By Brenda Williams
Luigi was born on July 17, 1901 in Milan, Italy. His father was a gunsmith and Luigi showed mechanical inclination from his early youth. He went to work as a mechanic for Alfa Romeo in 1917 when he was just sixteen. But at that time, many Italians were disturbed by the rising power of Fascism in Italy and were leaving. Sharing these opinions, Luigi moved to Paris, France. Again he worked for Alfa Romeo but this time as a salesman. Luigi proved to be quite talented in this area and impressed the company with his ability to close sales to wealthy individuals.
Luigi also began his racing career during this time. In 1932 he entered and won his first 24 Hours of LeMans co-partnered with Raymond Sommer. In actuality, Luigi was ill at the time and Raymond did most of the driving. In 1933 he teamed up with Louis Chiron and entered and won the SPA 24 Hours endurance race in Belgium. Then in 1934 with Philippe Etancelin as co-driver he entered and won the 24 Hours of LeMans for the second time.
Accompanied by two Maserati Grand Prix cars he came to the United States via ship in 1940. The cars were transported to be entered into the Indy 500. However, World War II was erupting in Europe so Chinetti decided to remain in America. During all of World War II he worked for Alfred Momo, an Italian dealer and importer. Chinetti received his American citizenship in 1946.
By now, hostilities had ceased in Europe and racing began again. Luigi returned to Europe to resume his racing career. In 1949, Luigi won his second SPA 24 Hours with Jean Lucas as his co-driver. In that same year he entered the 24 Hours of LeMans driving a Ferrari 166M, the first car of that make to win this competition. Luigi drove for twenty-three hours but allowed Baron Selsdon of Scotland to drive for twenty minutes. This stint behind the wheel made the Baron official co-driver. Luigi also set a record as the first driver to win the LeMans three times. However, this record would be broken at a later date. Luigi continued to race in all of the LeMans up until 1953.
While in Europe, Luigi visited with Enzo Ferrari and contracted to be a Ferrari factory agent in the United States. His showroom was located in Greenwich, Connecticut and it was the first dealership in the United States. It was very successful as Luigi had a flair for salesmanship and was quite skilled in attracting and selling to wealthy clients. Luigi was also successful in enlisting the help of two well to do racers, Jan de Vroom and George Arents, to establish the North American Racing Team (NART). The NART team competed successfully in many races until the 1980's. Luigi was always encouraging to young drivers just starting out and NART provided a venue for many of them to break into racing. Top world racers such as Phil Hill and Mario Andretti obtained their start with NART. Luigi remained with Ferrari until his death in August 1994 at age ninety-three.
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