Ada Pace was an Italian rally driver and
touring car ace of the 1950s and 1960s. She went by the nom de course of “Sayonara”.
Ada was from Turin, which would be
her home base throughout her career, and her life. She enjoyed sports growing
up, and her earliest memories are of riding on her father’s motorcycle and
sidecar. All of her early racing experiences were on two wheels, not four; Ada
raced scooters in Italy from quite a young age. In 1947, she started racing her
Vespa, in both circuit events and long-distance trials. It was in trials that
she really excelled. After 1948, she rode for the works Piaggio team. She would
continue in scootering on and off until 1953; she won two Ladies’ 125cc titles
in 1952 and 1953.
The date and nature of her first
steps into four-wheeled competition is not entirely clear. Some sources claim
that her first race was in 1950, when she was 26. Little additional detail is
offered, although Ada was said to be disappointed with her own performance, as
well as the car’s. The race may have been at the Circuit Piazza d’Armi in
Turin, where Ada did drive a Moretti early in her career, although some sources
have her first car as a Fiat 1500. Speaking in 1990, she describes the Turin
event as her first race, held in heavy rain, although she says it happened in
1953. She did own and race a 600cc Moretti in 1953, which adds credence to her
own recollections (or the reporting thereof).
In 1951, she is said to have
earned her first win. This is said to have come in a “Torino-San Remo race”. Her
car was a Fiat 1500 6C. The nature of this event is unclear; it could have been
a time trial rather than a mass- or group-start race, or even a regularity
rally. I have been unable to find any official records of this event.
She definitely did race a Moretti
in 1953, and was fourth in class in the Sassi-Superga hillclimb.
The following year, Ada may have entered her
first Giro Di Sicilia, driving a Fiat 1100. She is down as a starter, but her
finishing position, if any, is not recorded. This is not certain, as another
driver called Pace was active in Sicily at this time. Ada certainly did drive
an 1100 at some point, but her car in 1954 was the little Moretti. She mainly
raced locally, entering the Sassi-Superga climb again and a Coppa Michelin at
Torino. She also became involved in the growing women’s motorsport scene in
Italy, and entered both the Perla
di Sanremo Rally and the Como-Lieto-Colle Coppa
delle Dame, a hillclimb. She was second in class in Sanremo.
In 1955, she was fourth overall in
the Coppa delle Dame, driving an Alfa Romeo Giulietta. Variations of this model
would become her signature car. She also raced a Fiat 1100 in hillclimbs at
Sassari and Corallo.
Her next major race was also her
first overseas event: the 1956 Nürbrugring 1000km. For this, she teamed up with
Gilberte
Thirion, in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint
Veloce. Gilberte, an experienced international sportscar racer, was the
entrant. They were sixteenth, and fourth in class.
The same year, Ada, driving solo
and normally in the Giulietta, was becoming a regular figure in Italian
hillclimbs and races. She was fifth in the Perla di Sanremo and third in the
Coppa delle Dame, as well as scoring some highly respectable finishes in
hillclimbs, and the Supercortemaggiore regularity trial. She even tried her
hand at a conventional rally, the Rallye dei Rododendri, and was tenth overall.
1957 was the year that Ada really
committed to four-wheeled competition, and began to race as a professional
driver. She underlined her new role with an entry into the Mille Miglia,
driving the Giulietta, solo. Unfortunately, she did not finish, stopping near
Rome. Later in the year, a run in the Coppa Inter-Europa led to a finish,
albeit as the last runner. The race was a one-make affair for Giulietta SVs, at
Monza. In November, she did proportionately better in the Targa Florio; she was
48th, out of 129 finishers. This would be the first of four attempts
at the Sicilian classic. A season-ending Vallelunga 6 Hours was good for
eleventh place.
This schedule of major events was
augmented with a busy calendar of domestic hillclimbs and rallies. These
included the Perla di Sanremo, in which she won her class, and the Coppa Colle
San Rizzo climb, which gave her a GT1300 class win. She ended the year as the
Italian women’s GT champion.
She raced a Zagato version of the
Giulietta SV in 1958, supported by the Racing Club 19 team, so-called because
it consisted of nineteen drivers. She finished the Targa Florio on her second
attempt, sharing the car with Carlo Peroglio and earning a fifteenth place.
This year’s Targa was a race of high attrition, and it was an achievement to
finish at all. The Vallelunga 6 Hours was a happy hunting ground for her, driving
solo this time: she was third. She repeated her podium finish in the Coppa Sant
Ambroeus at Monza, finishing third again. Her team-mate, Carlo Peroglio, was
seventh, in a similar car. The Giro di Calabria was another good event for her;
she was fourth.
That year, she took part in many
hillclimbs, and won her class in the Stallavena-Bosochienesanuova event. This
helped her to third in the GT1300 class of the Italian hillclimb championship.
She retained her national Ladies’ title.
The Sant Ambroeus Cup was moved to
May the following year. Ada entered the 1300cc GT race in the Giulietta, and
was third again. A run in an Osca S1100 in the 1100cc sportscar race was not as
successful; she did not finish. Three weeks later, she and Carlo Peroglio
tackled the Targa Florio together for the second time, but did not finish. In
June, Ada tried out a new Giulietta, a Speciale, and was fourteenth at Monza in
the GT Grand Prix.
In a similar car, she contested
the Mille Miglia, now run as a regularity trial. She and Piera Bertoletti were
fifth overall, and won the GT1300 class. She managed another GT1300 win in her
heat for the Vallelunga 6 Hours, but did not finish the final. She ran well in
the Sestriere Rally, finishing second overall. This must have been very
satisfying for her, as she dropped out of the previous year’s rally within
sight of the finish.
In both the Osca and the
Giulietta, she performed well in hillclimbs, including some long classic climbs
such as the Catania-Etna event, in which she was sixth. Her best hillclimb
moment came in the Veglio Mosso – Mosso San Maria climb, which she won in the
Alfa. She was third in her class in the Italian championship at the end of the
year, as well as defending her ladies’ crown, and adding the Italian ladies’
Sportscar title to her collection. In the overall Italian racing championship,
she was runner-up in both the GT1300 and the Sport 1100 classes.
1960 saw a lot of change happening
around Ada, but it seemed to bring out the best in her. She scored her first
major race win in October, winning the Coppa d’Oro di Modena. Her car was an
Osca 1100. She would later describe this car as her favourite. The same car
gave her her career-best finish in the Targa Florio earlier in the year, an
eleventh place. She was sharing the car with Giancarlo Castellina, and won the
1150cc Sports class.
Further excitement came from the
furthest “away race” of her career. She was invited to Cuba for the Grand Prix,
one of only a small number of “Western” drivers to compete there during
Castro’s presidency. The race had begun in 1957, but this was the first edition
to be run in Communist Cuba. She drove an Osca MT4 and was fifteenth. She also
took part in the supporting Formula Junior race, making a rare single-seater
appearance in a Stanguellini. She did not finish. Later in the year, she drove
a De Sanctis FJ in the Pescara 12 Hours, but did not finish. She did
tentatively enter another couple of single-seater races, but did not actually
compete.
Once more, hillclimbs made up most
of her sporting schedule, both in the Alfa and the Osca. She scored many class
wins, and was second in class in the Italian hillclimb championship. A third
ladies’ GT championship and a second Sports championship added to her tally,
and she was runner-up in the 1150 category of the Italian racing championship.
In 1961, she spent much of the
year competing under the name “Sayonara”. Much later, she claimed that this was
to make it less obvious that she was a woman. During her early career, she
experienced some quite open negativity. This sometimes came in the form of
over-zealous scrutineering, based on complaints from other competitors.
She had intended to enter the
Targa Florio again, in a works Osca, but this did not happen. For circuit
racing, she normally used her Giulietta SV. Driving with Carlo Baghetti, she
did not finish the Coppa Ascari at Monza, after a spectacular crash on lap 14,
which sent the car rolling at 200mph. Ada escaped through a window just before
it caught fire. The following month, she did much better in the GT Grand Prix
at the circuit. She was seventh, and fifth in class. Breaking with tradition,
she drove a non-Italian car in the Pescara 4 Hours: a Lotus XI, albeit
Osca-engined. She drove with Roberto Lippi, but did not finish. Alone, she used
the Lotus in some hillclimbs, finishing seventh in the Trieste-Opicina climb
and winning her class. The Osca 1100 was her usual mount for hillclimbs,
scoring some class wins.
It was back to Italian power for
the 1962 season, although Ada expanded her car repertoire once more. She drove
a Ferrari 250 GT in the GT Trophy at Monza, and was second overall. She was
also second in two other events in the car: the Stallavena-Bosochienesanuova
and Coppa Fagioli long-distance climbs.
Mostly, she drove a 1184cc Osca,
in which she earned another outright win, in the Campagnana Vallelunga. She
also had some outings in an Abarth-Simca. Her best result in this car was an
eighth place in a GT race at Vallelunga. The Giulietta was sold towards the end
of the year.
1963 was spent switching between
the Osca and the Abarth-Simca, which she used in the Targa Florio. Driving the
Osca, she was third in the Campagnana Vallelunga. This was her best result of
the year. She was fifth in the Shell Trophy at Cesenatico, and managed some
top-five class finishes in hillclimbs.
1964 was her last year of
competition. She drove a Lancia Flaminia for HF Squadra Corse in the European
Touring Car Championship, including the Spa 24 Hours. She shared the car with Claudine
Bouchet at Spa, but did not finish. The car’s
rear axle broke after just over five hours.Her best finish in the championship
was eighth, at Zolder. She never really got to grips with the Flaminia and
found it hard to drive. Driving for the same team, she drove a Lancia Flavia in
the Polish Rally, but did not finish.
In her later years, she took to
living alone with her menagerie of rescued dogs and birds. She occasionally
appeared at historic races and rallies, although for the last few years of her life, she retired from public appearances. She died in November 2016.
(Image from http://www.aisastoryauto.it/)
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ReplyDeleteI had no idea that there was scooter racing in Italy in the late 1940's and early 1950's - there must have been some pretty large fields, based on the cheapness of the bikes.
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