Connections

My racing goes back to before the war when I was driving mainly Maseratis. In 1937, I did quite a few races, mostly voiturette races for 1.5-liter cars, and that year I started at Posillipo in Naples with my Maserati 4CM, I think I finished about 6th, but that race was won by Count Trossi, and as a young man he had become president of Scuderia Ferrari. Enzo Ferrari liked to have the ‘aristocrats’ in his team, like Count Brivio. But Trossi was later a driver for Alfa Romeo, and when I think back, it was helpful to know those people.

Georges Filipinetti was driving there too, and he then started an important team and had close connections with Enzo Ferrari, like Jacques Swaters did in Belgium with Ecurie Franchorchamps. A lot of people met back in those days before there was any such thing as a Ferrari. There were important drivers in those races…Cortese, Luigi Villoresi, and Count Lurani who also was a good writer and organizer. That year I went to do what they called the ‘Light Car Race’ in the Isle of Man, which was really a voiturette race. I was driving in the team of John du Puy, and there I met the English drivers…Raymond Mays, Reg Parnell, Arthur Dobson. Prince Bira came to that race, and so did Villoresi. Bira drove a Delage and won. I think I finished in my usual place (6th). John du Puy was a school friend of mine and we created a team together, almost always with Maseratis.