Friday, June 11, 2010

Piero Taruffi: The Silver Fox

Piero Taruffi had entered the Mille Miglia, his country's most prestigious race, twelve times without winning. In 1957 he told his wife that he would retire if he won. The final stretch through the Po Valley was a wheel-to-wheel battle between Taruffi and Wolfgang von Trips. In the last few yards von Trips pulled back to let Taruffi win. He stood on the podium in Brescia smiling and waving half a dollar bill. Before the race Bernard Cahier, the journalist, had ripped the bill in two, saying they would reunite the halves in Bresia to buy a celebratory bottle of champagne.

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