Italian-born Luigi Chinetti was a character for whom the term “larger than life” could have been invented. After fleeing to France when Mussolini came to power, the son of a gunsmith moved on to the USA during the Second World War.

In 1932, he won the tenth 24 Hours of Le Mans on his very first appearance in the race, partnering Frenchman Raymond Sommer in an Alfa Romeo, the first Italian manufacturer to triumph in La Sarthe. Chinetti followed with a runner-up spot in 1933 before clinching his second win in 1934, again with Alfa Romeo, with another Frenchman, Philippe Etancelin. The last four pre-War races were less successful for Chinetti, who retired each time. The return of the 24 Hours of Le Mans to the international motorsport agenda in 1949, however, showed that the now naturalised American had lost none of his talent.

Turning a deaf ear to Enzo Ferrari

The 1949 24 Hours of Le Mans proved to be the greatest challenge of Chinetti’s career before culminating in his third win in the race. Ignoring Enzo Ferrari’s reluctance to compete at Le Mans, Chinetti teamed up with British aristocrat Peter Mitchell-Thomson, aka Lord Selsdon, in the latter’s 166 MM. Despite driving for almost 23 of the 24 hours, Chinetti brought the Ferrari home in first place, inscribing his name in Le Mans legend as the only driver to win before and after the Second World War.

This triumph contributed to the 24 Hours’ revival and prompted a change of heart at the fledgling Italian marque, founded just two years earlier. Having earned Enzo Ferrari’s trust, Chinetti became the exclusive US dealer for sportscars made in Maranello. In 1958 he founded the North American Racing Team (NART) and, seven years later, offered Ferrari its sixth consecutive Le Mans win – its ninth overall. “At the 1949 24 Hours of Le Mans, I was seven years old. I sat on the hood of my dad's Ferrari wearing a cowboy hat and shorts,” recalls his son, Luigi Junior, with a smile. “In the 1960s, I took photos and did the signage at Mulsanne. I met Pedro Rodríguez and many others. In NART, we had 120 different drivers, but not all did Le Mans. When Rodríguez was there, we were still in the game and spectators loved the Rodríguez brothers.”

While drivers Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt showed great skill and determination, the 1965 win was essentially down to their strong-willed team boss. With the 250 LM lying in second place behind the leading Ferrari entered by Belgian importer Jacques Swaters, Chinetti dismissed the suggestion made by the factory team’s sporting director Eugenio Dragoni and Ferrari sales director, Gaetano Florini, to freeze the positions and guarantee a one-two. The headstrong Chinetti sniffed an opportunity, and duly succeeded in clinching the win as team boss 16 years after his final Le Mans success as a driver in 1949. NART went on to secure a further seven Top Ten positions in the general classification during the 1970s, including a third place for Americans Sam Posey and Tony Adamowicz in 1971.

Jim Glickenhaus, the successor

Since 2020, the Chinetti spirit thrives on the racetrack in the shape of the Hypercars fielded by Jim Glickenhaus who, as a boy, forged strong personal ties with the three-time Le Mans winner. He picks up the story: “When I was around 11 years old, I used to ride my bicycle to Mr Chinetti’s Ferrari dealership in Greenwich, Connecticut, and look through the window. He saw me and said, ‘you can come in but don’t touch anything’. I went back the next weekend and he said, ‘OK, you can sit in the car but don’t touch anything’. And then he said, ‘OK, you can touch the steering wheel but not the shifter’. He showed me things and I stayed there on Saturdays to watch people working. He then started to send me on my bicycle to the hardware store to buy stuff.  One day, it was pouring with rain and he said, ‘You are going to get soaked’, so he gave me a Ferrari team jacket!  Mr Chinetti taught me a lot of things. As great as Ferraris were, he said you could make them better, so he was always improving them. It is interesting that the last Ferrari which won overall at Le Mans was Mr Chinetti’s car in 1965, the 250 LM. I stayed friends with Mr Chinetti my whole life, and I also met his son Coco [Luigi Junior]. That’s why on the car today, I put NART and ‘In honour of Luigi Chinetti who started the road to Le Mans’.”

One of many tributes to a legend of the 24 Hours. Ferrari will be back to seek a first overall win since that 1965 triumph at the Centenary on 10-11 June 2023.

PHOTOS: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS – FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: Luigi Chinetti (centre) after spending nearly 23 hours at the wheel for his third Le Mans win in 1949; Chinetti and Philippe Etancelin (left and second left), who teamed up successfully in 1934, drove a Talbot four years later (© ACO archives); Lord Selsdon pictured between Luigi Senior and his young son (© personal collection of Luigi Chinetti Jr); the Ferrari 512 driven by Tony Adamowicz and Sam Posey that clinched the final podium position for Chinetti Senior’s North American Racing Team (NART) in 1971 (© ACO archives); Jim Glickenhaus who, as a boy, regularly visited Chinetti’s dealership, is congratulated by ACO President Pierre Fillon for the third place achieved by his drivers Ryan Briscoe, Romain Dumas and Franck Mailleux (ACO/Frédéric Gaudin).