KEEPING THE SPIRIT ALIVE SINCE 1999
Carlo Abate
10/7/1932
Won Mille Miglia in a Ferrari in 1959 and the Targa Florio in a Porsche RS62 driving with J.Bonnier in 1963.
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Born in Turin, for some reason his middle name was 'Maria'. Somewhat unsuprisingly he preffered to be called Mario!
He actually began rallying in 1955 with a FIAT 1100. Switching the following year to GT racing. He raced mostly for the private Italian team Scuderia Serenissima of Count Volpi, but also for Scuderia Centro Sud, Scuderia Ferrari and the Porsche AG factory team.
He won Italian 1300 GT Championship in 1957 and the following year he took the Italian Hill Climb title as well.
In 1959 he won the Mille Miglia driving a Ferrari with G. Balzarini and took the Italian GT Title again.
Over the next couple of year he won a number of GT races and European Hill Climbs
In 1962 he tried his hand a single seater racing, driving in the non-championship F1 Naples Grand Prix driving a Porsche 718 (203) the at Posillipo Circuit, Naples, finishing 4th. He then entered the Grand Prix de Reims with a Lotus-Climax 18/21 (912) but crashed out on lap 23. He had better luck with the Porsche in the Gran Premio del Mediterraneo at Enna-Pergusa in August that year finishing 3rd behind the Ferraris of Lorenzo Bandini and Giancarlo Baghetti abd ahead of the Lotus of Jo Siffert. He had planned to enter the French Grand Prix but withdrew his entry.
1963 was probably his best year. He again tackled a couple of non Championship Grand Prix and drove a Scuderia Centro Sud Cooper-Maserati T51 to 5th place in the Imola Grand Prix and to 3rd in the Gran Premio di Siracusa. He entered his Porsche 718 in the Italian Grand Prix but withdrew. In sports cars he won the Targa Florio driving a Factory Porsche 718GTR with Jo Bonnier and had a number of other good finishes and class wins in European Sports Car races.
At the end of the year he retired and became the director of a private clinic.
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Harry Grant 1877 - 1915 -
Willie Haupt 1885 - 1966 -
Fred Wacker 1918 - 1998 -
Tony Settember 1926 - 2014 -
Alessandro de Tomaso 1928 - 2003
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Massimo Natili 1935
Formula One driver from Italy. He participated in 1 grand prix, debuting on July 15, 1961. He scored 0 championship points. -
Maria-Teresa de Filippis 1926
Maria Teresa de Filippis made Grand Prix history when she became the first woman to compete in a Formula One world championship race, finishing tenth in the 1958 Belgian Grand Prix in her Maserati 250F. -
Roberto Lippi 1924
Good sports car driver who raced an OSCA-engined de Tomaso in the Italian Grand Prix in 1961 and 1962. -
Gerino Gerini 1928
Italian driver who raced Ferrari sports cars in the mid-fifties, before switching to rivals Maserati. -
Lorenzo Bandini 1935 - 1967
Italian Formula One driver who won the 1964 Austrian Grand Prix. In sports cars he won Le Mans (1963), the Targa Florio (1965) and the Daytona 24 Hour race (1967). He was killed in the Monaco Grand Prix in 1967 after rolling his Ferrari at the chicane while chasing Denny Hulme for the lead.