Renato Balestrero

Balestrero 1926

OM 665 Superba

Alfa Romeo P3

Alfa Romeo Tipo 308

Renato Balestrero (born July 27, 1898 in Lucca , † February 18, 1948 in Milan ) was an Italian racing driver . In his career from 1922 to 1947, he won 54 of the 217 races in which he competed.

Career

Renato Balestrero came from Lucca in Tuscany and lived in Genoa for a long time before his death . He participated in the First World War as a driver . He began his racing career at OM , for which he won the IV Coppa Montenero in Livorno in 1924 at the wheel of an OM 665 Superba . In 1925 and 1926 Balestrero won numerous races for the manufacturer, including the Gran Premio di Tripoli in 1925. He then bought a Bugatti Type 35T for 75,000 Swiss francs , which he used privately from 1927 to 1929. He was also hired by General Motors and drove LaSalle racing cars in 1928 . The Italian later started on a Talbot-Darracq 700 (1931) as well as on the Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 and Alfa Romeo P3 .

In the early 1930s, Renato Balestrero cut back his racing activities and, together with Ferdinando Minoia, founded a company that imported American cars . Since this was not particularly successful, however, he started again in 1933 and 1934 in automobile races, primarily for the Gruppo Genovese San Giorgio . From 1935 Balestrero used an Alfa Romeo Tipo B / P3 , with which he competed in 1935  - without much success - at the Grand Prix in Germany and Switzerland .

In the 1938 season , Renato Balestrero started in an Alfa Romeo Tipo 308 and came seventh at the German Grand Prix on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring .

After the Second World War , Balestrero mainly competed in sports car races in his Italian homeland. In 1947 he was Italian champion in the open sports car class on a Fiat - Stanguellini 2800 8C .

Deadly accident

Renato Balestrero died on February 18, 1948 at the Ospedale Niguarda in Milan as a result of a traffic accident . He had been stopped by the police for a traffic control on the A4 autostrada en route from Milan to Turin . He was hit by a Lancia Aprilia of the Gazzetta dello Sport and suffered severe head injuries, to which he succumbed a short time later.

Balestrero was on his way to Nardi-Danese in Turin to deliver an Alfa Romeo engine that was to be installed in a new racing car.

statistics

Pre-war grands prix results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	Points	position
1931								20th	14th
	7. 1
1934								-
	DNF		DNF
1935								51	21st
				DNF	12.
1937								39	33.
		DNF
1938								28	14th
		7th

Legend
colour	meaning		EM points
gold	victory		1
silver	2nd place		2
bronze	3rd place		3
green	Classified, covered more than 75% of the race distance		4th
blue	not entitled to points, covered between 50% and 75% of the race distance		5
violet	not eligible for points, covered between 25% and 50% of the race distance		6th
red	not eligible for points, covered less than 25% of the race distance		7th
colour	abbreviation	meaning	EM points
black	DSQ	disqualified	8th
White	DNS	did not start
	DNA	did not arrive
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)

¹Balestrero formed a team with Amedeo Ruggeri .

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement
1926	Officine Meccaniche	OM Tipo 665S Superba	Frédéric Théllusson	Disqualified

Web links

Commons : Renato Balestrero  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Renato Balestrero. www.racingsportscars.com, accessed on March 29, 2020 (English). 
• Leif Snellman: Renato Balestrero (I). www.kolumbus.fi, November 26, 2019, accessed on March 29, 2020 (English). 
• La nostra storia. (No longer available online.) Www.balestrero.it, archived from the original on August 9, 2019 ; Retrieved February 21, 2015 (Italian). 
• Renato Balestrero. www.24h-en-piste.com, accessed on March 29, 2020 (French). 
• Renato Balestrero in the Internet Movie Database (English)