Nino
Vaccarella

Nino Vaccarella was born in Palermo on 4 March 1933 and died on 23 September 2021. He was a maths teacher and the head of a private school in Palermo, which earned him the nickname "il preside volante", the flying headmaster. He became known as a specialist in the Targa Florio, a race run over mountain roads in Sicily that were hard to learn. He first took part in 1959 in a privately entered Maserati and finished tenth. In 1960 he shared a Maserati with Umberto Maglioli and led for three laps until the car broke down. That race opened the door to international sports car racing.

Vaccarella made his World Championship debut in September 1961 with De Tomaso. In 1962 he drove for Lotus and Porsche, and in 1965 for Ferrari. He started four races and did not score any championship points. He also took part in several Formula One races that did not count towards the World Championship.

His wins came in sports cars. In 1964 he won the Nürburgring 1000km for Ferrari with Ludovico Scarfiotti. In the same year he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Jean Guichet. In 1965 he won the Targa Florio with Lorenzo Bandini. In 1970 he won the 12 Hours of Sebring with Ferrari. In 1971 he took another Targa victory in an Alfa Romeo with Toine Hezemans, which ended Porsche's run of wins in the race. In 1975 he won the Targa once more in an Alfa Romeo, by which time it was no longer a round of the World Sportscar Championship but an Italian national event. After that he retired from racing.

Source: Wikipedia, “Nino Vaccarella”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.