Luigi Arcangeli
Luigi Arcangeli (born June 16, 1894 in Savignano sul Rubicone , † May 23, 1931 in Monza ) was an Italian motorcycle and automobile racing driver .
Motorcycling
Luigi Arcangeli first competed in bicycle races in the 1910s , then switched to motorcycle racing. In the early 1920s, he bought a Swiss Motosacoche with which he competed against the best Italian motorcycle racers of the time, such as Achille Varzi , Amilcare Moretti , Tazio Nuvolari or Pietro and Mario Ghersi . In 1925 he was second on a 500 cc Saroléa in the VII Raid North-South from Milan to Naples . He later performed on Harley-Davidson , Calthorpe , Indian , Garelli , until in 1926 he started for Bianchi alongside Nuvolari, Karl Kodric and Gino Zanchetta .
In 1927, Arcangeli succeeded Varzi as a works driver at Sunbeam and was the first Italian to finish second in the top three in the Tourist Trophy . A year before that, he won the Italian Tourist Trophy.
Automobile sport
In 1924, while he was still a motorcycle racer, Luigi Arcangeli had contested his first car race. In 1928 he started racing regularly and this year he took part in the Mille Miglia for the first time . As co-driver of Cesare Schieppati , he finished 18th in the overall standings on an OM Tipo 665SMM. With a driving time of 21: 47.56 hours, however, the gap to the winner Giuseppe Campari was considerable. Arcangeli celebrated his first victory on June 24, 1928 at the Circuito di Cremona on a French Talbot-Darracq 700 . In August of the same year he won the Circuito di Senigallia in a 2-liter Bugatti T35C ahead of his compatriot Luigi Fagioli , who drove a Salmson .
From 1929 he started regularly in Grand Prix races with monoposto racing cars, both for the Scuderia Materassi and for the Maserati factory team . At the beginning of the 1930 season, he finished second at the Gran Premio di Tripoli and won the Premio Reale di Roma after overtaking the leading Louis Chiron on the last lap . The victory in Rome was his greatest success in motoring to date.
Enzo Ferrari founded his own racing team in 1929 . The Scuderia Ferrari took over at the beginning of 1930 the racing activities of Alfa Romeo . In June 1930 he and Baconin Borzacchini signed contracts with the Scuderia, which guaranteed them participation in sports car races.
In Ferrari's long and successful motorsport history, Arcangeli was the first driver to win a sports car race for Scuderia. In August 1930 he won the Tre Province sports car race and began a four-race winning streak. After the success on the 128 km long route from Bologna via Pistoia to Modena , he triumphed in Senigallia , Foggia and at the Coppa della Sila .
At the Gran Premio di Monza in 1930 , driving for Maserati, he was narrowly beaten by his team-mate Varzi and finished second.
The 1931 season was not very successful at the beginning. At both the Mille Miglia and the Targa Florio , Arcangeli was eliminated due to accidents and had to give up at Targa after an eye injury, where Goffredo Zehender continued to drive the car. The third accident in a row, during training for the Italian Grand Prix , ended fatally.
Death in Monza
Arcangeli had a fatal accident on May 23, 1931, while training for the Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza . There were no eyewitness reports from the accident after the second Lesmo bend, so the cause of the accident is still unclear. Whether the collision with a rabbit the day before had damaged the steering of the Alfa Romeo 12C Tipo A Monoposto Bimotore was just as speculation as the fact whether Arcangeli made a driving error while trying to beat Giuseppe Campari's best lap time to date. Arcangeli died of head injuries, with the Alfa Romeo only slightly damaged.
Arcangeli was buried a few days after the accident in his birthplace with great sympathy from the population.
Pre-war grands prix results
| season | team | dare | 2 | 3 | Points | position | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 | Scuderia Ferrari | Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 |  |
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- | |
| DNS | |||||||
Web links
- Leif Snellman: Luigi Arcangeli (I). www.kolumbus.fi, January 28, 2015, accessed March 15, 2015 .
- Leif Snellman: Luigi "Gigione" Arcangeli. www.kolumbus.fi, June 4, 2014, accessed March 15, 2015 .
- Luigi Arcangeli. www.motorsportmemorial.org, June 4, 2014, accessed March 15, 2015 (English).
Individual evidence
- ^ Vincent Glon: Milan - Naples et Milan - Tarente. racingmemo.free.fr, accessed on March 31, 2013 (French).
- ↑ Mille Miglia 1928
- ^ III Circuito di Cremona. (No longer available online.) Www.teamdan.com, archived from the original on September 28, 2011 ; accessed on May 24, 2015 .
- ↑ Senigallia sports car race 1928
- ^ Sports car race Tre Province 1930
- ↑ Senigallia sports car race 1930
- ^ Sports car race Foggia 1930
- ↑ Coppa della Sila 1930
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Arcangeli, Luigi |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian motorcycle and automobile racer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 16, 1894 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Savignano sul Rubicone |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 23, 1931 |
| Place of death | Monza |