Alfredo Costanzo
Alfredo Costanzo | |
---|---|
Nationality | Australian |
Born | Australian Formula 2 Champ. Rothmans Int. Series | 3 January 1943
Championship titles | |
1980 1981 1982 1983 | Australian Drivers' Champ. Australian Drivers' Champ. Australian Drivers' Champ. Australian Drivers' Champ. |
Alfredo Costanzo (born 3 January 1943, in Soveria Mannelli, Calabria, Italy[1]) is a retired Italian born Australian racing driver. From 1980 to 1983 Costanzo won four Australian Drivers' Championships in a row, equalling the record set by Bib Stillwell from 1962 to 1965.
Career
Formula racing
Born in
Costanzo commenced his Formula 5000 career racing a Lola T332 which he purchased in partnership with his brother in law and team mechanic, Marino Ciuffetelli. Marino was responsible for preparing Costanzo's race car and they shared three years competing in the Rothmans series from 1977 to 1979. They were able to secure sponsorship from Stock 84 Brandy and competed in all of the scheduled races for the 1979/80 F5000 race series. In 1981 Costanzo made the switch to race under Alan Hamilton in the same Lola T430 as part of the Porsche Racing team.
The first of Costanzo's four Gold Stars was won utilising a conventional Lola T430, but the following 1981 title, the last Formula 5000 national level title ever held globally, utilised a
Despite winning numerous races and championships in various classes of open wheel racing, Alfie Costanzo never achieved his goal of winning the Australian Grand Prix. He competed in 11 AGP's between 1969 and 1984, with a best finish of 4th in 1980 and again in 1984. On both occasions he was the first resident Australian driver to finish behind international Formula One drivers. Alf led from the start of the 1983 Australian Grand Prix, and built up a small lead over eventual winner Roberto Moreno of Brazil, before the diff in his Tiga FA81 failed on lap 25. Moreno later admitted that Costanzo would have been very hard to catch or pass.
Although formula cars have evolved and have generally gotten faster over time, Costanzo still holds an outright lap record for a still active Australian race circuit. His time of 50.16 seconds set in the F5000 Lola T430-Chevrolet for the 2.41 km (1.5 mi) Symmons Plains Raceway has stood unchallenged since 23 March 1980.
Touring Cars
While a more than capable touring car driver, finishing fourth in the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 alongside Allan Grice he was generally overlooked for drives by the top teams and was never able to establish himself full-time in the category, and the popular Italian-Australian faded from the racing scene when he left Formula Pacific in at the end of the 1984 after finishing 4th in the Australian Grand Prix held at Melbourne's Calder Park Raceway. Costanzo was the leading local driver at the end, finishing behind winner Roberto Moreno (Brazil), 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg (Finland), and Italian driver Andrea de Cesaris, though he did make a couple of shirt-lived comebacks.
At the insistence of his long-time open wheel rival turned touring car racer John Bowe, who to this day rates him as the best Australian driver he raced against, Costanzo was drafted into the
The late 1990s saw a brief comeback as the lead driver for Marino Ciuffetelli's factory supported Maserati team of production specification Maserati Ghiblis in the Australian GT Production Car Championship.[4] The comeback proved to be short-lived however as the cars were uncompetitive against the Porsche, Ferrari and Mazda teams. Costanzo finished 10th in the championship in 1997, and 8th in 1998.
Sports Cars
In December 1984 Costanzo accepted an offer from that year's
Costanzo was famously beaten by amateur driver Greg Dodd while racing Porsche coupes in Tasmania. Costanzo had three attempts at beating Dodd's lap time, but proved unsuccessful each time. Costanzo was gracious in defeat, querying Dodd on his reasons for not having been a professional driver, as his talent was “a rarity”.
Prior to Sandown, Romano wanted Costanzo as his co-driver for the race, but both Wayne Eckersley and team manager Bruce Ayers tried to persuade him to go with either the 1984 Australian Drivers' Champion John Bowe or 1983 Sports Car champion Peter Hopwood for the event, reasoning that both would be easier on the car than Costanzo who although fast, had a reputation for being hard on equipment. Unfortunately their fears were to prove correct as over the course of the race meeting Costanzo broke no less than 4 gearboxes, 2 of them in the race itself. JPS Team BMW team manager Frank Gardner told Romano after the race that while standing at the back straight entry to Sandown's new infield section, he noted that Costanzo had been changing from 5th gear straight down to 2nd gear for the hairpin, missing 4th and 3rd gears completely. This was causing the rear tyres to lock up, the Cosworth engine to over-rev and had seen the gearbox twice stripped of 2nd gear. Gardner, a championship winning driver in his own right during the 1960s and 1970s including having raced a number of WEC races in Europe at tracks such as Le Mans, Spa-Francorchamps and the Nürburgring, commented that it was an endurance race and that Alfie had 'butchered' the car by not respecting the equipment.[5]
Career results
Season | Series | Position | Car | Entrant / team |
---|---|---|---|---|
1967 | Australian 1½ Litre Championship
|
12th | Elfin Mono Mk2B Ford
|
Maranello Motors |
1968 | Australian Drivers' Championship | 15th | Elfin Mono Mk2B Ford
|
Maranello Motors |
1968
|
Australian 1½ Litre Championship
|
9th | Elfin Mono Mk2B Ford
|
Maranello Motors |
1970 | Tasman Series | 12th | McLaren M4A Cosworth | Argo Racing |
1975 | Australian Formula 2 Championship
|
2nd | Birrana 274 Ford
|
Alfredo Costanzo |
1975 | Van Heusen Calder F2 Series[6] | 1st[6] | Birrana 274[7]
|
Alfredo Costanzo[7] |
1976 | Australian Drivers' Championship | 5th | Chevrolet
|
Stock 84 Brandy |
1977 | Rothmans International Series | 6th | Chevrolet
|
Auto Sprint Motors |
1977 | Australian Drivers' Championship | 4th | Chevrolet
|
|
1979 | Rothmans International Series | 2nd | Chevrolet
|
Porsche Cars Australia |
1979 | Australian Drivers' Championship | 3rd | Chevrolet
|
Porsche Cars Australia |
1980 | Australian Drivers' Championship | 1st | Chevrolet
|
Porsche Distributors[8] |
1981 | Australian Drivers' Championship | 1st | Chevrolet
|
Porsche Cars Australia |
1982 | Australian Drivers' Championship | 1st | Tiga FA81 Ford | Porsche Cars Australia |
1982 | National Panasonic Series | = 2nd | Tiga FA82 Ford Tiga FA82 Ford |
Porsche Cars Australia |
1983 | Australian Drivers' Championship | 1st | Tiga FA81 Ford | Porsche Cars Australia |
1984 | Australian Drivers' Championship | 2nd | Tiga FA81 Ford | Porsche Cars Australia |
1984
|
World Endurance Championship | NC | Cosworth
|
Bap Romano Racing |
1997 | Australian GT Production Car Championship | 10th | Maserati Ghibli Cup | Cisco System Maserati |
1998 | Australian GT Production Car Championship | 8th | Maserati Ghibli Cup | House of Maserati |
Complete World Sportscar Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | DC | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1984
|
![]() |
Cosworth
|
MNZ
|
SIL
|
LMS | NUR | BRA | MOS
|
SPA | IMO
|
FJI | KYL | SAN NC |
NC | 0 |
Complete Bathurst 1000 results
Year | Team | Co-drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class pos. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1979 | ![]() |
![]() |
Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback | A | 154 | 4th | 4th |
1984 | ![]() |
![]() |
Alfa Romeo GTV6 | Group A | 111 | DNF | DNF |
1986 | ![]() |
![]() |
Volvo 240T
|
B | 113 | DNF | DNF |
1988* | ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Ford Sierra RS500
|
A | 160 | 2nd (DND) |
2nd (DND) |
1989 | ![]() |
![]() |
Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV
|
A | 146 | 14th | 14th |
* 1988 - Car #18 finished 2nd but Costanzo never got to drive.
References
- ^ ISSN 1031-6124.)
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link - ^ Alfredo Set To Take Series, The Age – Feb 14, 1979 Retrieved from news.google.com
- ISSN 0158-4138.
- ^ Parker, Jason (April 1997). "Alfredo Costanzo to Drive Maserati Ghibli in GT Production Championship" (PDF). The Maserati Club of Australia. p. 11. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 October 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
- ^ Romano Racing
- ^ a b Australian Competition Yearbook, 1976 Edition, page 154
- ^ a b Official programme, Calder Raceway, Sunday 16 March 1975, page 5
- ^ Entry List, 1980 Australian Grand Prix, Souvenir Program, Calder Raceway, 15–16 Nov., page 44
Further reading
Grant Nicolas, Alfredo Costanzo – The Italian Australian Open Wheeler Champion, Motor Sport Legends, Aug/Oct 2008, pages 20–26