Luigi Villoresi

One of the most important races for me was the Grand Prix de Modena in 1952. It was not a very important race but it was a big race for Ferrari - a big battle between Ferrari, with me and Alberto Ascari and Dorino Serafini, and Maserati, with Froilan Gonzalez and Piero Taruffi.

Gonzalez in the Maserati was fastest and led, but I followed and I studied his car and I saw that his brakes were finished. So at the last corner I braked at the last possible moment and won the race.

It was important for me, too, because Mr Ferrari shook my hand and said, "Thank you". And in the newspapers they said that it was the first time he did that for a driver!

The Giro di Sicilia in 1953 was also a big race for me. I had a 12-cylinder 4.5-litre Ferrari. Near Catania we came to a very tight corner, and I pushed the brake and there was nothing. Fortunately, there was a little escape road, and we stopped. Cassani, the mechanic with me, he told me there is no fluid.

In the village we found a little garage, bought some fluid and put it in, but it was no good because the pipe was fractured.

So we drove to Catania, where there was refuelling, but they couldn't repair it. So we went on to Messina, and they still couldn't repair it. I wanted to stop, but they said, "No, no you are the last Ferrari," so I asked Cassani, and he said "Go on Villoresi, go on!"

So we did, and it was 200 kilometres to Palermo. It's all up and downhill, and it was really very difficult, but I finished, and I won the race. It was important for me because I think there is no other driver, who could have done what I did there.

But the most memorable race was the Indianapolis 500 in 1946. I raced there for the Ruggieri brothers. They had a 3-litre Maserati, with two superchargers. It was a good car. It had been hidden for four years in the war, away from the Germans!

When the Italian newspapers wrote that Villoresi was going to race at Indianapolis with this car, Magneto Scintilla, who made the two magnetos fitted to the car, told me that I must overhaul them, because they had been in the damp all that time in the war.

I told the Ruggieris. But they did nothing. Then Scintilla wrote again and said, "It is absolutely necessary that you repair the magnetos, you can send them to us here at Schapusa, or you can take them to Milan, but you must repair them!"

I told the brothers again. But they said, "No, we've driven it round the house and it goes very well."

So, Guerrino Bertochi, the chief mechanic at Maserati, Giovanni Lurani, Achille Varzi, Corrado Filippini, who was a newspaper writer, and I went on a very old American ship to Boston. We arrived at Indianapolis quite late, about two days before, I don't remember exactly.

We tried the car and it went very well. I could only do four or five laps at a time, so there wasn't time to prove the magnetos.

The night before the race Guerrino said he would stay in the pits with the car, because he was afraid that some of the other mechanics might tamper with it.

Late that night a guy with a pistol came up to Guerrino and said, "Why don't you go to sleep at the hotel. You are very tired." And Guerrino said, "No, no I prefer to stay here." Then the guy said "No, no, you go, you go!" and he waved the pistol. So Guerrino came back to the hotel to sleep...

In the morning we went to the track and we found that the car's oil was all on the floor. Someone had undone the bolt, so we could not start it. Guerrino got out his spanners, and taka, taka, tak, tak, he repaired it all.

We started the race, and it went very, very well. You know it is 200 laps at Indianapolis, well it was at about 85 laps when the engine started to run on seven cylinders, and then six cylinders, so I stopped at the pits.

Guerrino changed the plugs, but it still didn't work. Then he saw that it was the magnetos, and he changed them. We lost about 15 or 20 minutes, and I started again...

About 20 laps from the end I was in the group with the leaders, when the engine went trupp, trrup trrrup, trrrp, and I had to stop again.

It was un grande dolore, because, if I hadn't stopped I could have won that race. I would have been the first European to win Indianapolis, and to win all the dollars...