'Antonio Ascari' (
September 15,
1888 –
July 26,
1925) was an Italian
Grand Prix motor racing champion.
Antonio Ascari was born near
Mantua, in the
Lombardy region of
Italy, as the son of a corn dealer. He began racing cars at the top levels in Italy in 1919, using a modified 1914
Fiat. Along with
Enzo Ferrari, he raced in the first
Targa Florio held after the end of
World War I in 1919 but did not finish after crashing into a deep ravine. His bad luck there continued in 1920 and 1921, but in 1922 he finished a strong fourth. Driving an
Alfa Romeo for
Vittorio Jano in April of 1923, he narrowly lost the Targa Florio, finishing second to his Alfa Romeo team-mate,
Ugo Sivocci. However, the following month at the
Cremona Circuit he drove to his first major Grand Prix victory. In 1924, he was again the winner at Cremona in the first race of the
P2, then went on to
Monza where he won the
Italian Grand Prix.
1925 promised to be a great year for Antonio Ascari, his car dominating the competition at the
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps when he won the inaugural
Belgian Grand Prix. He could even eat and drink slowly during a pit stop.
Unfortunately, 36-year-old Ascari was killed while leading the 1925
French Grand Prix in an
Alfa Romeo P2 at the
Autodrome de Montlhéry south of
Paris. He left behind a seven-year-old son,
Alberto who would become one of the greats of
Formula 1 racing and who would also die behind the wheel at age 36 and on the 26th of the same month, four days after a remarkable escape.
Antonio Ascari is interred in the
Cimitero Monumentale in Milan.
The Ascari restaurant at F1 Boston in
Braintree, MA was named after Antonio Ascari.
External links
★
Antonio Ascari on
Find-A-Grave