Luigi Chinetti, two Italian firsts

Luigi Chinetti will go down in Le Mans history as the man who was there when it all began for two prestigious Italian marques. Alfa Romeo was the first Italian manufacturer to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, doing so four years in succession from 1931 to 1934. Two of those wins were captured with Chinetti at the wheel, in 1932 (with Raymond Sommer) and 1934 (with another French driver, Philippe Etancelin). In 1949, he scooped his third Le Mans win and the first for an Italian carmaker that had been existence for barely two years: Ferrari. This success was to mark the starting point of a long collaboration, both on and off the track. Chinetti, who had emigrated to the United States during World War II, sensed that America held tremendous commercial potential for sports cars adorned with the Prancing Horse and so became the official US importer for Ferrari. He also founded the North American Racing Team (NART) which appeared at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time in 1958. The team went on to figure prominently at the legendary French endurance race for two decades, offering Ferrari its ninth and last overall victory to date in 1965 with American Masten Gregory and Austrian Jochen Rindt at the wheel.

 

Risi Competizione and Scuderia Corsa, two worthy successors

Over the last twenty years, two US-based teams have kept the Ferrari flag flying at the Circuit de la Sarthe. Sicilian Giuseppe Risi owns a Ferrari dealership in Houston, selling the famous Italian sports cars primarily to Texan oil magnates and executives and astronauts from the nearby Johnson Space Center. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1998, he also fielded the last Ferrari prototype to record a class victory with the 333 SP, eighth overall, under the Doyle-Risi banner. Two more Le Mans class wins followed in 2008 and 2009, this time with the Ferrari F430 GT, making Risi one of the architects of Ferrari’s return to the forefront of the endurance scene, incarnated today in the LM GTE Pro class by AF Corse.

Scuderia Corsa made its Le Mans début in the 2015 24 Hours. The team is an umbrella for several large Californian dealerships (Beverly Hills, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and South Bay), all led by team founder Giacomo Mattioli, a native of Ferrari’s home town of Modena. The outfit soon became one of the leading lights in the LM GTE Am class, taking third place in its maiden Le Mans outing. Better still was to come this year. The team clinched the LM GTE Am title with its Ferrari 458 Italia and an all-American driver line-up of Townsend Bell, Bill Sweedler and Jeff Seagal.

Risi Competizione, also present at the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans with its new Ferrari 488 GTE, took the runners-up spot in the LM GTE Pro class with Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Vilander and Matteo Malucelli at the wheel. Sporting the prestigious official “Racing with Ferrari” label, Risi and Mattioli are indeed worthy successors of Chinetti’s heritage.

 

Photo: Like Luigi Chinetti in his time, Risi Competizione (pictured here) and Scuderia Corsa did the Ferrari marque proud at the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans.