Tazio Nuvolari.
I have resigned myself to the fact that Michael Schumacher is in the waning days of his career, and whether it is this season or the next or the next I must prepare myself for life without the master behind the wheel. In anticipation of this I have decided to, from time to time, provide you with some history of the more memorable characters in motor sport. I'm doing this here so that Rover's Racing can remain dedicated to current race coverage.
Tazio Nuvolari raced most of his career in the pre-modern (pre WWII) era of Grand Prix racing and quickly became a racing legend. Nuvolari never won a world championship, as such a thing did not exist in motorsport until the late 1940s. He did however win a large number of races.
Perhaps his most famous win came on the monstrous Nurburgring Nordschleife in 1935. Hitler's push for technical supremacy had permeated all facets of German life, including motorsport. The Germans arrived at the Nurburgring with five new Mercedes Benz race cars and four new Auto Unions (now Audi). The cars were considered to be the fastest and most advanced race cars ever built. Nuvolari arrived in an obsolete Alfa Romeo, and won. Hitler was so infuriated that he refused to shake Nuvolari's hand after the race. The German officials informed Nuvolari that they had only expected a German to win and thus did not have a recording of the Italian national anthem to play. Nuvolari promptly produced a record of the anthem from the cockpit of his race car.
In 1946 Nuvolari was racing in Brescia, Italy when the steering wheel came off of his car. He not only finished the race, but won, using a wrench clamped onto the steering column for control. The above photo was taken at the finish line.
Nuvolari was not only known for his wins on closed racing circuits, but also on the open road races that were popular at the time. He achieved wins in both the Targa Florio and Mille Miglia during his career. A popular story among Nuvolari's fans recounts his victory in the 1930 Mille Miglia where Nuvolari knew he did not have the fastest car, but deceived the race leader into slowing the pace by following closely at night without his headlights on. Within sight of the finish Nuvolari made the pass for the lead, turned on his headlights, and won.
Legends of Nuvolari's driving prowess abound. He is also said to have won a race with only three functioning tires on his car (there is actually photo evidence of this), and to have won a motorcycle race with both of his legs in casts (no photos on that one). I love to read about Nuvolari's exploits because they seem so foreign from today's sterilized races. There were no track marshals or safety cars in Nuvolari's day, just a bunch of guys out there trying to drive as fast as possible while holding the car together with there fingernails. Oh yeah, after that German win Nuvolari was offered a job driving for Auto Union. Guess Hitler's technology couldn't account for everything.
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