team manager of the Bugatti racing team asked Materassi to join them in 1927. In his first race with the brand new Bugatti T35C, he won the Tripoli Grand Prix, with an average speed of 132 km/h, and in April the same year he finally won the Targa Florio. He also won another Coppa Montenero. Those victories, along with others, gained him the title "Absolute Champion of Italy". In 1928 Materassi founded his own racing team, buying cars and material from the bankrupt Talbot team. Materassi worked on the engines and the chassis himself, modifying the old cars to make them 30 kilograms lighter. Apart from himself, Luigi Arcangeli, Antonio Brivio, Gastone Brilli-Peri and Gianfranco Comotti became drivers for Scuderia Materassi. In June 1928 he won the Grand Prix of Mugello driving a Talbot and finished second in the Coppa Acerbo in August then that same month he won his fourth Coppa Montenero, beating both Tazio Nuvolari and Giuseppe Campari. Death On the 17th lap of the 1928 Italian Grand Prix held at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Materassi lost control of his Talbot 700 when he tried to overtake Giulio Foresti’s Bugatti T35C on the main straight at over 200 km/h. The Talbot swerved to the left, jumped over a three-meter deep and four-meter wide protection ditch and a fence, and crashed into the grandstand. Materassi was killed instantly along with twenty spectators, and a large number of people were injured. The other drivers of the Scuderia Materassi withdrew from the race immediately after the accident, but the event continued and it was won by Louis Chiron. Three days later one of the injured spectators died in hospital, making the total death toll 22. Other sources state that 27 spectators were killed all in all. By either estimation this is the worst accident, with respect to the number of lives lost, to occur at a Grand Prix and it is only surpassed by the 1955 Le Mans disaster in the history of motor racing. As a result the Italian Grand Prix was cancelled in 1929 and 1930. Notable race victories Coppa della Consuma : 1924 Coppa della Collina Pistoiese : 1924, 1925, 1926 Coppa Perugina : 1924, 1926, 1927 Circuito del Savio : 1925 Grand Prix of Mugello : 1925, 1926, 1928 Coppa Montenero : 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928 Tripoli Grand Prix : 1927 Targa Florio : 1927 Bologna Grand