Martino Finotto

Martino Finotto (born 11 November 1933 in Camporosso, Liguria, died Panama City, 13 August 2014) was an Italian racing driver, mainly known for his success in touring car and sports car racing.

In 1979, he was the European Touring Car Champion. He also finished 3rd in 1975, 5th in 1977 and 4th in 1978, abroad a self-run BMW 3.0 CSL, entered under the Jolly Club banner. As team owner, he won the inaugural World Group C Junior Championship in 1983, as well as the 1984 World C2 title, driving with long-time business partner and racing driver Carlo Facetti. Later, he would finish second in the 1990 IMSA Camel Lights championship in the United States.

Racing career

The early years

Martino Finotto, who made his fortune in the pharmaceutical industry, only started racing internationally in 1971, in the Campionato Italiano di Turismo, taking two successive class titles in 1972 and 1973. During this period, he also started competing in the European Touring Car Championship.

During the 1974 ETCC season, Finotto raced for Jolly Club in both their BMW 3.0 CSL and Ford Escort RS 1600. It was with the ex-works BMW that Finotto first visited the podium, with a second place in the Austria-Trophäe, at the Salzburgring alongside Manfred Mohr. This pair also finished second in the next race, the 500 km Vallelunga. He would not finish in the points again in that season, but still took seventh overall. Having switched to the German Castrol Team Zakspeed outfit for 1975 to race their Escort RS 1600, he immediately returned to the podium, finishing second in the 4 Ore di Monza, with his new partner, Hans Heyer, and again in the Grand Prix Brno. Although he was placed seventh overall, he scored points for being third in class in the Zandvoort Trophy. His last podium finish occurred in the 4 Horas de Jarama, when paired with Umberto Grano and Walter Dona in the Jolly Club-entered Escort. He would end the season in third place in the overall standings. The 1976 season was spoiled by numerous DNFs.

Scuderia Finotto & Formula One Finotto briefly flirted with the idea of Formula One. He bought a pair of Brabham BT42s, but after a single test session at Monza, he decided against racing them. Instead, they were leased to Jürg Dubler under the Scuderia Finotto banner for a number of drivers throughout the 1974 season.

Return to the ETCC For the following season, Finotto successfully returned to the ETCC with a new partner, Carlo Facetti, and a new car, BMW 3.0 CSL, while participating in the selection of World Championship Group 5 races, in a Porsche 935. The new partnership started with a podium finish in the 1977 24 Hours of Daytona. Despite having to drive their Jolly Club entered Porsche 935 very carefully and with low boost from the start, they did finish second, as well as winning their class.

The return to the ETCC was a winning one. In Finotto's ex-Luigi BMW from the previous season, and joined by Grano for the season opener at Monza, the all-Italian were the only contender for victory once the work-supported Jaguars and Alpina BMWs had retired. This trio followed this with second place at Mugello, albeit three laps behind another Luigi BMW. This result promoted Finotto into second place in the driver's championship. The Enna round was Grano dropped, but Facetti and Finotto lead the 500 km race from start to finish, leading home the clear sweep of the podium by the BMW CSLs of Luigi Racing.

A trip to Czechoslovakia saw Facetti/Finotto triumph once again, beating the more fancied teams for the third time in five rounds. This was after their BMW had survived an engine rebuild following qualifying, helping Facetti move clear in the championship, with Finotto being his nearest rival! After a number of non-finishes, the pairing took third place at Jarama in Spain, and Facetti lost the lead in the title race to Dieter Quester. The final round of 1977 was held at Estoril, dominated by the changeable weather. As an early leader, Grano (now racing for Alpina BMW) faltered, Facetti took his CSL past in the final few minutes of the four-hour race, and scored another win for himself and his partner, Finotto. Grano's second place with his partner, Quester, secured the Austrian the championship by just six points ahead of Facetti, with Finotto taking fifth place overall.

In 1978, Finotto had brought the Alpina BMW CSL, and continued to share with Facetti. The first round of the 1978 European Touring Car Championship saw the car arrive at Brands Hatch, although two of the four BMWs entered had used the supply of engines in qualifying and therefore did not start. The other remaining BMW was quicker in the hands of Grano and Tom Walkinshaw, but due to a poor pit stop by the BMW Italia crew, Facetti/Finotto were able leading until three laps from the end, when Walkinshaw took over the lead. Fresh from their second place in England, Facetti/Finotto were only challenged by their tyres in the four-hour event at Monza, eventually winning by seven laps.

In the Mugello race, Facetti and John Fitzpatrick diced the lead in the early stages of the race, only for the Englishman to drop away when his gearlever came loose. Facetti continued in the lead until Fitzpatrick retook it during a tyre stop. Soon afterwards, the car began to overheat with Finotto at the controls and would eventually record a DNF. Facetti/Finotto soon returned to their winning ways when they took victory in the Austria-Trophäe.

After coming fifth at Jarama, Finotto suffered more bad luck in Estoril with a slipping clutch. As a result, saw Facetti/Finotto lose the championship lead. They retire with fuel feed problems on the Österreichring. But, returned to winning way when the series visited Czechoslovakia, when they trashed the opposition, finishing over an 11 km lap ahead of series leader, Grano. When the pair suffered an engine failure on the Nürburgring, they left the series only to return again in 1979.

After taking pole position for the 1979 6 Ore di Mugello in the 935, Facetti led the race until a collision, and he wound up in third at the end. After this WCM outing, Finotto returned to ETCC at Vallelunga. After 300 of the 500 km, Facetti/Finotto were amongst the leading BMWs, when Finotto pitted with a boiling radiator; only moments later, Eddy Joosen pitted with exactly the same problem. Repairs were made, and both BMWs were back at full pace. At the end of 500 km, Facetti/Finotto were only 9 seconds behind the winners Bruno Giacomelli/Grano/Joosen. The next ETCC race at Mugello was once again a battle between the BMWs. Although the result was the same as before, the margin of victory was down in just 2.6 seconds.

Facetti/Finotto had a dramatic time at Brands Hatch, when they lost the lead of the 500 km race. They were comfortably ahead of the field for 100 of the 120 laps, when the gear level broke in their old BMW CSL. After quick repairs, Facetti set off desperately to regain ground lost to the rival Luigi BMW. Just a few laps, he had a patch of oil and shot into the catch fencing surrounding the track. Another retirement at the next race, Jarama, this time due fuel feed problems. Their third DNF in a row was down the issues with the cooling system at Österreichring.

Main rival for the 1979 title was Grano (Luigi BMW), and while he and Facetti/Finotto both suffered from blown head gaskets at Brno, the green Jolly Club BMW could salvage the car to second place at the end of the race. The trip to the Nürburgring saw the pair win a race for the first time that season, after they taken pole position. Next on the ETCC agenda was Zandvoort, which saw the Jolly Club pairing head another BMW 1-2 finish. The BMW dominated the race at Salzburgring, taking all the steps of the podium, with Facetti/Finotto on the number one step, completing a hat-trick of victories.

When the ETCC visited Enna, once again it was a BMW festival, with a podium clean sweep, and after a spin by Finotto, the order was decided with the Jolly Club car in second. They went one better at Silverstone, by winning the RAC Tourist Trophy, with it the European Touring Car title. Their winning ways continued at Zolder, the pair's fifth victory in the last six races.

World of Sportscars By 1980, Facetti was in charge at Achille Motors in Milan. This was a business venture with long-time racing partner Finotto. And that year, Lancia sold Finotto one of their brand new Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo, the factory had been running in the World Championship Group 5, together with Facetti and Finotto were able to add points to the marque's total. In 1981, they came up with the idea of trying the challenge Porsche with a Ferrari.

With Maranello only interested in Formula One, Facetti and Finotto decided to take on the all-conquering Porsche 935s, even though their facilities at Archille Motors were hardly equal to Porsche's. They chose the 3.0-litre Ferrari 308 GTB as their base model. As Group 5 was a Silhouette formula, Facetti knew he could change a lot of things, provided the car looked like the standard road version. This car they called Carma FF (CARlo and MArtino, the FF for Facetti and Finotto).

1983 saw the introduction of a new category into World Sportscars, Group C Junior. As Facetti and Finotto knew they could not compete on level terms with the might of Porsche, Finotto commissioned Stirano to build a car to these new regulations, while Facetti designed and built a 1.8 litre, four-cylinder turbocharged engine. Since power units had to be ascribed to a recognised manufacturer, the team became known as Giannini-Alba, then Carma FF from 1985. The first car, Alba AR2, was a regular class winner with Facetti and Finotto at the helm in 1983, helping Alba to win the Group C Junior Cup. By 1984, this pairing was winless but still assisted Alba to win the Group C2 Prototype FIA Cup.

The Alba AR6 continued to use Facetti's engine for the 1985 season, but the team lost reliability with it, trying to keep up with pace-setter Gordon Spice, Finotto turned his attention to the IMSA Camel Lights category in America for 1986. Finotto and Facetti, who prepared the overhead camshaft Ferrari engines, joined forces with Gaston Andrey Racing and enrolled fellow Italian, Ruggero Melgrati, who proved to be a pace-setter in the Lights division.

For 1989, he switched to Bieri Racing to race their Ferrari-powered Spice and continued with them in 1990. It was here that he would score three class wins with Melgrati at Lime Rock, Watkins Glen and Road America, to help him secure second place in the IMSA Camel Lights series. After a short season in 1991 and one visit to the class podium, he would return to the cockpit of Ferrari 308 GTB for one last outing, at the 1995 12 Hours of Sebring. 8th Jolly Club Ford Escort RS 1600 Coppa CASI di classe 2000cc 7th Jolly Club Ford Escort RS 1600 Coppa CASI di classe 2000cc 7th Jolly Club BMW 3.0 CSL 1975 European Touring Car Championship

Castrol Team ZakspeedJolly Club Ford Escort RS 1600 1976 European Touring Car Championship 17th Luigi Racing BMW 3.0 CSL 1977 Coppa Intereuropa

Porsche 935 1977 European Touring Car Championship 5th Luigi Racing BMW 3.0 CSL 1978 European Touring Car Championship 4th Jolly Club BMW 3.0 CSL 1979 European Touring Car Championship

Jolly Club BMW 3.0 CSL 1980 World Challenge for Endurance Drivers 33rd Jolly Club Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo 1981 World Endurance Championship of Drivers 87th Jolly ClubCarma FF Lancia Beta Montecarlo TurboFerrari 308 GTB 1983 European Endurance Championship 44th Jolly Club Alba-Giannini AR2 World Endurance Championship of Drivers 63rd Jolly Club Osella-Giannini PA9 Alba-Giannini AR2 1984 World Endurance Championship of Drivers 53rd Jolly Club Alba-Giannini AR2 1985 FIA World Endurance Championship 42nd Carma FF Alba-Carma AR2Alba-Carma AR6 1986 IMSA Camel GTP Lights Championship 39th Carma FFGaston Andrey Racing Alba-Ferrari AR6 1987 IMSA Camel GTP Lights Championship 24th Gaston Andrey Racing Alba-Ferrari AR6 1988 IMSA Camel GTP Lights Championship 6th Gaston Andrey Racing Alba-Ferrari AR6Tiga-Ferrari GT286 1989 IMSA Camel GTP Lights Championship 11th Bieri Racing 1990 IMSA Camel GTP Lights Championship

Bieri Racing 1991 IMSA Camel GTP Lights Championship 12th Bieri Racing

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 1974 BMW Jolly Club Manfred Mohr Carlo Facetti BMW 3.0 CSL T 155 DNF DNF 1980 Jolly Club – Lancia Corse Carlo Facetti Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo Gr.5 273 19th 2nd 1981 Jolly Club Giorgio Schön Giorgio Pianta Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo Gr.5 293 14th 4th 1983 Scuderia Jolly Club Carlo Facetti Marco Vanoli Alba-Giannini AR2 C Junior 158 DNF DNF 1984 Jolly Club Carlo Facetti Marco Vanoli Alba-Giannini AR2 C2 258 21st 7th 1985 Carma F.F. Guido Daccò Aldo Bertuzzi Alba-Giannini AR2 C2 228 DNF DNF

Complete 24 Hours of Daytona results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 1977 Jolly Club Carlo Facetti Romeo Camathias Porsche 935 Gr.5 679 2nd 1st 1978 Jolly Club Carlo Facetti Porsche 935 GTX 6 DNF DNF 1979 Jolly Club – Sportswagen Racing Team Carlo Facetti Giampiero Moretti Porsche 935 GTX 164 DNF DNF 1980 Jolly Club Carlo Facetti Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo GTX 597 10th 6th 1981 Jolly Club Carlo Facetti Ferrari 308 GTB Turbo GTX 4 DNF DNF Jolly Club Italia Carlo Facetti Emanuele Pirro Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo GTX 609 5th 3rd 1986 Carma Racing Ruggero Melgrati Almo Coppelli Alba-Ferrari AR6 Lights 291 DNF DNF 1988 Gaston Andrey Racing Pietro Silva Guido Daccò Alba-Ferrari AR6 Lights 506 27th 7th 1989 Bieri Racing Paolo Guatamacchi Uli Bieri Tiga-Ferrari GT286 Lights 475 22nd 2nd 1990 Bieri Racing Paolo Guatamacchi Loris Kessel Spice-Ferrari SE89P Lights 306 DNF DNF

Complete 12 Hours of Sebring results

Complete 24 Hours of Spa results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 1976 Luigi Racing Jean Xhenceval Pierre Dieudonné BMW 3.0 CSL Div.4 DNF DNF 1978 Luigi Racing Lotto Jean Xhenceval André Gavage BMW 530i Grp.1+2.5 DNF DNF 1981 Van Hove Mobil Smit Jet Raijmond van Hove Georges Cremer Chevrolet Camaro Z28 serT+2.5 393 22nd 14th