Clemente Biondetti

Biondetti’s racing career began in 1923 on motor cycles, the Italian turning to cars in 1927. After early success in a Talbot, he joined the Maserati factory team in 1931, finishing third in both the Rome and French GPs.

His reputation really grew with Alfa Romeo, Biondetti valiantly hanging on to a trio of Mercedes in the Tripoli GP of 1937 as the rest of the field surrendered, before the engine blew. The 1938 season saw the first of his wins in the Mille Miglia and he was at his peak as a driver as war broke out. Despite being 49 when racing resumed, Biondetti took a hat-trick of wins (1947-49) in his beloved Mille Miglia as well as emerging triumphant in the Tour of Sicily in both 1948 and 1949. His win in the rain-soaked 1947 race was quite brilliant. Minus two gears and suffering fuel-feed problems with his Alfa Romeo, the veteran Italian beat the legendary Nuvolari into second place. Eschewing the pure Ferrari sports cars which had brought him his other recent successes, Biondetti built a Ferrari-Jaguar hybrid which failed at the Italian GP in 1950 and disappointed elsewhere.

Not surprisingly he then returned to the trusty steeds of the Prancing Horse, sharing Stagnoli’s car to take third place in the 1952 Monaco Grand Prix, run that year for sports cars. The same year he was second in the Acerbo Cup, a 12-hour race at Pescara. For 1953 he raced the rival Lancia cars but returned to the fold in 1954 – his final season – marking his last appearance in the Mille Miglia with a fourth place. Clemente had known that he had been suffering from cancer for several years and felt that to continue racing any longer could endanger others. A year later he was dead.