Celebrating Italian History in Auto Racing and Great Italian Eateries for National Spaghetti Day!

Jan 4, 2022

Today is National Spaghetti Day! And we thought it would be fun to celebrate in a few different ways. Today’s blog post will be a light and cheerful one full of delicious facts and exciting eateries.

First, we’ll be highlighting some of the great racing drivers and pioneers from Italy throughout motorsports history. And secondly, we’re going to shout out some of our favourite local eateries to grab a nice plate of Nona’s “s’getti and meat-a-balls!” So dig in to today’s post and mangia these fun historical anecdotes to impress your friends at your upcoming pasta dinner.

Image of Alberto Ascari from thesportsman.com

Alberto Ascari competed in motorcycle racing and car racing, and was described as “Italy’s Greatest Ever,” a claim even supported in part by Enzo Ferrari! He was known as “Little Ascari” and “Ciccio.” Ascari was a Formula One World Champion twice over, and competed for years in the racing circuit until an accident caused his untimely death on May 26th 1955.

Image of Giuseppe Farina from Formula1.com

Guiuseppe “Nino” Farina was the first official Formula One World Champion and won the first driver’s title, crowned in 1950! He was also the Italian Champion in 1937, 1938, and 1939 consecutively. He was sadly killed in a car accident in 1966.

Image of Mario Andretti via indycar.com

Mario Andretti was born to an Italian family and achieved fame as one of the most successful American F1 racing drives in all of motorsports history. His name is synonymous with several championship wins, and notoriety as one of only 2 race drivers to win races in F1, IndyCar, World Sportscar, and NASCAR! He was also the only person to be dubbed United States Drive of the year in 3 different decades (1960s, 1970s, 1980s.) He is currently 81 years old.

Image via Ferrari.com

Giancarlo Fisichella has been a celebrated Italian racing driver since 1984. Heentered his first race in 1996 at the Australian Grand Prix, and continued on to participate in an impressive 231 races, three of which he won in the Formula 1 circuit. He also made an appearance in the beloved movie “The Art of Racing in the Rain.”

Image from F1.Fandom.com

Michele Alboreto was an Italian race driver. He was runner up to Alain Prost in the ‘85 F1 World Championship, and later won the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 2001 12 Hours of Sebring races. He passed away in April 2001 in an accident in Germany at the Lausitzring during a test drive with Audi.

Image from italyonthisday.com

Luigi Musso was an Italian race participant who competed in 24 Formula 1 races, and 15 of them were under the ferrari flag starting when he was just 30 years old. He won the 1956 Argentine Grand Prix, but unfortunately perished after just 5 years in the circuit in a fatal accident at the 1958 Grand Prix.

Grab a Great Plate of Spaghetti at These Fine Establishments

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