21/3/1882 - 0/0/1920
Record updated 21-Mar-23
Italian driver who raced in the USA in 1916.
Aldo Franchi was born in Milan. In 1916 he raced in America in the AAA Championship. He raced on the Sheepshead Bay board track driving a Peusun Special, a Peugeot with a Sunbeam engine and at the end of June, qualified for the Indy 500. He failed to finish going out on lap 9 with a broken inlet manifold.
Worse was to come in July at the 2nd Omaha Derby on the Omaha Auto Speedway another board track. He qualified in tenth place but on lap 16 his Peusun Special left the track after coming into contact with another car on the main straight. The car plunged off the track, a drop of 15 feet. Although Franchi was thrown clear and emerged with only minor injuries, his mechanic, Dan Colombo, was trapped beneath the car and died later the same day. The race was only the second race ever to be staged on the Omaha Speedway. Designed by Jack Prince in 1915, the track featured 41-degree banked turns. The track was severly damaged in a race the following year and was never used again.
He raced again that year on the board track in Cincinnati driving a Delage but retired with a broken connecting rod.
In 1919 he turned up at the Sheepshead Bay board track when he practiced Steve Olson’s car but did not race.
He returned to Indy in 1920. He didn't qualify but drove relief for Ray Howard in his Peugeot between laps 41 and 90. He died later that year.
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