Anthony Frank “Tony” Settember (10 July 1926 – 4 May 2014) was a racing driver and engineer from the United States. He was born in Manila, Philippines. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
He participated in seven Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on July 21, 1962. He scored no championship points. Settember was the nominal head of the Scirocco racing team, and a very efficient driver in sportscars.
Of Italian descent, Tony Settember settled in California when 19 years old where he ran a car tuning firm, and would go on to enjoy road racing against drivers/friends including Phil Hill, around Southern California.
He started racing in regional SCCA events in 1954, with a Jaguar XK120 plus an MG TC Special in 1955. Changing to a Corvette and Mercedes 300SL, the following years saw him take wins and podiums at Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, Pebble Beach, Bakersfield, Pomona, Santa Maria and Riverside. Racing the 300SL at Pebble Beach in 1956, against Dr. Dick Thompson, he told how “the Corvette was not officially entered in the race, so records show I won. But trust me Dr. Dick won that race and put Corvette on the map.” At one point he owned a Mercedes dealership and in 1957 bought his first Corvette, and although intended for general driving pleasure he raced it at Santa Barbara in the first Riverside race on Labor Day that year. He continued racing it through 1958-1960, taking victories at Tucson and Hourglass Field (San Diego) and in 1959 travelled to Italy, winning his class in a support race at the Naples GP in a WRE (World Racing Enterprise)-Maserati sports car.
In the following year he had several podiums, plus victories at Pomona, Phoenix, Santa Barbara, with the Corvette and at the Formula Junior race supporting 1960’s US GP his Stanguellini-Fiat finished seventh. 1961 saw him and Jack Turner drive a Scuderia Scirocco Corvette at Le Mans though they retired after 14 hours; before it, they tested at a hill climb race test in Verona, and won.
In the UK, Emeryson Cars had been contesting Grands Prix and non-championship races and wealthy American Hugh Powell bought into the team, with Tony (who was Powell’s guardian) as a driver. The cars would be driven by him and John Campbell-Jones for the 1962 F1 season but the car’s slim design, with the radiator almost horizontal, saw Tony have trouble fitting into the cockpit, seriously hampering his performance. He drove the Emeryson in a number of non-championship F1 races, including the Lavant Cup and Glover Trophy races at Goodwood, the BRDC International Trophy, the Naples GP, the Aintree 200 and the Solitude GP and took his best result with fourth in the Crystal Palace Trophy. There were also two Grand Prix starts, in Britain and Italy, finishing eleventh in the British GP.
At the end of the season, he and Powell decided to go it alone, changing the team’s name to Scirocco-Powell and set up shop in a garage at the back of a pub in London- the pub’s logo was incorporated in the team badge! Their car, the Scirocco 01-BRM, with American blue and white racing colours, did not appear until the Belgian GP, where one only showed up and Tony finished eighth. Unfortunately it was a disappointing season, with retirements from the Solitude GP, Oulton Park’s Gold Cup and at Kanonloppet in Sweden, though he finished second in a non championship Austrian GP, to Jack Brabham. Despite a good performance by Scirocco team mate Ian Burgess at Oulton Park’s Gold Cup, Powell became disillusioned with the project and sold the cars (Ian Burgess’ car being bought by André Pilette)
Following this, Tony returned to sports cars in America, racing a Corvette, Lotus 23, a Webster and a Ferrari, and co-drove to victory with Frank Werner in the Lotus in a 4 Hour Cotati race. He went on to race an AC Cobra, his best result being third at Willow Springs in 1965, and during 1966 contested three World Sportscar Championship races with it, in the Targa Florio, Spa and the Nurburgring,
Through 1967 and 1968 he raced a Z-28 Camaro and then competed in Can-Am in 1967, starting in the Monterey GP with a Lola T70 Chevrolet before switching to a Matich SR3 Oldsmobile for the LA Times GP at Riverside. Although not a regular competitor in 1970 and 1971’s pro series, he entered four L&M Championship races in a modified McLaren M10 in 1972 while in 1973 contested seven of the nine races, earning points in all four he finished.
Tony passed away in Reno, Nevada in 2014.
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