Alfredo Costanzo
Introduction '''Alfredo Costanzo''' (born 3 January 1943, in Soveria Mannelli, Calabria, Italy) is a retired Italian born Australian racing driver. From 1980 to 1983 Costanzo won four Australian Drivers' Championships in a row, equalling the record set by Bib Stillwell from 1962 to 1965.
Career ===Formula racing===Born in Soveria Mannelli, Calabria, Italy, Costanzo was Australia's foremost domestic open wheeler driver in the late 70s and early 80s, proving equally adapt at winning races in the powerful Formula 5000 class as much as the nimble Formula Pacific cars that replaced them. Under the patronage of Porsche Cars Australia distributor Alan Hamilton, Costanzo won four Australian Drivers' Championships, the CAMS Gold Star. His titles straddling the transition from F5000 to Formula Atlantic based Pacific cars.Costanzo commenced his Formula 5000 career racing a Lola T332 which he purchased in partnership with his brother in law and team mechanic, Marino Ciuffetelli. Marino was responsible for preparing Costanzo's race car and they shared three years competing in the Rothmans series from 1977 to 1979.They were able to secure sponsorship from Stock 84 Brandy and competed in all of the scheduled races for the 1979/80 F5000 race series. In 1981 Costanzo made the switch to race under Alan Hamilton in the same Lola T430 as part of the Porsche Racing team.The first of Costanzo's four Gold Stars was won utilising a conventional Lola T430, but the following 1981 title, the last Formula 5000 national level title ever held globally, utilised a McLaren M26, modified for the task by Tiga Race Cars. Costanzo won the 1982 and 1983 Australian Drivers' Championships driving a Tiga FA81 powered by a 1.6-litre, 4 cyl Ford BDA engine. Driving the FA81, Costanzo also finished second to longtime rival John Bowe in his similarly powered Ralt RT4/85 in the 1984 championship, before Alan Hamilton pulled out of open wheel racing following Costanzo's 4th place at the 1984 Australian Grand Prix leaving Costanzo without a drive and into semi-retirement.Despite winning numerous races and championships in various classes of open wheel racing, Alfie Costanzo never achieved his goal of winning the Australian Grand Prix. He competed in 11 AGP's between 1969 and 1984, with a best finish of 4th in 1980 and again in 1984.On both occasions he was the first resident Australian driver to finish behind international Formula One drivers. Alf led from the start of the 1983 Australian Grand Prix, and built up a small lead over eventual winner Roberto Moreno of Brazil, before the diff in his Tiga FA81 failed on lap 25.Moreno later admitted that Costanzo would have been very hard to catch or pass.Although formula cars have evolved and have generally gotten faster over time, Costanzo still holds an outright lap record for a still active Australian race circuit. His time of 50.16 seconds set in the F5000 Lola T430-Chevrolet for the 2.41 km (1.5 mi) Symmons Plains Raceway has stood unchallenged since 23 March 1980.===Touring Cars===While a more than capable touring car driver, finishing fourth in the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 alongside Allan Grice he was generally overlooked for drives by the top teams and was never able to establish himself full-time in the category, and the popular Italian-Australian faded from the racing scene when he left Formula Pacific in at the end of the 1984 after finishing 4th in the Australian Grand Prix held at Melbourne's Calder Park Raceway. Costanzo was the leading local driver at the end, finishing behind winner Roberto Moreno (Brazil),  World Champion Keke Rosberg (Finland), and Italian driver Andrea de Cesaris, though he did make a couple of shirt-lived comebacks.At the insistence of his long-time open wheel rival turned touring car racer John Bowe, who to this day rates him as the best Australian driver he raced against, Costanzo was drafted into the Volvo Dealer Team in 1986 for the Castrol 500 at Sandown and the James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst. Driving a Volvo 240T, he failed to finish in both events. Again at Bowe's insistence, Alfie was the drafted into the Dick Johnson Racing Team for Sandown and Bathurst in 1988 to drive a Ford Sierra RS500.He finished 6th at the Sandown 500 with another former open wheel racer John Smith. The car he was to drive at the 1988 Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst finished 2nd overall but unfortunately Costanzo didn't get to drive. Team leader Dick Johnson's car expired on lap 22 and Bowe's car on lap 28.Both then moved to drive the Smith/Costanzo car. Smith had driven the opening stint which left Aflie a spectator on the day.The late 1990s saw a brief comeback as the lead driver for Marino Ciuffetelli's factory supported Maserati team of production specification Maserati Ghiblis in the Australian GT Production Car Championship. The comeback proved to be short-lived however as the cars were uncompetitive against the Porsche, Ferrari and Mazda teams. Costanzo finished 10th in the championship in 1997, and 8th in 1998.===Sports Cars===In December 1984 Costanzo accepted an offer from that year's Australian Sports Car Champion Bap Romano to co-drive the Romano WE84 Cosworth in the 1984 Sandown 1000 as part of the 1984 World Endurance Championship, the first FIA World Championship event held in Australia. Despite never having driven the car previously (a prior commitment with Porsche Cars Australia saw him miss testing the car at Calder prior to the event), Alfie showcased his skill by qualifying the 3.9L V8 powered Romano in 13th (fastest in the special '''AC''' or Australian Cars class), almost two seconds faster than car owner Romano, and only 0.4 seconds slower than the Group C2 pole winning time. After brake and gearbox troubles in the race the pair finished 109 laps, 100 laps behind the winning Porsche 956, although, despite still running at the end, the car had not completed enough laps to be classified as a finisher.Costanzo was famously beaten by amateur driver Greg Dodd while racing Porsche coupes in Tasmania. Costanzo had three attempts at beating Dodd's lap time, but proved unsuccessful each time. Costanzo was gracious in defeat, querying Dodd on his reasons for not having been a professional driver, as his talent was “a rarity”.Prior to Sandown, Romano wanted Costanzo as his co-driver for the race, but both Wayne Eckersley and team manager Bruce Ayers tried to persuade him to go with either the 1984 Australian Drivers' Champion John Bowe or 1983 Sports Car champion Peter Hopwood for the event, reasoning that both would be easier on the car than Costanzo who although fast, had a reputation for being hard on equipment. Unfortunately their fears were to prove correct as over the course of the race meeting Costanzo broke no less than 4 gearboxes, 2 of them in the race itself. JPS Team BMW team manager Frank Gardner told Romano after the race that while standing at the back straight entry to Sandown's new infield section, he noted that Costanzo had been changing from 5th gear straight down to 2nd gear for the hairpin, missing 4th and 3rd gears completely. This was causing the rear tyres to lock up, the Cosworth engine to over-rev and had seen the gearbox twice stripped of 2nd gear. Gardner, a championship winning driver in his own right during the 1960s and 1970s including having raced a number of WEC races in Europe at tracks such as Le Mans, Spa-Francorchamps and the Nürburgring, commented that it was an endurance race and that Alfie had 'butchered' the car by not respecting the equipment.
Career results  Season Series Position Car Entrant / team 1967 Australian 1½ Litre Championship 12th Elfin Mono Mk2B Ford Maranello Motors 1968 Australian Drivers' Championship 15th Elfin Mono Mk2B Ford Maranello Motors 1968 Australian 1½ Litre Championship 9th Elfin Mono Mk2B Ford Maranello Motors 1970 Tasman Series 12th McLaren M4A Cosworth Argo Racing 1975 Australian Formula 2 Championship 2nd Birrana 274 Ford Alfredo Costanzo 1975 Van Heusen Calder F2 Series  1st Birrana 274 Alfredo Costanzo 1976 Australian Drivers' Championship 5th Lola T332 Chevrolet Stock 84 Brandy  1977 Rothmans International Series 6th Lola T332 Chevrolet Auto Sprint Motors 1977 Australian Drivers' Championship 4th Lola T332 Chevrolet  1979 Rothmans International Series 2nd Lola T430 Chevrolet Porsche Cars Australia  1979 Australian Drivers' Championship 3rd Lola T430 Chevrolet Porsche Cars Australia 1980 Australian Drivers' Championship 1st Lola T430 Chevrolet Porsche Distributors 1981 Australian Drivers' Championship 1st McLaren M26 Chevrolet Porsche Cars Australia 1982 Australian Drivers' Championship 1st Tiga FA81 Ford Porsche Cars Australia 1982 National Panasonic Series  = 2nd Tiga FA82 Ford  Tiga FA82 Ford Porsche Cars Australia 1983 Australian Drivers' Championship 1st Tiga FA81 Ford Porsche Cars Australia 1984 Australian Drivers' Championship 2nd Tiga FA81 Ford Porsche Cars Australia 1984 World Endurance Championship NC Romano WE84 Cosworth Bap Romano Racing 1997 Australian GT Production Car Championship 10th Maserati Ghibli Cup Cisco System Maserati 1998 Australian GT Production Car Championship 8th Maserati Ghibli Cup House of Maserati===Complete World Sportscar Championship results===(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 DC Points 1984  Bap Romano Racing Romano WE84 Cosworth MNZ SIL LMS NUR BRA MOS SPA IMO FJI KYL SAN NC 0===Complete Bathurst 1000 results=== Year Team Co-drivers Car Class Laps   1979  Craven Mild Racing  Allan Grice Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback A 154 4th 4th 1984  Network Alfa  Colin Bond Alfa Romeo GTV6 Group A 111 DNF DNF 1986  Volvo Dealer Team  John Bowe Volvo 240T B 113 DNF DNF 1988*  Shell Ultra Hi Racing  John Smith Dick Johnson John Bowe Ford Sierra RS500 A 160 2nd(DND) 2nd(DND) 1989  Lusty Engineering  Graham Lusty Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV A 146 14th 14th 1988 - Car #18 finished 2nd but Costanzo never got to drive.
References
Further reading Grant Nicolas, Alfredo Costanzo – The Italian Australian Open Wheeler Champion, Motor Sport Legends, Aug/Oct 2008, pages 20–26