Alfredo Costanzo
Alfredo Costanzo | |
---|---|
Nationality | Australian |
Born | Soveria Mannelli,Calabria,Italy | 3 January 1943
Retired | 1998 |
Australian GT Production Car Championship | |
Years active | 1997–98 |
Teams | House of Maserati |
Best finish | 8th in1998 Australian GT Production Car Championship |
Previous series | |
1967–68 1968–84 1968–71 1975 1977–79 | Australian 1½ Litre Champ. Australian Drivers' Champ. Tasman Series 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, inSoveria Mannelli,Calabria,Italy[1]) is a retired Italian born Australian racing driver. From 1980 to 1983 Costanzo won fourAustralian Drivers' Championshipsin a row, equalling the record set byBib Stillwellfrom 1962 to 1965.
Career
[edit]Formula racing
[edit]Born inSoveria Mannelli,Calabria,Italy,[1]Costanzo was Australia's foremost domestic open wheeler driver in the late 70s and early 80s, proving equally adapt at winning races in the powerfulFormula 5000class as much as the nimbleFormula Pacificcars that replaced them. Under the patronage of Porsche Cars Australia distributor Alan Hamilton,[2]Costanzo won four Australian Drivers' Championships, theCAMSGold Star. His titles straddling the transition from F5000 toFormula Atlanticbased 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 aMcLaren M26,modified for the task byTiga Race Cars.[3]Costanzo won the 1982 and 1983 Australian Drivers' Championships driving a Tiga FA81 powered by a 1.6-litre,4 cylFord BDAengine. Driving the FA81, Costanzo also finished second to longtime rivalJohn Bowein his similarly poweredRalt RT4/85 in the 1984 championship, before Alan Hamilton pulled out of open wheel racing following Costanzo's 4th place at the1984 Australian Grand Prixleaving 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 theAustralian Grand Prix.He competed in 11 AGP's between 1969 and 1984, with a best finish of 4th in1980and again in 1984. On both occasions he was the first resident Australian driver to finish behind internationalFormula Onedrivers. Alf led from the start of the1983 Australian Grand Prix,and built up a small lead over eventual winnerRoberto MorenoofBrazil,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-Chevroletfor the 2.41 km (1.5 mi)Symmons Plains Racewayhas stood unchallenged since 23 March 1980.
Touring Cars
[edit]While a more than capable touring car driver, finishing fourth in the1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000alongsideAllan Gricehe 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 theAustralian Grand Prixheld at Melbourne'sCalder Park Raceway.Costanzo was the leading local driver at the end, finishing behind winnerRoberto Moreno(Brazil),1982World ChampionKeke Rosberg(Finland), and Italian driverAndrea 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 theVolvo Dealer Teamin 1986 for theCastrol 500atSandownand theJames Hardie 1000atBathurst.Driving aVolvo 240T,he failed to finish in both events. Again at Bowe's insistence, Alfie was the drafted into theDick Johnson RacingTeam for Sandown and Bathurst in 1988 to drive aFord Sierra RS500.He finished 6th at the Sandown 500 with another former open wheel racer John Smith. The car he was to drive at the1988 Tooheys 1000at Bathurst finished 2nd overall but unfortunately Costanzo didn't get to drive. Team leaderDick 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 supportedMaseratiteam of production specificationMaserati Ghiblisin theAustralian 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 in1997,and 8th in1998.
Sports Cars
[edit]In December 1984 Costanzo accepted an offer from that year'sAustralian Sports Car ChampionBap Romano to co-drive theRomano WE84Cosworthin the1984 Sandown 1000as part of the1984 World Endurance Championship,the firstFIAWorld 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 3.9LV8powered Romano in 13th (fastest in the specialACor Australian Cars class), almost two seconds faster than car owner Romano, and only 0.4 seconds slower than theGroup C2 pole winning time. After brake and gearbox troubles in the race the pair finished 109 laps, 100 laps behind the winningPorsche 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 the1984 Australian Drivers' ChampionJohn Boweor 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 managerFrank Gardnertold 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-Francorchampsand theNürburgring,commented that it was an endurance race and that Alfie had 'butchered' the car by not respecting the equipment.[5]
Career results
[edit]Complete World Sportscar Championship results
[edit](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 | ![]() |
Romano WE84Cosworth | MNZ | SIL | LMS | NUR | BRA | MOS | SPA | IMO | FJI | KYL | SAN NC |
NC | 0 |
Complete Bathurst 1000 results
[edit]Year | Team | Co-drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class pos. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1979 | ![]() |
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Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback | A | 154 | 4th | 4th |
1984 | ![]() |
![]() |
Alfa Romeo GTV6 | Group A | 111 | DNF | DNF |
1986 | ![]() |
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Volvo 240T | B | 113 | DNF | DNF |
1988* | ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Ford Sierra RS500 | A | 160 | 2nd (DND) |
2nd (DND) |
1989 | ![]() |
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Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV | A | 146 | 14th | 14th |
* 1988 - Car #18 finished 2nd but Costanzo never got to drive.
References
[edit]- ^abTuckey, Bill, ed. (1988–89).The Great Race.8.Hornsby: Chevron Publishing Group: 237.ISSN1031-6124.
{{cite journal}}
:CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - ^Alfredo Set To Take Series, The Age – Feb 14, 1979Retrieved from news.google.com
- ^"Australian Drivers Championship".Australian Motor Racing Yearbook.11.Chatswood: Berghouse Media Services Pty. Ltd.: 131 1981–82.ISSN0158-4138.
- ^Parker, Jason (April 1997)."Alfredo Costanzo to Drive Maserati Ghibli in GT Production Championship"(PDF).The Maserati Club of Australia. p. 11. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 3 October 2009.Retrieved24 January2010.
- ^Romano Racing
- ^abAustralian Competition Yearbook, 1976 Edition, page 154
- ^abOfficial 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
[edit]Grant Nicolas, Alfredo Costanzo – The Italian Australian Open Wheeler Champion, Motor Sport Legends, Aug/Oct 2008, pages 20–26