scuderias

1973 Ferrari Daytona driven by Scuderia Brescia Corse President Ugo Beretta in the Varano circuit during the Mille Miglia Tribute in 2009. He won it.

Story by Dino Brunori

As we have seen in Part 2, Read Part 2 Scuderia Brescia Corse seemed to have died, but, as we mentioned, fire was smoldering in the ashes. One day in the spring of 1994 Dr. Belponer received a phone call from his first vice president, Ugo Gussalli Beretta. A group of friends who were active in historic racing had gathered around Beretta, who explained to Belponer the desire of these friends to revive the never-forgotten name of Scuderia Brescia Corse. Belponer was surprised and delighted of this request and gave his approval, leaving the name in the hands of these new/old friends, happy to see his badge up on the shields again until his death at 83, in 2009.

So in 1994 new blood was injected into the veins of the Scuderia and the transfusion worked perfectly. At the beginning they were just 30 friends active in historic racing, very proud of the lioness badge on their cars, but within a couple of years the requests of new gentleman drivers flocked in. The board then decided to keep the rule, as always in the past, of 100 members only.

1949 Stanguellini 1100 owned by Paolo Mazzoldi.

One thing was common to all of the new members: the passion for historic racing like regularity time trials, hillclimbs, formula racing, and even concours d’elegance. Not all the members are drivers, because in regularity the co-driver is as important as the driver, and over the years this helped to build very strong relationship in the crews, that often last longer than a marriage!

In the last 20 years the Scuderia has been very active on the Italian playground, but many important races abroad have also seen the cars with the white and blue badge on the bonnet. Just to mention a few of them: Le Mans Classic, Tour Auto France, Tour de Espana, Slovenia Classic Marathon, Liege-Rome-Liege, Ennstal Classic, Rallye des Alpes, Mil Millas Argentina, and the Monaco GP Historic. The results are also in line with the story: since the revival in 1994, Scuderia Brescia Corse has collected 164 overall victories, including 2 Mille Miglia, 4 Gran Premio Nuvolari, 1 Tour Auto France, 2 times Le Mitiche Sport, 1 Mil Millas Argentina and 4 Winter Marathon events.

Maria Vittoria Pasotti, daughter of 'PAM', with the trophies won by her father.

'Pam' in the Scuderia Brescia Corse Alfa T33. Note the car is painted with the colors of Scuderia. Credit Centro Documentazione Alfa Romeo

Part 2 of Brunori’s Brescia Corse follows the action as the team has its most successful season ever.

In 1971 two other fabulous cars joined the Brescia Corse garage; an Alfa Romeo 33 and a Ferrari 512 M, both personal purchases of Belponer. As Belponer revealed the day of the delivery when announcing the new Scuderia’s acquisitions, it was the sole Ferrari 512 sold to a private individual at the remarkable cost of 27 million lira, tires excluded.

The team of Ferdinando Latteri and Nino Todaro in the Scuderia Brescia Course T33 at the Targa Florio in 1971. Credit Archivio Scuderia Brescia Corse

Brescia Corse also signed an agreement with Autodelta to borrow the services of Carlo Facetti when he’s free from official engagements, to drive the Chevron B 19 of the Scuderia. Casoni, Pam and Facetti also shared the 512 in the World Interseries Championship, racing at Monza, Imola, Zolder, Zwelteg, Norisring, Hockenheim. Our little club from Brescia was the sole private team to enter such a championship against the official team. Fighting with giants! [Read more…] about Scuderia Brescia Corse Part 2

1969: Gigi Taramazzo in an Abarth 2000 at the Trento - Bondone hillclimb. Photo courtesy G. Tomazzoni

This week we present an exclusive story about the famous yet little known Scuderia Brescia Corse. Dino Brunori, author of “Nardi, A fast life”, has done a lot of research on the team from Brescia; this is the first of two parts. Ed.

This is a story of men, cars, races and a story of Brescia. Called ‘the lioness of Italy’ for its strong and fierce resistance to the Austro-Hungarian army before surrendering during the first war of independence in 1848, Brescia became the capital of car racing from the very beginning of the automobile.

Brescia is not just the Mille Miglia; on September 14, 1899, it hosted one of the first road races in the world, on a circuit touching Brescia, Cremona, Mantova and Verona; on March 3, 1904, the ‘Coppa Florio’ road race held there by Vincenzo Florio, a precursor to the fabled Targa Florio; September 10, 1905 and September 2, 1907, were the dates of the ‘Brixia Week’ with races of cars, airplanes and boats on Lake Garda; and on September 1921, Brescia hosted the first Italian Gran Prix. The Mille Miglia was a latecomer, established in Brescia in 1927.

This story, however, begins with the ashes of the 1957 Mille Miglia; its demise left Brescia with no famous auto racing event. But there was fire smoldering in the ashes. With the 1960s came the young and rebels, miniskirts, fast cars, the incredible economic boom, all of which also affected Brescia. Car racing boomed as well; on any Sunday there was a hillclimb or a circuit race to be found somewhere. [Read more…] about Scuderia Brescia Corse Part 1