Alfredo Costanzo

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Alfredo Costanzo
NationalityAustralian
Born (1943-01-03) 3 January 1943 (age 81)
Australian Formula 2 Champ.
Rothmans Int. Series
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

CAMS Gold Star. His titles straddling the transition from F5000 to Formula Atlantic
based Pacific cars.

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

Ford BDA engine. Driving the FA81, Costanzo also finished second to longtime rival John Bowe in his similarly powered Ralt RT4/85 in the 1984 championship, before Alan Hamilton pulled out of open wheel racing following Costanzo's 4th place at the 1984 Australian Grand Prix
leaving Costanzo without a drive and into semi-retirement.

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

Ford Sierra RS500. He finished 6th at the Sandown 500 with another former open wheel racer John Smith. The car he was to drive at the 1988 Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst finished 2nd overall but unfortunately Costanzo didn't get to drive. Team leader Dick Johnson
's car expired on lap 22 and Bowe's car on lap 28. Both then moved to drive the Smith/Costanzo car. Smith had driven the opening stint which left Aflie a spectator on the day.

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

FIA World Championship event held in Australia. Despite never having driven the car previously (a prior commitment with Porsche Cars Australia saw him miss testing the car at Calder prior to the event), Alfie showcased his skill by qualifying the 3.9L V8 powered Romano in 13th (fastest in the special AC or Australian Cars class), almost two seconds faster than car owner Romano, and only 0.4 seconds slower than the Group C2 pole winning time. After brake and gearbox troubles in the race the pair finished 109 laps, 100 laps behind the winning Porsche 956
, although, despite still running at the end, the car had not completed enough laps to be classified as a finisher.

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
Australia Bap Romano Racing
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 Australia Craven Mild Racing Australia Allan Grice Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback A 154 4th 4th
1984 Australia Network Alfa Australia Colin Bond Alfa Romeo GTV6 Group A 111 DNF DNF
1986 Australia Volvo Dealer Team Australia John Bowe
Volvo 240T
B 113 DNF DNF
1988* Australia Shell Ultra Hi Racing Australia John Smith
Australia Dick Johnson
Australia John Bowe
Ford Sierra RS500
A 160 2nd
(DND)
2nd
(DND)
1989 Australia Lusty Engineering Australia Graham Lusty
Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV
A 146 14th 14th

* 1988 - Car #18 finished 2nd but Costanzo never got to drive.

References

  1. ^
    ISSN 1031-6124.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link
    )
  2. ^ Alfredo Set To Take Series, The Age – Feb 14, 1979 Retrieved from news.google.com
  3. ISSN 0158-4138
    .
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Romano Racing
  6. ^ a b Australian Competition Yearbook, 1976 Edition, page 154
  7. ^ a b Official programme, Calder Raceway, Sunday 16 March 1975, page 5
  8. ^ 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

Sporting positions
Preceded by Winner of the Australian Drivers' Championship
1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983
Succeeded by