Nino Vaccarella (born 4 March 1933 in Palermo, Sicily – died 23 September 2021) is an Italian former sports car racing and Formula One driver.
His principal achievements include winning the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Targa Florio in 1965, 1971 and 1975, when it no longer was a World Sportscar Championship event. Info from Wiki
Bio by Staphen Lathmaq
Although he only contested 5 World Championship Grands Prix, Nino Vaccarella achieved great success in sports cars and became legendary in endurance racing. He was almost deified by local fans after winning the Targa Florio three times (in 1965, 1971 and 1975) and painted letters would appear on the roads and walls on the eve of the event, proclaiming W Nino (Viva Nino). Vic Elford said of him, that “he knew the roads on Sicily like the back of his hand” and Nino himself stated, “being a local, since I was born and raised not far from the Targa Florio track, I used to go a month or two before the race with my own car and memorise every single corner. One lap was 72 kilometers (45 miles). That way, before a race, I could jump in a race car, do a few laps already feel comfortable with the track.” However, besides the Targa Florio he would also add Le Mans, the Nurburgring 1000kms and the Sebring 12 Hours to his victories. and
Born in 1933, in Palermo, Sicily, he went on to study Law and when his father died in 1956 he and his sister Ada founded the Institute Alfredo Oriani. Articles variously described his occupation, being a lawyer, a professor or a teacher but he himself stated he had “a “Dottore Juris Prudensa” which means I studied law at the University, but I never practiced or taught law” and at the private school run by him and his sister he was known as “the “presidente volante” the flying director!” Alongside his work at the school, a passion for cars saw him compete in his first race, driving his father’s Fiat 1100 in a hillclimb at Passo di Rigano-Bellolampo, in which he finished fifth in class.
In the following year he bought a Lancia Aurelia 2500 and entered several hillclimb events before making his racetrack debut at Vallelunga plus finished on his first entry in the Targa Florio. His best result was a new record at the Bellolampo hillclimb while in 1958 he was sixth with the Lancia in a 10 Hour Messina race plus tenth in the Giro delle Calabria. After purchasing a Maserati in 1959 he achieved a number of victories at hillclimbs and race tracks, taking five wins, at Valdessi-Santuario, Monte Pellegrino, GP de Pergusa, Trapani-Monte Erice and Sassi-Superga plus sixth at the Circuito di Caserta. He contested that year’s Targa Florio with a Maserati A6GCS and brought it home in tenth place with Giuseppe Allotta.
Continuing with the Maserati into 1960 there was a seventh place at the Circuito di Caserta with the 200S plus fourth with a Maserati Tipo 60 at the GP Napoli. He raced the Camoradi team’s Birdcage Maserati in the Targa Florio (alongside Umbert Magliloli) and at one point led for three laps (3 minutes ahead of Porsche drivers Joakim Bonnier and Hans Herrmann) but they had to retire after suffering a fuel tank breakage.
1961 saw him make his GP debut in the Italian GP where he drove Scuderia Serenissima’s de Tomaso-Alfa Romeo, though after qualifying twentieth (ahead of the de Tomasos of Roberto Businello and Roberto Lippi) he retired after 13 laps due to engine problems. Earlier in the year he had entered at Monaco though did not qualify for the race. In non championship races that year, he failed to qualify at the Modena GP though in a Coppa Italia race at Vallelunga in the October he was third (after starting in pole position plus set the fastest lap) in a Cooper-Maserati T51. In 1962 he was contacted by Scuderia Ferrari but had already signed a contract with Count Volpi’s Scuderia SSS Serenissima di Venezia team and at the German GP he was fifteenth in a Porsche 718 and finished ninth with a Lotus-Climax at the Italian GP. Racing in non championship events, he did not qualify for the Brussels GP, and retired from Silverstone’s International Trophy and Pergusa’s Mediterranean GP, but had a sixth place finish at Pau. His final GP came in 1965 in Italy where he drove a works Ferrari 158 and he found himself in a trio with Bonnier (in Rob Walker’s Brabham-Climax) and Frank Gardner (in Willment’s Brabham-B.R.M). The three had a strong race against each other though Nino’s car broke a valve and he did two laps before realising but he was twelfth and classified as a finisher, having completed more than 51 laps.
Racing in sports cars during this period, he and M.Trintignant were fourth with a Maserati Tipo in 1961’s Targa Florio plus third in the Paris 1000Km with a Ferrari 250 GT. 1962 started with the Sebring 12 Hours, though he and Abete did not finish, while he and Giorgio Scarlatti retired their Ferrari GTO at Le Mans. But he and Jo Bonnier were third with a Porsche 718 in the Targa Florio (Graham Hill was scheduled to race with them but did not enter) and although an impressive result, they could have finished higher but were suffering brake problems. After being hired by Ferrari, there was a second place finish in 1963’s Sebring 12 Hours with W.Mairesse and L.Bandini in a 250P. Unfortunately he had a serious accident at the Nurburgring 1000Km and fractured his right arm, which saw him miss the rest of the season.
He was second again at Sebring the following year, sharing a new Ferrari 275P with L.Scarfiotti and he went on to have the best period of his career driving the 275P, winning the Nurburgring 1000km and Le Mans (with J.Guichet, ahead of Graham Hill and Jo Bonnier’s Ferrari 330P) plus won a minor Coppa Intereuropa race in a 250LM. Speaking later of the Le Mans victory, he sid “the car was absolutely perfect. We didn’t have any problems in the race, which was great. We had to stop during the race for 24 minutes to refuel, which was kind of frustrating, but we still went 348 laps total, which was a record at that time. The car was perfect and Guichet was the perfect teammate.” Then, in 1965 he finally won the Targa Florio, paired with Lorenzo Bandini, and they took victory with an average speed of 63.7 mph in their Ferrari 275P2. He started with a strong opening lap of 40:05, followed by the fastest lap of the race in 39:21, which was a new lap record and broke the three-year record of Willy Mairesse. He was five minutes ahead of team-mate Guichet after three laps but when he pitted for refuelling and a driver change, he was lectured by Ferrari team manager Dragoni who was not pleased about his blistering performance. Although he went on to finish the race with a slower last lap of 43 minutes he was still over four mins ahead of C.Davis/G.Mitter’s second place Porsche 906. What was your ’65 Targa Florio co-driver, Lorenzo Bandini, like? He described Lorenzo as “a really nice guy. He was a very approachable man. When we ran the Targa, he was a bit concerned because there was quite a big difference between our lap times. But, I was encouraging to him. I told him to just relax, do your thing, and he steadily got faster. I really enjoyed having him as my teammate.” The duo were fourth in the Nurburgring 1000km with a Ferrari Dino 166P and had been in a tight fight for third place with J.Bonnier/J.Rindt’s Porsche 904/8 until their engine lost power. Returning to Le Mans, he was teamed with Pedro Rodriguez in the North American Team’s Ferrari 365 P2 and they finished seventh.
1966 was a frustrating season as he suffered a number of retirements though there was a fifth at Sebring in a Scuderia Brescia Corse Ford GT40 (with Umberto Maglioli). At the Targa Florio, he and L.Bandini had been leading for most of the race but it ended when the ran off the track and was too damaged to continue. He continued with Ferrari the following year though also signed with Brescia Corse to race their Ford GT 40. He and Umberto Maglioli were fifth with the GT40 at Sebring while at the Targa Florio, despite retiring from the event, he set a new lap record with a Ferrari P4. His best result was a fourth place in the Monza 1000 km driving Scuderia Filipinetti’s Ferrari with Herbert Muller while racing the GT40 he won the Coppa Citta di Enna plus was third with U.Maglioli in the Zeltweg 500Km. However, his Targa Florio ended after an uncharacteristic mistake, when his works Ferrari P4 slid into a wall on the first lap.
In 1968 he was fifth at the Daytona 24 Hours in an Alfa Romeo T33/2 with Udo Schutz though in the Targa Florio he was forced to retire after he had been running with a lead of over 13 minutes. He had been up against several Porsche 910s (the Porsches had dominated Daytona and Sebring that year) and few expected much of the Alfa Romeos against them. However, there were victories in the GP Mugello (with Bianchi and Galli) and the Imola 500Km (with Zeccoli) plus he and Cassini were fifth in Alfa Romeo Deutschland’s Giulia Sprint GTA at the Nurburgring 6 Hours. He renewed his contract with Alfa Romeo for the next year and his best results were victory in the Coppa Citta di Enna and third at Hockenheim with the T33/3. Away from Alfa there was a third podium finish with Andrea de Adamich in a Lola T70 in the GP Mugello and a fifth place finish at Le Mans in a works Matra MS630 with 1964 team-mate Jean Guichet.
In 1970 he was back in the works Ferrari team and despite retiring at Daytona (after qualifying eighth) and Le Mans he won at Sebring with Mario Andretti, was second with I.Giuinti and C.Amon at the Monza 1000Km, third in the Targa Florio and fourth in the Spa 1000Km (both times with I.Giunti). There was also a third place when partnered with John Surtees at the Nurburgring, after their 512S Spyder had been involved in a tough fight against the nimble Porsche 908/3.
Then came his second victory at the Targa Florio in 1971, when he and Toine Hezemans crossed the finish line over a minute ahead of Andrea de Adamich and Gijs van Lennep’s sister car. The race also ended Porsche’s dominance after they had finished first in the previous five Targa events. In practice, the three Alfas were quickest and Nino set the fastest lap at 34:14.2. The race regulations stated that cars would start in numerical order at 15 second intervals but instead the field went out in classes according to practice times, which put Nino at the head of the field. There were chaotic scenes even on the first lap, with Rolf Stommelen’s transmission failing, causing him to skid and break a wheel then Brian Redman’s steering broke and he hit a wall but the car burst into flames and he unfortunately sustained third degree burns. Following this Pedro Rodriguez’s Porsche broke two wheels after hitting the kerb which meant Nino was leading on the road by 40 seconds after the first lap but on corrected times G.Larrousse was actually 4.1 seconds ahead of him. The pace was so intense that only 8 cars were on the same lap. On the fifth lap, Vic Elford overtook T.Hezemans and then handed back to G.Larrousse and on lap 6 Larrousse was 80 seconss in front of T.Hezemans, who handed back to Nino. Then on lap 7 G.Larrousse suffered a puncture and the wheel spanner broke when he tried to fit the spare and he drove 14 miles on the rim to the JW service pit halfway round the course, where the rival mechanics fitted a new wheel. However, he retired on lap 8 after his front suspension collapsed and the two remaining Alfas went on to finish first and second, with J.Bonnier/R.Attwood’s Lola T212 the only other car on the same lap. Added to this was a third place at Sebring with A.de Adamich and H.Pescarolo, fourth with Berger at the Spa 24 Hour race in an Alfa Romeo 2000 GTAm and fifth with T.Hezemans and R.Stommelen in the Monza 1000Km. Partnered with T.Hezemans there was also a fifth at the Nurburgring (behind the Porsche 908/3s, which finished 1-2-3) and a strong second at Zeltweg. Alfa Romeo missed Le Mans that year so he drove Escuderia Montjuich’s Ferrari 512M, with Jose-Maria Juncadella, and for a short time during the night they were leading until retiring with transmission failure.
In 1972 the dominance of the Ferraris meant his year was a less productive one in terms of strong results. His engine blew on lap 3 in the Targa though there was a fourth place at Le Mans with Andrea de Adamich. The Sebring 12 Hours saw four Alfa Romeos entered and after qualifying fifth he and Toine Hezemans eventually came home third in their T33/3, his best result of that year. He and Arturo Merzario were teamed to compete in 1973’s Targa with a Ferrari 312 PB but though they were quickest in practice the drive shaft failed in the race. Nino decided to step back from active racing although he made an exception for the Targa Florio and contested it twice more, taking his third victory in 1975 when driving an Alfa 33TT12 with Arturo Merzario. After that victory he finally retired in 1997, as “I had been doing it for 18 years. And by that time, I was 40. The main reason was because I became a father. After a good, long career with some great wins, I decided to quit.”
Following this he continued with his school for many years, before closing it, and continued attending Historic events, including Goodwood, and returned to the Targa for 2016’s 110th Anniversary event. In honour of his racing achievements, awards he received included the Knight of the Republic, the Silver Star for Sporting Merit of the Italian Olympic Committee plus a diploma from the International Olympic Committee.
Gallery Sport cars F1
