Giovanni Lavaggi (born 18 February 1958) is an Italian racing driver. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Giovanni Lavaggi’s ancestors were a noble family, moving from Genova to Sicily in 1420 and then from there on to Augusta in 1711. A cousin of his grandfather was a war hero and an Italian Air Force pilot but was killed in 1941 when his plane crashed. It was said that sabotage was to blame, and an Italian Minister flying with him was also killed in the crash, and in the city of Catania a road was named in his honour, Via Giovanni Lavaggi (Giovanni Lavaggi Road). Born in February 1958 in Augusta, Sicily, Giovanni he had 10 Formula One World Championship Grand Prix races in 1995 and 1996 and was nicknamed ‘Johnny Carwash’ (supposedly a rather loose translation of his name from Italian to English, John Washing or John Washes). He was more successful in sports car racing, achieving a class podium at Le Mans in 1992 with Kremer, was Interserie Champion in 1993 and won 1995’s Daytona 24 Hours. Some years later he constructed his own Lavaggi LS1 Le Mans Prototype and raced it in the Le Mans Series.
His father had raced during the 1960s and Giovanni followed this path, initially on bikes when he was 14 and then in rallying in 1979. He was also a keen skier and hang glider although he sustained a broken leg in a hang-gliding accident. He moved into circuit racing in the 1980’s and in 1984 drove an Ermolli in the ‘Formula Panda’ Italian Championship and finished second.
A lack of sponsorship meant he was unable to contest the whole F3 Championship so only entered a few rounds in 1985’s Italian championship, with Scuderia Alloni’s Arno 03 and Salvati Racing’s Ralt RT3. There were drives at Varano, Mugello, Magione, Enna-Pergusa and twice at Vallelunga and Monza, with his best results thirteenth at another Mugello race in July followed by fourteenth and ninth at Monza and Imola in September with Salvati Racing. In 1986 he raced Jolly Club Milano’s Alfa Romeo 75 in the Zeltweg 500 Km and he and Marcello Cipriani finished twentieth plus also drove a Giovanni Salvati Racing Alfa Romeo powered Dallara 385 in Italian Formula 3.
A mechanical engineering graduate of Milan Polytechnic, during this period he worked as a consultant alongside his racing from 1986 to 1991. He competed in two 1000km rounds of 1987’s World Sports-Prototype Championship, driving Techno Racing’s Alba AR3-Cosworth with Jean Pierre Frey and Luigi Taverna at Brands Hatch and at Spa with John Bartlett Racing/Goodman Sounds entered Bardon DB1 alongsideTom John Bartlett and Tom Waring. He returned to race in 1988’s Championship with the Swiss Team Salamin and in his first race with their Porsche 962C he, Antoine Salamin and Jean Denis Deleteraz were seventh at Brands Hatch. Giovanni and A.Salamin had three further races and were ninth in September in the Spa and Nurburgring 1000km rounds and late in the year travelled to Australia though retired at Sandown Park. 1989 saw a busier season with a 962, mostly for Kremer Racing in the WSPC though he and Bruno Giacomelli did not finish in his first race at Suzuka. He made his debut at Le Mans with Kunimitsu Takahashi and Bruno Giacomelli though they retired the car after 303 laps. Further Kremer drives came alongside George Fouche and they took seventh at Jarama, tenth at Spa and twelfth at Donington with their best finish a third place at the Nurburgring 1000 km. There were also outings with Swiss Team Salamin at Brands Hatch though he and A.Salamin retired and he finished fourteenth when teamed with Chiyomi Totani and Naomi Nagasaki in Alpha Cubic’s car for the Fuji 1000 km, a round of the Japanese Sports Prototype Championship. He continued in the WSPC in 1990 and partnering Tim Lee-Davey in his Team Davey 962C they were thirteenth and seventeenth at Silverstone and Spa, nineteenth at Le Mans (joined by Max Cohen-Olivar) and he and Valentino Musetti were seventeenth at Donington. However his best results came with solo drives in Interserie races, with two second place finishes at Zeltweg and the Hungaroring with Kremer.
Moving away from prototypes for a year he participated in F3000, with the first five rounds in Crypton Engineering’s Reynard 91D-Cosworth at Vallelunga, Pau, Jerez, Mugello and Enna-Pergusa then a switch to Roni Motorsport’s Ralt RT23-Cosworth for the final races at Hockenheim, Brands Hatch, Spa, Bugatti (Le Mans) and Nogaro. Unfortunately it would prove a disappointing season as he only qualified for two races, retiring at the Autodromo di Pergusa and finishing twelfth at Nogaro. Despite this Giovanni still harboured dreams of racing in F1 and there were some tests with March the following year. The highlight of the season came when he rejoined Kremer for Le Mans and sharing a 962 CK6 car with Manuel Reuter and John Nielsen they were seventh overall and second in the C3 class. In 1993, he stayed at the wheel of Kremer’s Porsche and his perseverance saw him win the Interserie Championship in the CK7 Spyder. In six races, he was seventh at Zeltweg, took victories at Jarama, Mugello and Most and added podiums at Siegerland and Donington. A further drive in the 962 at Le Mans saw twelfth overall and seventh in C2 class together with Wayne Taylor and Jurgen Lassig. He decided again to enter open-wheel racing and in 1994 travelled to America for the CART PPG Indy Car World Series. He entered four rounds and his first outing came at Detroit in a Euromotorsport Lola-Ilmor but he didn’t qualify. His remaining three races came with Leader Car Racing’s Lola and he was thirtieth at Cleveland and fifteenth at Road America though did not qualify for the season’s finale at Laguna Seca.
At the Daytona 24 Hours IMSA changed rules shortly before the race in 1990 which resulted in two new Porsche factory cars being pulled out before the race. However Kremer decided to run their car and after starting seventeenth they were rewarded by Giovanni, Jurgen Lassig and Christophe Bouchut bringing the K8 Spyder home first, covering 680 laps, 2,456.4 miles and averaging 102.289 mph on their way to a five-lap victory. Reuniting with J.Lassig and C.Bouchut in March, they contested another American endurance classic and finished thirtieth in the Sebring 12 Hours while he teamed with Massimo Moni and Mimmo Schiaterella in a Ferrari F335 for the 6 Hours Vallelunga though they retired. In July 1995 though he finally achieved his goal and made his debut in the World Championship, having four outings with the Pacific team’s Ford powered PR02. Coming in as a rookie at 35 years old he was the oldest driver in the field and his first race was the German GP though it ended after 27 laps due to a broken gearbox while in the remaining three he spun off in Hungary and Italy and gearbox issues caused a retirement in Belgium. He returned to F1 the following year with a seat in the Minardi team for the last six rounds of 1996’s Championship. Driving the Ford powered M195B for the first time at Hockenheim, he failed to qualify but though he started at the Hungaroring he spun off on lap 70 (but was classified as tenth). He failed to qualify at Spa and retired with engine problems after 5 laps at Monza, finished fifteenth at Estoril and failed to qualify at Suzuka. His tenth place was actually Minardi’s third best result that year, after Giancarlo Fisichella’s eighth in Canada and Pedro Lamy’s ninth place at San Marino (though Lamy also took 2 tenth place finishes in Brazil and Belgium). Besides his F1 commitments, he raced a Maserati Ghibli in an Italian GT round at Magione plus participated in BPR International Endurance GT Series rounds at Monza and the Nurburgring, alongside Renato Mastropietro and Vincenzo Polli, with a Porsche 911 GT2 for Promosport Italia. At the end of the year he would be in an F1 cockpit again for December’s Formula 1 Indoor Trophy, which was part of the annual Bologna Motor Show. The show had been held each December since 1976 but between 1988 and 1996 a Trophy race had taken place at the venue. ‘Indoor’ is a misnomer though as it actually took place outside the show on a temporary circuit, apparently just 1.3km long and marked largely by tyres and temporary curbs. That year’s running would be the final one and Giovanni finished second, losing the final against Giancarlo Fisichella’s Benetton but he beat Jarno Trulli in a Benetton, the Ligier driving Olivier Panis and Shinji Nakano plus Tarso Marques in a Minardi.
After F1, in the following year he teamed with Maury-Laribiere and Chauvin in Kremer’s K8 for 1997’s Le Mans but they did not qualify due to an accident in practice. From 1998 to 2009 he competed with his own team in the FIA Sport Prototypes Championship and in the Le Mans Series and the first year saw him with his own GLV Brums team in the ISRS. In four 2 Hour 30 min races in his Ferrari 333SP although he retired at the Nurburgring he was fourth at Anderstorp (with Marco Werner) then had fifth place finishes at Le Mans (with Thorkild Thyrring) and at Kyalami with Andrea Chiesa. His best results in 1999 came with fourth and sixth at Barcelona and Enna Pergusa, second in the Tourist Trophy and the highlight was victory at Magny Cours with the 333SP alongside Gaston Mazzacane. His final Le Mans 24 Hour attempt came in June 2000, driving a Repsol Porsche 996 GT3-R with Spanish drivers Tomas Saldana and Jesus Diez de Villarroel but they retired due to an accident. However, there were four podium finishes alongside Nicolas Filiberti at Barcelona, Brno, Magny Cours and Kyalami, plus a fifth at the Nurburging. Continuing with the 333 SP in the following year’s FIA Sportscar Championship there was a fifth at Spa with Christian Vann and then victory at the Monza 1000km. 2003 was a busy schedule in what would be the final year with the GLV 333SP and he and Xavier Pompidou were sixth at Lausitzring though retired at Monza. The year saw his first drives with a Lola B2K/10 (alongside Justin Keen, Larry Oberto and Phil Andrews) and in FIA Sportscar Championship rounds with Taurus Racing they were fourth and ninth in Spa and Le Mans 1000km events. In the following two years, he had appearances with another Prancing Horse machine, this time Auto Palace’s Ferrari 360 Modena, at Monza, Nurburgring and Silverstone with Steeve Hiesse and Giampaolo Ermoli in the LMS with Auto Palace’s Ferrari 360 Modena GT and in a James Watt Automotive Porsche 996 GT3-RS at the Spa 1000km with Paul Daniels and David Gooding. Giovanni’s tally with the 333 SP included 2 victories, 5 podiums and 2 pole position; he had installed a Judd engine in 2001’s Monza wining car plus drove the car for five hours out of six to make up for the 5 laps lost at the beginning due to a throttle problem.
Utilising his mechanical engineering background he decided to start his own project and his LMP1 prototype Lavaggi LS1 appeared in 2006 and ran in selected Le Mans Series races until 2009. Unfortunately, like many others, the team was strongly affected by the financial crisis over the following years and after sponsors dropped out he had to fund it with his own resources. The LS1 was said to be the first Le Mans Prototype to be built and designed in Monte Carlo and was powered by a 6-litre Ford-based V8 engine, built in North Carolina by Pro-Motor Engines. Featuring a red-and-white racing livery of Monaco the car made its first public static appearance in July 2006 at the Nurburgring 1000km while its racing debut came at that season’s final LMS round at Jarama. Driven by himself and Xavier Pompidou, the team were hindered by electronic problems through the whole race weekend and suffered two engine failures. During the winter, he discovered the cause of the electronic problem, which they overcame by designing in house new looms. In 2007 pre-season testing at Paul Ricard they suffered another two engine breakdowns, which was traced to an internal lubrication problem though it took the whole season to realise the problem was due to the wrong design of the dry sump. In the three races entered that year, Marcelo Puglisi was selected as co-driver at Monza though was replaced by Cristian Corsini for the Nurburgring round and at the car’s last appearance that year at Spa, Wolfgang Kaufmann would be partnering Giovanni. They did not finish in the three races after being troubled by engine failures and retired after 57 laps at Monza, 29 laps at the Nurburgring and 49 laps at Spa. Away from his own car he was entered for Silverstone in a Lucchini LMP2-04 though he and Ranieri Randaccio did not start the race. The Ford engine was later replaced with a 4.0-litre AER P32C twin-turbocharged V8, which was a big drain on the small team’s finances, especially with the team losing supporters due to the world financial crisis. In the three races that season, with W.Kaufmann as co-driver, an alternator broke at Barcelona and at Spa their race ended after a fuel dry-break coupling disconnected. At the Nurburgring, a water leak caused engine overheating problems, though they managed to reach the chequered flag, but due to the amount of time spent fixing the problem in the pits the laps completed were not enough for them to be classified as a finisher. Their final race that season came in a non-championship Vallelunga 6 Hours event but after taking pole position plus fastest lap, an engine oil leak caused clutch problems and they went from first to tenth place at the finish.
Despite the financial struggles plus changes to the LMP regulations for 2009 which imposed heavy modifications to the car, Giovanni continued running the LS1 for another season. Unfortunately, their finances would not allow them to use a wind tunnel to study the modifications and the aerodynamic changes made the car very difficult to drive and the season would be a frustrating one. Paired with W.Kaufmann again, the first race came in Spa but though they were still running at the end of the race they had only completed 49 laps due to a broken electronic cable and were not classified. Their next LMS entry came in the fourth round at the Nurburgring 1000km but they were forced to retire after 21 laps due to a clutch failure. The Vallelunga 6 Hours would be the car’s last race but they never started; the organisers had allowed slower touring cars to compete but as the only LMP1 entry the LS1 was deemed too fast to compete with them and Giovanni withdrew the car. In 2010, new rules were introduced by the ACO which would have meant heavy modifications to his LS1, including a different type of engine, and he retired the car at the end of 2009’s season. During the year he had also taken part in one race in the Speedcar Series at Bahrein with Team Siram and was eighth and tenth in the round’s two heats
With the retirement of his LMP1 car Giovanni also retired from active racing but would occasionally take part in some touring car races and classic car races. In the following year he raced in the opening round of 2010’s Superstars International Series, an Italian-based touring car racing series, and in the Monza event’s two heats he was eleventh in the first though retired from the second with MRT by Nocentini’s Chrysler 300C SRT8. A few years after this saw him contest two rounds of the 2014 EURO V8 Series (which used cars from the Superstars Series, which folded in 2013) and in the two-heat races he retired and was fifteenth at Monza, then was ninth and seventh at Brno with Team MRT’s Lexus IS F.
