Dario Resta
Dario Resta | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Champ Car career | |||||||
34 races run over 6 years | |||||||
Best finish | 1st (1916) | ||||||
First race | 1915 American Grand Prize (Panama–Pacific) | ||||||
Last race | 1923 Indianapolis 500 (Indianapolis) | ||||||
First win | 1915 American Grand Prize (Panama–Pacific) | ||||||
Last win | 1916 Vanderbilt Cup (Santa Monica) | ||||||
|
Dario Raoul Resta (17 August 1882 – 3 September 1924), was a British
Early years
Resta was born in Faenza, Italy.[1] His family moved him to England at the age of two. He began racing there in 1907 when he took part in the Montagu Cup, the very first race staged at the new Brooklands race track. He set a record of 95.7 mph (154.0 km/h) in a half-mile run a few years later. On October 2, 1913, alternating with Jean Chassagne and Kenelm Lee Guinness in two-hour spells, Resta set up a series of long distance World Records with a Sunbeam Grand Prix car fitted with a single-seater body. After competing in Grand Prix motor racing in Europe, including the 1913 French Grand Prix, he went to the U.S.
Coming to America
In early 1915 Resta was brought to the United States by Alphonse Kaufman, an America importer of Peugeots, to drive Kaufman's Peugeot EX3. In January he married Mary Wishart, the sister of racer Spencer Wishart who had died the previous year.[2][3] In February he won the United States Grand Prix, more properly named the United States Grand Prize, at San Francisco followed by a victory in the Vanderbilt Cup. After leading during the final stages of that year's Indianapolis 500, he finished second to Ralph DePalma when his car skidded and he had to make a pit-stop for tyres. Resta then drove his blue Peugeot to victory in the inaugural 500-mile (800 km) race on the board track at the Chicago Speedway on 26 June 1915.[4] The race received eighteen pages of coverage in the 1 July 1915, issue of Motor Age magazine.
The following year, in 1916, en route to winning the
With World War I raging in Europe and the United States entering the war in 1918, races were reduced to a minimum. During 1918 Resta drove a Peugeot at a race in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, a minor event with only a handful of competitors.
Comeback years
In 1923 Resta returned to racing at the age of 39, making his first appearance in
Death
Resta was killed in England on 3 September 1924 at the age of 42 when his car crashed at Brooklands while trying for a new land speed record.[5] Resta was driving a Sunbeam when a belt on his car broke on the second lap and punctured his tyre sending him out of control. The car crashed through a corrugated iron fence on the Railway Straight and caught fire.
This accident also hospitalized his riding-mechanic, Bill Perkins, causing him to miss the
Awards and honors
Resta has been inducted into the following halls of fame:
- Auto Racing Hall of Fame (1954)[6]
Motorsports career results
Indianapolis 500 results
|
|
References
- ^ The Englishman from Livorno-Dario Resta
- ^ "Happenings of Interest Along Automobile Row". New-York Tribune. 7 March 1915. p. 11.
- ^ "Dario Resta and Mary Wishart, 1915". New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940. Retrieved 16 June 2022 – via FamilySearch.
- ^ Resta in Peugeot Victorious. New York City: Class Journal Company. 1915. p. 1.
- ^ The Deseret News. International News Service. 3 September 1924. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
Dario Resta appeared in many of the biggest automobile races in the United States and was recognized as one of the world's greatest racing drivers because of ...
- ^ "Dario Resta". IMS Museum. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
External links
- Dario Resta - ChampCarStats.com
- Dario Resta - Motorsport Memorial
- Dario Resta driver statistics at Racing-Reference