a golden tortoise badge. Thereafter Nuvolari wore it as a talisman, and it became famously associated with him. 1933–1937: Scuderia Ferrari and Maserati 1933 The 1933 season began a two-year hiatus in the European Championship, and although Alfa Romeo ceased official involvement in Grands Prix their cars continued racing with Enzo Ferrari's privateer team. For economic reasons, the P3 was not passed on to Ferrari so they used its predecessor, the Monza. Maserati, with a much-improved car, provided the main opposition. It has been alleged that Nuvolari was involved in a race-fixing scandal at the Tripoli Grand Prix. The story is that he conspired with Achille Varzi and Baconin Borzacchini to fix the race in order to profit from the Libyan state lottery, in which 30 tickets were drawn before the race—one for each starter—and the holder of the ticket corresponding to the victorious driver won 7.5 million lire. Others say the allegation was unfounded and that it originated with Alfred Neubauer, the Mercedes-Benz team manager at the time, who was well known as a raconteur with a penchant for spicing up a story. Neubauer's version does not altogether hold true with documented records of events, which indicate that Nuvolari, Varzi, and Borzacchini agreed to pool the prize money should one of them win. For the 1933 24 Hours of Le Mans, Alfa Romeo teamed Nuvolari with Raymond Sommer. Sommer asked to drive the majority of the race as he was more familiar with the circuit and thought Nuvolari would probably break the car. When Nuvolari countered that he was a leading Grand Prix driver and Le Mans was a simple layout that would not trouble him, they agreed to divide the driving equally. In the race, they built a two-lap lead before a leaking fuel tank forced them to stop at the pits, where the leak was plugged by chewing gum. More stops were necessary as the makeshift repair came undone several times. Nuvolari, driving through to the end of the race, broke the lap record nine times and won by approximately . 1934 In April 1934 Nuvolari entered the Monaco Grand Prix in a privately owned Bugatti and worked up to third place before brake problems forced him back to fifth at the finish, two laps behind the winner, Guy Moll. Racing in heavy rain at Alessandria in the Circuito di Pietro Bordino race, he crashed and broke