PIETRO BORDINO.

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PIETRO BORDINO.

IT was with deep regret that we had to announce last month the death of the famous Italian driver Pietro Bordino, who was killed near Alexandria in Italy while testing a Bugatti racing car. To the generation of motor sportsmen who have grown up since the war, Bordino will always remain as the type of all that is most picturesque in the racing driver. Bordino was a man of 45, and was known at Brooklands before the war when he drove the giant Fiat Mephistopheles there ; but it was in post-war days that he really proved himself one of the most daring and skilful drivers that the world has ever seen. ‘When Fiat took up racing again seriously in 1921, he appeared in the Italian Grand Prix at Brescia and annexed the lap record. The next year he seemed a certain winner in the French Grand Prix at Strasburg until near the end he was put out with a broken axle-shaft. He had his revenge, however, by winning the two opening races on the Monza track for 1,500 c.c. and 2-litre cars. In 1923 he again led for most of the French Grand Prix at Tours, until put out with supercharger trouble. While practising for the Italian Grand Prix that year he met with an accident and broke his arm, in spite of which he started in the race and, relying on his mechanic to change gear, actually held the lead until the effort of holding the car with one hand after a burst tyre proved too much for him and be had to retire.

Many will remember the epic fight he put up in the Coppa Florio of 1924 on the 1,500 c.c. Fiat, which was by no means suitable for the course ; and how, in the French Grand Prix at Lyon he held the lead during the opening laps, although that year the Fiats were not the fastest cars in the race. Last year he reappeared at Monza on the new double-six Fiat racer and won the Milan Grand Prix. His last public appearance was in the Brescia 1,000 miles race, when he drove a Bugatti, which make of car he was to have handled in the Targa Florio. At the time of his death many would have named him as the finest road-race driver in the world, and his loss will be keenly felt by enthusiasts in every country.