Luigi Chinetti

The overall winner of the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1932; Raymond Sommer (with tie) and Luigi Chinetti (center)

Ferrari 166MM Barchetta, the winning car from Chinetti / Selsdon in Le Mans 1949

Luigi Chinetti (born July 17, 1901 in Jerago con Orago , † August 17, 1994 ) was an American racing driver of Italian origin. His athletic career began in the 1930s and ended in the early 1950s.

Career

At the beginning of the 1930s in France, living as a car salesman and racing driver, he established his reputation as the winner of the Le Mans 24-hour race in an Alfa Romeo in 1932 . This victory was followed by two more in this endurance race in 1934 and 1949.

During the Second World War, Chinetti emigrated to the United States, where he was naturalized in 1946. He subsequently won other long-distance races, for example the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps , and in 1949 achieved the first victory of a Ferrari sports car at Le Mans. In 1951 he won the Carrera Panamericana as Piero Taruffi's co-driver . Chinetti took part in all Le Mans races between 1932 and 1953 on various makes and was the second racing driver to win this race three times by 1949.

Chinetti capitalized on his success with Ferrari when he became the first and for a long time only American Ferrari dealer in the 1950s. In this function, Chinetti then founded the NART racing team, which was successful up to the 1970s, with official support from Ferrari .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1932	Raymond Summers	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 LM	Raymond Summers	Overall victory
1933	Soc. On. Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 MM-LM	Philippe de Gunzburg	Rank 2
1934	Luigi Chinetti	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300	Philippe Étancelin	Overall victory
1935	Luigi Chinetti	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300	Jacques Gastaud	failure	Engine failure
1937	Luigi Chinetti	Talbot T150C	Louis Chiron	failure	Engine failure
1938	Luigi Chinetti	Talbot T1500 SS Coupe	Philippe Étancelin	failure	Engine failure
1939	Luigi Chinetti	Talbot T26	TASO Mathieson	failure	accident
1949	Lord Selsdon	Ferrari 166MM	Peter Mitchell-Thomson, 2nd Baron Selsdon	Overall victory
1950	Luigi Chinetti	Ferrari 195 Sport	Pierre Louis-Dreyfus	failure	Power transmission
1951	Luigi Chinetti	Ferrari 340 America	Jean Lucas	Rank 8
1952	Luigi Chinetti	Ferrari 340 America	Jean Lucas	failure	Disqualified
1953	Luigi Chinetti	Ferrari 340MM Spider	Tom Cole	failure	Fatal accident involving Cole

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Luigi Chinetti Scuderia Gustalla	Ferrari 340MM Ferrari 375MM	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
					DNF				DNF
1954	John Shakespeare	Ferrari 375MM	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
								6th

Web links

Commons : Luigi Chinetti  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Luigi Chinetti at Racing Sports Cars