Formula 3 Championship and won the Forward Trust Championship that year in a Lotus. He also finished third in the more prestigious Lombank series. His 1971 season was disrupted by problems at home but he signed up to drive for Frank Williams in Formula 2 and ended his year with a victory in a race at Imola.

In 1972 he graduated to Formula 1 with Williams but had a frustrating season with only two finishes in the points. He drove a Ferrari in the Osterreichring 1000, finishing second, and was third at the wheel of a Gulf Mirage sportscar at Watkins Glen. In 1973 he moved to Surtees and scored his first podium in Austria. He also continued to race Ferrari sportscars and finished second at Le Mans with Arturo Merzario. In 1974 he stayed with Surtees until an invitation arrived for him to join Brabham, alongside Carlos Reutemann.

Image

In 1975 Pace scored his first (and as it turned out only) Grand Prix victory in front of his home crowd at Interlagos after a stirring battle with Fittipaldi but a series of other places meant that he ended the season sixth in the World Championship. Alas, Brabham then decided to embark on an adventure with Alfa Romeo engines and the 1976 season was a frustrating one with only a few placings. The Brabham-Alfa seemed to be a lot better in 1977 but after four races Pace was killed in a light aeroplane accident at Mairipora, near Sao Paulo, along with his friend and fellow racer Marivaldo Fernandes, on his way back to the city from Fernandes's farm.



The Carlos Pace Story by Klaus Ewald.

With friendships at school there are always those problems. Sometimes they exist for a year, sometimes for the time of being in school, but sometimes also for a life and for a career. Wilson Fittipaldi jr, son of a famous radio correspondent, and Carlos Pace were schoolfriends. Young Emerson, two and three years younger, was very close behind them.

In Brazil they were, in spite of being the same age, no war-babies. The fate of a Jochen Rindt they were not confronted with. They played football and drove go karts, both with enthusiasm and a lot of ambition. For their material existence they had not spent any sorrows on. First Emerson took the risk to go to England, Pace followed soon, for Wilson jr it took a little longer. At that time someone, who wanted to enter Grand Prix racing had to go through the hell of the British Formula 3. This was held nearly exclusively in the cool rain and no alternative did exist in contrast to the times later. To send a Brazilian into the British Formula 3 is nearly the same as sending a Bedouin onto the North Pole. He will suffer extremely. Emerson and Carlos lost weight dramatically during that time.

In 1970 Emerson was able to join a great works team, Lotus, and that was mainly forced by the fact, that Rindt announced his retirement for the end of the season, maybe a little rashly. With Bruce McLaren and above all Piers Courage he had lost two friend that year. And Stirling Moss has highly recommended "this Brazlian with the funny name" to Ford director Walter Hayes. When the leading B.R.M. of Pedro Rodriguez ran out of fuel in Watkins Glen 1970, to come into the pits for refuelling shortly before the finish, Emerson took his first victory when competing in only his forth Grand Prix. Brazil`s rise onto the top Formula One nations had just begun.

Carlos Pace entered the business in his slip-stream in Kyalami 1972. Wilson jr followed a little later in Jarama, also in a works team, at Brabham, partnered by Argentina`s rising star Carlos Reutemann, but above all by the legendary Graham Hill. He gave a youngster the possibility to learn a lot from, also without opening his famous black book. Hill won, after he had succeeded in Indianapolis and in two drivers`championships before, also in Le Mans that year. In a French Matra and with Henri Pescarolo, also being a star, as his co-driver. This guy was Pace`s experienced team mate in the privately owned March team of Frank Williams. This experience did not help the Frenchman very much that time, because he had a lot of of very big shunts and the series of write-offs did not want to stop. Frank Williams, on the move to become a works team of his own rights, had to pay a lot of great bill in Bicester. Anyhow there were sponsors, Motul from France and Politoys from Italy, and Ron Tauranac, who had been sacked before at Brabham by Bernie Ecclestone, was the technical advisor. In contrast to Pescarolo, who drove the March Ford 721 and, in the British Grand Prix, the Politoys Ford, Pace sat in the 711 from 1971 the whole year, only being revised in details by Tauranac. To score his first worldchampionship points in his only fourth Grand Prix was a fine success, because Nivelles is not Waterloo, in spite you can go from one town to the other as a pedestrian very easily. But it should take nearly another one and a half years, before Pace was able to score points again.

After the disappointing end of the Politoys Ford project at Brands Hatch, when Pescarolo escaped the repeating of Jo Siffert`s inferno of October 1971 only by an extraordinary portion of luck, Frank Williams signed contracts with Italian sportscar manufacturer Iso Rivolta and Marlboro. But Pace was reminded of the desaster, Williams had gone in with the de Tomaso Ford (Designer: Gianpaolo Dallara) in 1970. Some younger people learn from history very, very fast. And Pace was not only intelligent, but also hard-working. You can say: He was Latin America`s answer to Niki Lauda.

At Rob Walker and John Surtees he thought to be an the secure side, because a V12 he did not want to drive that time. He knew very well, how difficult it is to establish himself in Formula One and to remain there contantly. The risks for his career taking a downturn did not come from the engines, but from the Firestone tyres that year, maybe used by Surtees, because also being in the need for their money. The TS14, wide and elegant, was a good car. No Tyrrell, Lotus or McLaren, but in general good for winning, had it been on Goodyears. Pace brought the car home 4th on the Nuerburgring and 3rd in Zeltweg and in both Grand Prix he did the fastest laps. But there were also quarrels within Team Surtees about the set up. Mike Hailwood, maybe the greatest genius of all times when riding bikes, the team`s number one, was not really interested in the complicated Formula one technology. Because on this field you have to work really. For this reason John Surtees was not only the team`s chairman, but also their test driver, but what he had developed mainly at Goodwood, worked well for Hailwood, but not always for Pace. He had got his own, excellent ideas, but to carry them through, took until mid-season. John Surtees had ever been a man of strong principles, but in some rare cases, that is not always good in a reality.


Image
picture: Anderstorp 1975:
in front: Carlos Pace, Martini Racing BT44B
left: Carlos Reutemann, Martini Racing BT44B
center: Niki Lauda, Ferrari 312T
back right: James Hunt, Hesketh Racing 308B




For 1974 the man from Edenbridge/Kent, also being a multiple motorcycle world champion, constructed the TS16, small like a Formula 3 car and fragile like an early Lotus. And he insisted to stay with Firestone, Surtees did not want to go away from. There had been a terrible quarrell with Walker and Hailwood, both switching to the Yardley McLaren of Phil Kerr. Carlos Pace became the number one in the team, the young German Jochen Mass drove the second car. In a column for a German magazine Mass declared, that the TS16 would become as competitive as the Tyrrell Ford 005/006 of Stewart and Cevert. A big, well-known sponsor was signed up, Bang & Olufsen from Denmark produce luxery Hi Fi equipment and television sets, but John Surtees claims until today, that they had not paid a single Cent ever. But the TS16 was not only too slow, it was also dangerous. Pace and Mass had left the team until mid-season because of so many suspension breaks, when the TS16 claimed the life of a driver: In Watkins Glen the young Austrian Helmut Koinigg, a student of technolgy and journalism, at that moment writing his thesis, was killed.

Carlos Pace had become nervous. His 30th birthday was not far away, he was married and father of 2 children. His wife and both the kids had the same bithday: The 7th of May. At Brabham Rikky von Opel, partnered by the often pretty weak character of Carlos Reutemann, showed the same poor performance, as he had done the year before at Ensign. But it took a while to make up his mind, considering his retirement would be the best solution for both sides. Until this point had come, Carlos Pace drove for the privately owned Brabham team of Hexagon sponsored by John Goldie, a wealthy London car dealer, at the side of John Watson. When Pace got a bad `flu during the French Grand Prix at Dijon, he was not able to qualify for the race for the first and last time of his career.

But then the things developed very fast. Gordon Murray, the South African with the passion for red wine and pop music, himself looking like a rock star, technologist and aesthete, was the absolute number one among the designers, a man making trends liked it only had been done by Colin Chapman. Bernie Ecclestone liked Pace at once. In contrast to Reutemann, who only was able to fight, when everything went into the right direction, his second Carlos was both quick and constant. Set-backs made him even stronger, while the Argentinian was near to resignation. When Brabham switched to the Alfa Romeo 180° 12 cylinder flat engines in 1976, many things went wrong and in Italy the unit sometimes was called communist engine, Reutemann left the team mid-season to buy himself out of his contract by spending a lot of his private money. The rivalry of Pace, in the greater teams usual for better performance of both drivers, he was not able to endure. Before that, he had to see, how a whole Latin American nation had celebrated Pace winning the 1975 Brazilian Grand Prix in Interlagos, while only an 8th place had remained for himself.

But that should remain Pace`s only Grand Prix victory, because his career was an unfinished one like those of many other drivers. In 1977 the Brabham Alfa Romeo BT45 became a potential wiinner with the most powerful engine of the whole grid, having only one disadvantage: It consumed much too much fuel. But surely the engineer Pace would have been able to solve this problem, too, and it had not taken a lot of time certainly. Carlos Pace might have been Brazil`s second Formula One world champion, before Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna had been able to do so. After 1974 he and John Watson had become team mates again and the Ulsterman is a gentleman. Bernie Ecclestone said later: "If Pace had not lost his life, there had been no need for Lauda for me in 1978 and 1979."

Grand Prix drivers are a very special kind of people. From the aggressiveness necessary on the tracks they cannot really switch to the mentality of a German railway officer in private life. For this reason they are confronted with higher risks there, as when competeting. Nino Farina, Mike Hawthorn and Mike Hailwood were killed in their road cars. Ron Flockart, Graham Hill, Tony Brise, Harald Ertl and David Purley died in air-crashes, Rupert Keegan and David Coulthard were able to survive with a lot of luck. Once Patrick Depailler was taken to hospital for several months after a heavy shunt with the delta-glider and later also Emerson Fittipaldi, at this time of an age of over 50 years, lucky escaped the fate of sitting in a wheel-chair when crashing with his ultra light.

The 18th March, 1977 was a Saturday and in Brands Hatch the traditional Race of Champions took place, when the news from the heavy jungle far away from Sao Paulo came to Europe. It was an air-craft with only one engine facing a thunderstorm. There were no survivors, with Pace his flying instructor and the owner of the plane died.

The romantic names, belonging to many Brazilian sportsmen or artist, like the footballer Pele or the television presenter Xuxa, do not exist for the Grand Prix drivers. Wilson jr was named after his father, Emerson after the great US-American philosopher. Piquet`s real name is Soutomajor and Senna`s da Silva. And also Josè Carlos Pace had got another name when being a school-boy: Moco, and that means in English hard of hearing man.

Also on this day 1974,

Carlos Pace celebrated his 40th Gp, with a second place at Watkins Glen. Also setting the fastest lap, 1:40.608, he shared the podium with Carlos Reuteman (1st) and James Hunt.



Others born on this day,

Andre Pilette

Max de Terra

John Nicholson

Manfred Winkelhock
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#51

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Francois Cevert died this day in 1973.
R.I.P.
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#52

Post by PTRACER »

Happy Birthday:

Vincenzo Sospiri (40)
Marco Apicella (41)
Bernard Collomb (76)
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#53

Post by PTRACER »

Happy 45th Birthday, Julian Bailey.
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#54

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10th October,

EUGENIO CASTELLOTTI

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Profile for Eugenio Castellotti
Nation ITALY
Town
Birth 1930-10-10
1957-03-14
FirstRace 1955-01-16 Buenos Aires
Last Race 1957-01-13 Buenos Aires
Races Run 18
Victories 0
Podium 3
Pole Position 3
Fastest Lap 0
Finish in points 5
Points 19.50
Seasons 3
Tracks 9
Teams 2



Date of birth: October 10, 1930 - Lodi, Milan
Date of death: March 14, 1957 - Modena Auto drome

A country gentleman from the town of Lodi, not far from Milan, Castellotti bought a Ferrari sportscar in 1950 when he was still only 20 years of age and he campaigned it enthusiastically in Italian events in 1951 and 1952. In the second year he began winning, taking victory in the Sicily Gold Cup, the Circuito di Senigallia and the sportscar Portuguese GP. He also finished second in the Monaco GP, run that year for sportscars. But he really hit the headlines when he ran second in the Mille Miglia and this led to him being offered a drive with the Lancia sports car team for the 1953 Carrera Panamericana. He finished third behind Juan Manuel Fangio and Piero Taruffi. he also won the Italian hillclimb championship and the 10 Hours of Messina.

The Lancia connection resulted in him being signed by the Turn company for its Formula 1 programme in 1954. The cars were late arriving and Castellotti did not get to race one of the D50s until the start of 1955. At Pau he finished second ahead of his team mates Gigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari (although the latter had mechanical trouble). He also finished second at Monaco. A few days later Ascari was killed testing a Ferrari sportscar and with Villoresi talking of retirement, Castellotti became team leader for one Grand Prix. Then Lancia closed its racing programme and the D50s were sold to Enzo Ferrari. Castellotti thus became a Ferrari driver but there were too many drivers on the books and so Eugenio concentrated on on sports cars, winning the Mille Miglia and the Sebring 12 Hours. In F1 the high point of his year was second place to Peter Collins in the French Grand Prix at Reims, while he spun out of the race at Monza with tyre failure after an indisciplined battle with team-mate Luigi Musso.

In the early months of 1957 Castellotti featured more in the gossip columns than the motoring magazines due to his high profile affair with opera singer Delia Scala. While on holiday in Florence, he was annoyed to be summoned back to Modena by Enzo Ferrari to do something about the new unofficial lap record which had just been set by Jean Behra in the latest Maserati 250F.

On only his third lap, Castellotti crashed into a small grandstand and was killed instantly.


Image

What a dramatic shot of a great place and a beautiful car… Sadly, the driver's story mainly involves drama of a tragic nature. It's the story of a tall and temperamental Milanese adolescent with dashing looks, a smashingly gorgeous girlfriend and racing talent as large as his bank account - which was sizeable by the time he inherited a substantial family fortune. Eugenio Castellotti had it all: the cash to buy himself a Ferrari 166S sportscar, the looks and the good taste to surround himself with his actress lady Delia Scala, the skill to quickly grow into one of Italy's outstanding drivers, and the flair and the entourage that befitted such stature in his hero-worshipping nation.

Soon Castellotti had developed into the tifosi's latest racing icon, especially through his sportscar exploits. How could they not warm to a young man that gave up his lead - and eventually the win - to Vittorio Marzotto in the Monaco sportscar GP because of pitting for a can of Coke to quench his thirst?

Little did they know that 1955 - the year Lancia signed up Eugenio to drive his D50 Grand Prix car alongside Alberto Ascari - would turn out to be a terrible motorsports year. Not just in general, because of the tragic events at Le Mans, but especially for Italy as well, as it was the year in which Ascari died at Monza. Driving Castellotti's car. Wearing Castellotti's helmet. On the special agreement with Lancia that he would be joining Castellotti in the Supercortemaggiore sportscar race. Understandably, Eugenio had been one of the coffin bearers on Alberto's funeral at the church of San Carlo al Corso in Milan on 28 May 1955.

On the bright side Castellotti shone in the Mille Miglia, leading Moss and Jenkinson over the first leg to Ravenna. The next year he won it for Ferrari, in atrocious conditions, in a drive described by Johnny Lurani as "the model of self-control, style and efficiency". The count's verdict somewhat contradicts the impression others had of this smart young epitomy of the Italian racing driver, as Castellotti was not just stylish, brash and self-confident when outside of the car but was also found to be wild and erratic when behind the wheel. Often leading during the early stages of a race, Eugenio had the knack of eating his tyres, handing the lead to more conservative drivers.

After a slow start in the heat-plagued GP in Argentina his debut-season Grand Prix highlights were a second at Monaco, in the race in which team mate Ascari plunged his Lancia into the harbour, followed up by a shock pole at Spa, having convinced Lancia to give him a car in the aftermath of Ascari's untimely death. The events at Monza, with financial difficulties hanging over him, had moved Gianni Lancia to pull the plug on his Grand Prix effort after just a handful of races, and Eugenio's Spa entry was a private one. Friday practice saw him take a staggeringly quick 4.18.1, a time that could not be undone because of Saturday practice being rained away completely. At the start, though, Fangio shot ahead, with Moss following suit shortly after, and the two Mercedes ran out to an easy double. A week later the Le Mans tragedy shook the motor racing world.

With Lancia out of the picture Eugenio moved over to Ferrari, a transfer that was facilitated by the ACI persuading Lancia to hand over his promising D50s to the Ferrari team, that continued to struggle with its two designs, the 625 and the 555 'Super Squalo', the latter being the 553 'Squalo' follow-up. In return Fiat would contribute 50 million lire each year to keep the Lancia company afloat. In a parallel run of events legendary designer Vittorio Jano also became part of the Ferrari household, with Aurelio Lampredi leaving to join Fiat.

After the remains of the Scuderia Lancia amalgamated with Ferrari, a third at Monza was Eugenio's second-best result of the season. Castellotti had intended to debut the Lancia-Ferrari D50 alongside Farina and the other ex-Lancia driver, Villoresi, but the cars' tyres kept losing treads during practice, leading to their withdrawal. With the best qualifying time of the three, Castellotti was allowed to race in the spare 555. His third at Monza resulted in a phenomenal third in the final standings of a season cut short by the cancellation of the French, German, Spanish and Swiss GPs. The handsome boy was effectively best of the rest, albeit a long way behind the largely unthreatened Mercedes duo of Fangio and Moss.

In comparison the 1956 season was a disappointment, Eugenio always being bang on the pace in qualifying but failing to score on many occasions, for a number of reasons. His best show came at Reims, where Ferraris swamped the front row and fought off Harry Schell's Vanwall to finish a team-ordered one-two (the pit signal reading COL-CAS), Collins heading home the Italian 0.3s ahead. Early leader Fangio was fourth after he had to have a split fuel line fixed on lap 40. In the Italian GP Castellotti's reputation as a tyre eater was further enhanced by his battle in the early laps with Luigi Musso, the two despite being team mates apparently fighting over the honour of best Italian driver. It took them just five laps to destroy their tyres… Still Castellotti finished sixth in the championship, and looked to the 1957 season with the D50 now almost unrecognizably transformed into the Tipo 801.

The Argentine GP saw Eugenio again as the fastest qualifier of a six-strong Ferrari team, but remarkably the completely reworked Lancia-Ferrari now lost out to the almost unchanged Maserati 250F. Both being three-year old designs it was probably the strength of Maserati's driving squad that made the difference. With Moss, Fangio and Behra taking the first three places on the grid and only Castellotti joining them on the front row, the writing was on the wall for Ferrari.

Although Moss made a peculiar start, bending his throttle rod to the effect that it needed eight laps to repair, Behra and Fangio got away cleanly. Castellotti and team mate Collins were not to let go, though. First Eugenio took Behra on lap 9, with the Englishman coming on strong to pass all for the lead on lap 13. After the World Champion retook Castellotti for third, the leading trio began to stretch away, Collins managing to hold his lead until lap 26 - he had hit clutch trouble. Behra led briefly before Fangio went past again, the two now some 10 seconds ahead of a group of three Ferraris, Hawthorn ahead of Musso, with Castellotti fifth after a spin. Ten laps on, and Hawthorn and Musso had also fried their clutches - and this wasn't even half-distance. All Castellotti could do was not to lose touch with the Maseratis, and in doing so lost a rear wheel on lap 76, causing him to spin off the circuit. The end result was Maseratis taking the first four places, Fangio and Behra taking the finish in line astern.

Both Behra and the Ferrari test track at Modena were tragically involved in Castellotti's death on 14 March 1957 as Maserati's early-season form had Enzo Ferrari on the back of his feet. After the Argentine GP, where Eugenio ran third to the Maseratis before a hub shaft failed, he could only take fifth in the non-championship Buenos Aires GP, his last race. Ferrari was definitely underperforming - and indeed would not take a single Championship win during 1957.

On his return to Europe Eugenio took a brief holiday in Florence in the radiant company of miss Scala when suddenly he received a phone call from his boss. Ferrari, as harsh and unfeeling towards his drivers as ever, summoned him to show up at Modena at once. 'Jeannot' and his 250F were testing there and threatening to break the track record, which self-evidently belonged to Scuderia Ferrari. Was regarded as its possession. The Modena lap record and Ferrari - both should always be mentioned in the same sentence, except the ones that had also had the word "lost" in them. And so Eugenio pulled himself away from Delia's delight and duly obliged. He daren't say no.

Leaving early for Modena, at 5 AM no less, Castellotti was probably still yawning, and yearning to return to the warm bed he had left behind, when he climbed aboard to try and stave off the challenge of that little Niçois. It took him a single warm-up lap on a damp track before he signalled to his pit that the serious work was about to begin. Immediately after he lost control and flipped over a concrete wall into the small grandstand of the Circolo della Biella (the local club of enthusiasts were ironically Enzo Ferrari also used to reside) right behind it. Eugenio was dead on the spot. It was bloody senseless.

For Luigi Villoresi, due to retire from the sport, Castellotti's death caused his on-and-off relationship with the Commendatore to switch off permanently. "For the sake of Ferrari's pride, challenged that day over a cup of coffee in the Biella Club at Modena, was it right to have put in jeopardy the life of a racing driver?" Quite so.

The thoughts of Castellotti's heyday at Lancia, together with that inseparable duo of Ascari and Villoresi, were still very fresh, as it was just over two years earlier that the Lodi farmer's son first tested a D50 after his first year for Lancia driving sportscars. He did his first laps at the great Ospedaletti track near San Remo, especially set up for the occasion in November 1954. The track's short existence as the venue for a San Remo GP run to F1 rules was long enough to warrant that only the champions, i.e. Fangio and Ascari, won at Ospedaletti, before it was closed, only to be reopened for private Lancia test sessions…

And what about the Ospedaletti track as it is today? Well, look no further than Barry Boor's excellent article The Ghost of San Remo on his recent visit to his Ospedaletti dream track. It was precisely the story of Lancia managing to convince the Ospedaletti municipality to close off the roads for three days of pre-season testing, related in Chris Nixon's Rivals - The story of Lancia versus Mercedes Benz, that attracted Barry's interest in the track. And that's probably why the Castellotti picture is proudly residing at the top of his story.

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#55

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

:thumbsup: :wink:

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#56

Post by BleedingGums »

Alfonso de Portago born on this day in 1928.
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#57

Post by BleedingGums »

Profile for Piero Taruffi



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Nation GREAT BRITAIN
Town
Birth 1906-10-12
1988-01-12
FirstRace 1950-09-03 Monza
Last Race 1956-09-02 Monza
Races Run 18
Victories 1
Podium 5
Pole Position 0
Fastest Lap 1
Finish in points 9
Points 41.00
Seasons 6
Tracks 10
Teams 5

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Piero Taruffi was born in Rome in 1906 and grew up in comfortable circumstances, becoming an accomplished sportsman in his teens, while studying for a doctorate in industrial engineering, and racing motorcycles. He began racing cars in 1923 with a Fiat but stayed mainly in motorcycles for much of the 1920s. He spent many years dovetailing his racing with his role as manager of the Gilera motorcycle team. In the 1930s he raced on a regular basis but did not achieve much in terms of results until after the war. This followed a period in which he took part in many record breaking attempts with his hair-raising TAF twin-torpedo cars.

When the official Formula 1 World Championship began in 1950 he drove an Alfa Romeo 158 at the Italian Grand Prix and then switched to Ferrari the following year. He won his only Grand Prix victory in the Swiss Grand Prix of 1952, driving a Formula 2 Ferrari 500 and finished third in the overall Championship rankings, but thereafter he concentrated on racing sportscars with Lancia, capitalising on his success in the 1951 Carrera Panamericana with Luigi Chinetti in 1951.

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In 1954 he won the Targa Florio for Lancia and he followed this up with a win - at the age of 51 - in the Mille Miglia in 1957. The Silver Fox (his nickname because of his premature grey hair) then retired from the sport but in the 1960s wrote the much acclaimed book "The Technique of Motor Racing". Taruffi lived to be 81, dying in Rome in January 1988.

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#58

Post by GJ »

1997 Japanesse GP
Irvine's nice drive then letting M Schumacher pass him
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#59

Post by BleedingGums »

Suzuka 1996.

Damon Hill secured the title from his team-mate J.V

Martin Brundle scored points in a GP for the last time...
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#60

Post by GJ »

October 13th-
Peter Sauber was borned in 1943
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#61

Post by PTRACER »

And Happy Birthday to Patrick Neve, aged 57 today. :thumbsup:
Developer of the 1967v3 Historic Mod for Grand Prix Legends: viewtopic.php?t=17429

King of the Race Track, Destroyer of Tyres, Breaker of Lap Records
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