Dario Resta

Dario Resta (17 August 1884 – 2 September 1924), nicknamed "Dolly", was an Italian Briton race car driver. He was the winner of the 1916 Indianapolis 500.

Early years

Dario Resta was born in Livorno Italy but was raised in England from the age of two. He began racing there starting in 1907. He took part in the Montagu Cup, the very first race of the now historic Brooklands track. He set a record of 95.7 mph (154.0 km/h) in a half-mile run a few years later. On October 2, 1913 Resta alternating with Jean Chassagne and K Lee Guinness in 2-hours spells set up a series of long distance World Records with a Sunbeam Grand Prix fitted with a Single-Seater body. After competing in Grand Prix motor racing in Europe, including the 1913 French Grand Prix, he went to the U.S.

Coming to America

In early 1915 he was brought to the United States by Alphonse Kaufman, an America importer of Peugeots, to drive Kaufman's Peugeot EX3. In February he won the United States Grand Prix at San Francisco followed by a victory in the Vanderbilt Cup. After leading during the final stages of that year's Indianapolis 500, he finished second to Ralph DePalma when his car skidded and he had to make a pitstop for tires. Resta then drove his blue Peugeot to victory in the inaugural 500-mile (800 km) race on the board track at the Chicago Speedway on 26 June 1915. The race received eighteen pages of coverage in the 1 July 1915, issue of Motor Age magazine.