- Luigi Chinetti
Le Mans drivers
Name = Luigi Chinetti
Nationality = flagicon|Italy|1861 Italian (to 1946)
flagicon|USA American (from 1946 on)
Years = 24hLM|1932-24hLM|1935, 24hLM|1937-24hLM|1939, 24hLM|1949-24hLM|1953
Team(s) = "Raymond Sommer "
Alfa Romeo
Private
"Lord Selsdon"
Best Finish = 1st (24hLM|1932, 24hLM|1934, 24hLM|1949)
Class Wins = 3 (24hLM|1932, 24hLM|1934, 24hLM|1949)Luigi Chinetti (
July 17 ,1901 –August 17 ,1994 ) was an Italian-bornracecar driver , who emigrated to theUSA duringWorld War II and became an American citizen.Born in
Milan , he began work forAlfa Romeo as a mechanic in 1917 at the age of sixteen. The rise of fascism in his native country prompted his move toParis where he worked for Alfa Romeo as an automobile salesman and became a sports car driver.Driving an Alfa Romeo race car entered by his co-driver
Raymond Sommer , Chinetti won at his very first24 hours of Le Mans race in 24hLM|1932. The following year, withLouis Chiron as co-driver, he won theSPA 24 Hours endurance race inBelgium . He teamed up withPhilippe Etancelin in 24hLM|1934 to win his second 24 hours of Le Mans.Following the outbreak of
World War II in Europe, Chinetti initially went to the United States of America with Dreyfus from the Ferrari team, for the 1940Indy 500 . He remained in the U.S. during the war, working for the Italian dealer, importer, and master mechanic,Alfred Momo . [http://www.kolumbus.fi/leif.snellman/dc.htm] Luigi Chinetti became an American citizen in 1946.With the war over, racing resumed in Europe and he entered the competitions. At the
1949 24 Hours of Le Mans race he drove the firstFerrari ever to win the event, and set a record as the only three-time winner of the race to that date. TheFerrari 166M in which Chinetti won was turned over toBaron Selsdon ofScotland (Peter Mitchell-Thomson ) for twenty minutes during the race, making Thomson the official co-driver although Chinetti had driven twenty-three of the hours of the race. Following the race, Thomson purchased that automobile through Chinetti. That same year Chinetti won his second SPA 24 Hours, this time driving for Ferrari withJean Lucas .In 1951, he was the riding mechanic in the
Ferrari 212 that won the gruelingCarrera Panamericana race, a convert|2100|mi|km|sing=on, five-day competition acrossMexico .Driving the automobiles of more than one manufacturer, Luigi Chinetti competed in every Le Mans
motorsport race held between 1932 and 1953 and, he also entered an automobile in the 1954 race, although he was not a driver.Luigi Chinetti made a deal with
Enzo Ferrari to be a Ferrari factory agent in the United States. He opened the first—and for a while the only—Ferrari dealership in the country. Later his territory became all areas east of theMississippi River , amounting to half of the country. The tradition associated with Chinetti continued to draw clients from all areas throughout his career. The showroom of his business-which still is open-is located inGreenwich, Connecticut , it currently is owned by Miller Motorcars, a Ferrari-Maserati dealership.The first sale Chinetti made through his American dealership was a Ferrari sold to
Briggs Cunningham for racing. That first automobile sold by Chinetti eventually went into the famous personal automobile collection that Briggs exhibited publicly when he founded his museum, but most of the sales Chinetti made were kept as close secrets to protect the privacy of his wealthy clients.Luigi Chinetti also was the founder of the
North American Racing Team , an official arm of Ferrari. It became the team that established the high ranking of Ferraris in American racing circuits, and largely, was responsible for Ferrari's survival as a retailer of cars through the quantity he sold to wealthy individuals in North America. The team, sometimes abbreviated as N.A.R.T., also had a very successful endurance racing program at Le Mans, right into the 1970s. In addition to the racing cars, the team commissioned many limited-run special variants of Ferrari road cars, most notably, thespyder version of theFerrari 275GTB/4 .Luigi Chinetti remained in
Greenwich, Connecticut after his retirement and died in 1994 at the age of ninety-three.External links
As an extension of his secrecy to protect the interests of his clients, Luigi Chenetti rarely allowed photographs to be taken, but some can be seen on the internet, such as this one with Alfred Momo on the left [http://www.velocetoday.com/images/july06/h6.jpg] and the story of the meeting photographed with this employer from his early days in the U.S., is at [http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.velocetoday.com/images/july06/h6.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.velocetoday.com/people/people_48.php&h=269&w=400&sz=58&hl=en&start=6&tbnid=rxp0NqDqE4FpRM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522Luigi%2BChinetti%2522%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG] , as part of an article honoring a fellow driver,
Ed Hugus . Another site presents a photograph of Chinetti at a race toward the end of his life. [http://www.carlosghys.be/photographs/encounters/photo_chinetti_4_510x350.jpg]
* http://www.rrdc.org look at the list of "deceased members" and scroll down for the biography presented by the Road Racing Drivers Club on their site
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