Luigi Valenzano

Luigi "Gino" Valenzano (born April 24, 1920 in Asti ; † May 28, 2011 in Turin ) was an Italian racing driver .

Career

Gino Valenzano studied aircraft engineering at the University of Caserta in the 1930s . As a supporter of Pietro Badoglio , he and his brother Piero were deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1943. On May 5, 1945, the two brothers were released after the camp was liberated by US troops.

After the end of the Second World War , he began to drive mountain races in 1946 and thus had his first appearances as a racing driver. In 1948 he contested his first Mille Miglia and also competed in the Targa Florio for the first time . In both missions he did not finish. He had his first international success in the same year with sixth place in the Coppa d'Oro delle Dolomiti . For Carlo Abarth's then still young company , he won the Pergusa Grand Prix in 1950 and became a works driver at Lancia in 1951 . As a child, Valenzano went to the same school class as Vincenzo Lancia Gianni's son . In addition to the driving skills, this old connection helped with the commitment as a works driver.

In 1952 he was third in the Giro di Sicilia on the Lancia Aurelia B20 , sixth in the Le Mans 24-hour race and second overall in the Targa Florio . This was followed by further successes for Lancia with a fourth place in the D20 at the 1953 Targa and a second place in the D24 at the Sebring 12 hour race in 1954 . After Lancia withdrew from international motorsport at the end of the 1954 season, he moved to Maserati . After the death of his brother Piero at the Coppa d'Oro delle Dolomiti in 1955 , he retired from racing.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1952	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia Aurelia B20	Umberto Castiglioni	Rank 6
1953	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D20	Felice Bonetto	failure	Defective starter
1955	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 300S	Luigi Musso	failure	Gearbox damage

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1954	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D24	Porfirio Rubirosa	Rank 2 and class win
1955	Maserati Co. & BS Cunningham	Maserati 300S	Cesare Perdisa	Rank 4

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Lancia	Lancia Aurelia Lancia D20	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
				DNF	DNF
1954	Lancia	Lancia D24	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
				2	DNF
1955	Maserati	Maserati 300S	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
				4th		DNF

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

• On the death of Gino Valenzano (Italian)
• Gino Valenzano at Racing Sports Cars (English)
• Gino Valenzano. www.motorsportmemorial.org, accessed on May 15, 2020 (English). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Grand Prix of Pergusa 1950 (English)
2. ↑ Targa Florio 1953 (English)