{"id":497932,"date":"2018-11-26T18:16:16","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T18:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=68311"},"modified":"2024-01-08T14:27:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T14:27:39","slug":"franco-cortese-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/franco-cortese-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Franco Cortese"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, Franco Cortese is, perhaps, one of motor sport\u2019s forgotten stars and he shouldn\u2019t be. He was the driver who put Ferrari on the map in a career that spanned 156 races, 20 victories and top placings as long as your arm. During more than four decades, from 1926 to 1958, he raced for the cream of the Italian and British constructors, among them Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Ferrari and Britain\u2019s Frazer Nash.<\/p>\n

Born in 1903, in the tiny Piedmont village of Oggebbio, Italy, which even today only boasts a population of 845 souls, Franco began his long, distinguished motor racing career when he was just 22-years old. He competed in the very first Mille Miglia in 1927 and <\/em>made the top 10 that year by taking 8th\u00a0<\/sup>place overall in an Itala Tipo 61, while stars of the day like Gastone Brilli Peri and Luigi Fagioli dropped out. In fact, he competed in 21 Mille Miglias, finished a record 14 times, made the top 10 seven times between 1927 and 1951 and won the 1938 over 1500-cc class.<\/p>\n

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Cortese and co-driver Guidotti drove their Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 LM to second place in the 1932 24 Hours of Le Mans, behind teammates Sommer & Chinetti. Photo: Alfa Romeo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cortese also came second with co-driver Gian Battista Guidotti in the 1932 24 Hours of Le Mans driving a works Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 LM; and he was Enzo Ferrari\u2019s tester and racing driver when the Commendatore<\/em> was striving to make his mark in the \u201930s.<\/p>\n

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Franco Cortese drove an Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 sedan into 8th place in the 1935 Mille Miglia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1936, Franco co-founded Scuderia Ambrosiana with Count Giovanni Lurani and Luigi Villoresi and in its three years scored a whole string of successes with their Maserati 6CMs, winning races including the 1939 Grand Prix of Naples and that year\u2019s Targa Florio, the victor Luigi Villoresi.<\/p>\n

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Ferrari’s first eponymous vehicle, the 1947 Ferrari 125 S. Photo: Ferrari<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Franco went back to Ferrari in 1947 as its tester and lead driver again, this time to make his own mark in motor sport history, as well as Ferrari\u2019s. \u00a0He was the first to drive a Ferrari in that year\u2019s Grand Prix, at Piacenza. It looked like everything was going swimmingly when the Scuderia\u2019s first ever Grand Prix car\u2014the 125S powered by a 60\u00b0 V12, 1.5-liter engine, based on a design by Gioacchino Colombo\u2014took pole position in the Piacenza GP. Even better when Cortese and the novice Ferrari moved into the lead, but two laps from the end the car\u2019s fuel pump broke and it retired. After that, things looked bleak for Ferrari, though the Commendatore<\/em> called it a \u201cpromising failure.\u201d Perhaps an unsurprising remark, as he and his colleagues had created the car and had begun to race it on an extremely tight budget.<\/p>\n