Perhaps better known as a car and motorcycle constructor rather than a racer, Alejando De Tomaso, 74, died in Italy, at the end of May. The son of an Argentinean presidential candidate, De Tomaso settled in Modena, Italy in 1955, intent on a motor racing career. He drove for Maserati for two years and OSCA for three, without achieving great success.
By the early ’60s, De Tomaso had turned his attention to car construction including a 1.5-liter F1, a Formula Junior and a Ford-powered F2 car that was driven by Jonathan Williams in 1969.
Alejando De Tomaso flirted briefly, but fatally, with Formula One in 1970. Giampaolo Dallara, the ex-Maserati and Lamborghini designer, penned the DFV-powered De Tomaso Tipo 505-38/1, which featured a monocoque reinforced with a cast Elekxron “skeleton.” The De Tomaso raced under the Frank Williams banner but will be best remembered for its fatal crash on June 21st, during that year’s Dutch Grand Prix, killing Britain’s rising star Piers Courage. The team missed several subsequent Grands Prix but returned at the Austrian GP; this time in the hands of Tim Schenken. The Australian retired with mechanical trouble at Austria and several more Grands Prix, finally managing an 11th place finish in the Canadian Grand Prix. Deeply saddened by Piers Courage’s death, Alejandro De Tomaso retired from F1 for good at the end of the 1970 season.
Once the owner of Maserati, as well as a car manufacturing company bearing his own name (remember the Mangusta and Pantera?), De Tomaso also dabbled in motorcycles, buying both Moto Guzzi and Benelli, which he later re-sold.
The Argentinean continued an often controversial, sometimes stormy business career in Italy until 1993 when he suffered a stroke, which seriously debilitated him physically but never broke his spirit. He continued to work as best he could from his Modena base until his death. Submitted by Robert Newman
