Dario Rasta
Born in 1882 he was at Brooklands for the opening meeting he missed the turning on the last lap and had to go around again.
On the August Bank Holiday meeting he came 1st in the Prix De La France.
Brooklands saw him again in1908 still with the Mercedes, he collided with Frank Newton and distracted came second.
He drove for Austin in the French GP but came 19th.
He returned in 1912 with Sunbeam for the Coupe De L’auto, which he led until the end then Victor Rigal over took him to win, but he did come 4th in the GP that ran concurrently.
He was also a record Breaker with the 3 litre Sunbeam in the 50 miles and 1000 miles
He came 5th in the French GP and went back to Brooklands with the9.5 litre V12 Sunbeam that had a top speed of 120mph.
America called in 1914 and he drove for Peugeot with one of the 1913 GP cars, he won the Vanderbilt Cup, he was then given the 1914 car and came 2nd in the 1916 Indy 500 plus 2nd in Chicago and Sheepshead Bay earning him $37,000.
More succeed in 1917 a 1st in the Indy and Vanderbilt Cup and with other success he came 1st in the National Championships the first foreigner to do so
The war and other work kept him from racing until 1923 when he won the Voiturette Race at Penya Rhin in Spain driving a Talbot Darracq and at the same meeting had 3rd place in the GP.
He was killed in 1924 trying to get the flying mile on a Sunbeam when a tyre burst the car went through a fence and caught fire
Raymond Sommer
Born
in 1906 his first race car was a straight 8 Chrysler, he retired in the 1931 Le
Mans but won the class in the Belgian 24 hour and at SPA with Delemer.
In
1932 driving the Chrysler he was first in class in the Paris Nice Trial and set
a new class record in the La Turbie hill climb.
He
then bought an 8c 2300 Alfa Romeo and won the Torvilliers race at Troyes with
Luigi Chinetti as co driver.
The
Alfa was entered for Le Mans and he drove for 18 hours covering 3000k to take
first place. He also won in the Nice GP beating Nuvolari.
For
the next Le Mans he drove with Nuvolari they won despite many problems.
He
was third in the Belgian GP driving a Maserati, and with a new 3.2 L P3 Alfa he
won the Comminges GP and was 3rd in the Marne GP.
In
1936 he was 4th in the Vanderville Cup and after the war he came 3rd
in the Bois de Boulogne of 1945.
In
1946 he won the Marseille GP, the circuit de Troisville and the St Cloud GP + 2nd
at Turin and Brussels giving him his 3rd French championship
In
1947 he crashed at Pau then was eliminated from the GP de Europe at SPA AND THE
Riems GP because the chassis of his Maserati broke.
At
Turin he drove a V12 Ferrari and won at an average of 67 MPH with a fastest lap
of 69.88 MPH over the 312-mile race.
Achille Varzi
Born in 1904 near Milan he
was first racing Motor Bikes with his brother Angelo.
In
1924 he became the first Italian to race in the Isle of Man TT with a Dot
Bradshaw but went off avoiding a fallen rider, he was awarded the Nisdet Trophy
for his action.
For
1927 he teamed up with Nuvolari to race Bugattis the 1928 GP at Tripoli was the
first outing riding with Guido Bignami as his mechanic, they took the lead but
came 3rd when ignition faults slowed them down. Later that year he
bought a P 2 Alfa and in the 1929 Italian GP came 2nd ahead of
Nuvolari, he won so many events that Nuvolari was forced to buy a P2 to keep up
with him.
Varzi
then joined Alfa Romeo but when Nuvolari joined them in 1930 Varzi left for
Maserati, winning the Coppa Acerbo the first time out.
He
also triumphed at the Spanish and Italian GP + a3rd place in the Ulster TT
making him champion of Italy.
For
1931 he had a Bugatti Type 51, he won at Tunis,Alessandria and the French GP.
In
1933 he had a Type 54 4.9 L Bugatti, he wom the Monaco GP from Nuvolari after a
neck and neck race that only ended when Nuvolari’s Scuderia Ferrari Alfa burst
its engine. He also won at Tripoli.
In
1934 he won the Mille Miglia in the rain in an Alfa + 9 other races that season,
but not at Modena.
When
Nuvolari joined Scuderia Ferrari in 1935 Varzi went to Auto Union he won his 1st
race the Tunis GP, but the cars where unreliable.
In
1938 he was 2nd at Monaco and in the rain at Tripoli he won at 142
MPH. He crashed at Tunis and did
not race much until 1946
In that year he had an Alfa 158 but after 2 seasons he was killed practising for the Swiss GP at Bremgarten
