Karl Ludvigsen - Alberto Ascari: Italys Great Double Champion

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1978 World Champion Driver and four-times USAC/CART Champion

Alberto Ascari was cool. Thats what I used to love about him. He was described as having ice-cold blood. When I saw photographs of him in action, I could see he had a certain flair. He was quick, yes, but he was cool. And he was doing it with control and a style that was all his own. It was really appealing to a young kid.

I first became interested in motor racing when I was probably 11 or 12. You have to understand, in those days motor racing was more popular than any other sport in Italy.

That was especially true in the 1950s, when you had Ferrari, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo. They were the stan dards for racing around the world. Also, the first World Champion was an Italian, Nino Farina. And the World Champion when I was growing up in the early 1950s was Alberto Ascari. He became my idol.

In Italy, all that my twin brother, Aldo, and I had was the radio and the newsreels wed see at the movies. There was no television. In fact, I used to go to movies just to see the newsreels because that was the only time you could see racing in action.

We were sophisticated enough to know the schedule and I used to buy the racing magazines every week. So I was pretty much up on what was happening. In those days there were not as many races, but the coverage was there. And I was always looking forward to the next race.

But it all hadnt sunk in yet. I knew there was some thing going on out there. There were guys doing it and I knew I wanted to be one of them.

Just the looks of the cars, the drivers, and their gear, all of that fascinated me. For me, it all started with the goggles, the kind I wore when I first started racing. They were just like the ones Ascari wore.

He was the best, no question. He was winning, and thats really what attracted me to him. There were other guys I loved to watch race, but they were not my role models. They might have been doing well, but my role model was the guy doing the winning. For some people, winning is all theyll accept. It becomes ingrained in them. I see a lot of that in my son Michael. And it was that way with me.

You look at my record over the years, and Ive had a lot of races where either I won or I was right there. But if I didnt win, it didnt mean a thing. Second and third didnt matter to me. Which is not always the best way to look at things. I dont always condone that kind of think ing. Sometimes you can be a little smarter, a little more patient, and still be satisfied. You develop that with matur ity, an element that ultimately works in your favour.

But in the beginning, man, I had to win. I had to win. Sometimes that desire cost me by spinning or getting into crashes. At the same time, looking at the whole picture and what that aggression delivered for me, what it got me over the years, I think if I had approached racing any other way I probably wouldnt have succeeded.

In my case, I couldnt have it all. I couldnt be patient and, at the same time, maintain my aggression. I had to be one or the other. As I said, its not the best quality. Sometimes I wish I would have come to that realisation sooner. But again, that was my style, and thats what I had to live with.

Its hard to assess whether there is much of Ascari in me. But I hope the best in me is what Ascari had in him.

CHAPTER 1

The story is familiar enough. Young man is motor-crazy. Defies his mother to leap astride a borrowed motorbike and roar around a city square to satisfy his craving for speed. Neglects his studies, yet convinces his parents to let him compete in motorcycle racing. Its familiar enough - but in this case with a big exception. The young man answers to one of the greatest names in his nations motorsporting tradition. Alberto Ascaris celebrated surname helps him take those first difficult yet crucial steps toward motorracing success. After that, however, he is on his own.

The son of auto dealer and racer Antonio Ascari and the former Elisa Marelli, Alberto and his three-years-older sister Amedea lived at Corso Sempione 60 in Milan. They were above the shop, so to speak - Antonios Alfa Romeo dealership, the general agency for Lombardy. The robust lad took after his mother with his dark hair and his calm, jovial look. He stood out in a crowd with his rolling gait. Some thought him a boy with the dignity of a man.

Alberto began his schooling as a boarder at the Longone National College, not far from his home. Entertainment on his breaks from school consisted of visits to the many car and motorcycle workshops in and around his neighbourhood, for the lad was obsessed with power and speed. This was easy enough to under stand, because this was the religion in which his father was, if not the Pope, at least a bishop. One of three brothers and a sister, Antonio Ascari had begun racing seriously in 1919 at the age of 32 and by 1920 was driving the Alfa Romeos with which he would be indeli bly associated.

His commercial links with Alfa helped Antonio Ascari influence its product policy. In 1921 he inspired its launch of the 20/30 ES Sports, which not only sold well but served as a basis for racing cars that could hold the fort until the pukka P2 designed by ex-Fiat man Vittorio Jano was ready to compete - and win - in 1924. Janos move from Turin to Alfa in Milan was engineered by Enzo Ferrari, for whom the decade-older Ascari was a role model. If he came upon a technical problem that he couldnt crack, Ferrari said of Ascari, he was not afraid to ask for advice or suggestions from someone who knew more than he did. It was a quality Ferrari might have sought to emulate more often, if only to engage the sympathy of his collaborators.

The breakthrough season for Antonio Ascari, called blond and bull-like with the bold jaw of an Egyptian sphinx, was 1924. In June at Cremona he won a 200-mile race at a speed just over 100mph with the Alfa P2 and was clocked at 121mph over ten kilometres -impressive for a car of only 2 litres. He was not, a reporter wrote, one of the many over-inflated balls among the drivers of the day. Ascari represented a school of his own with a style that was calm, safe, vigorous and valorous. Later that year he won the Italian GP at Monza, then in its third year, and in 1925 he was victorious at Spa in the European Grand Prix.

The calmness and safety of Ascaris style were sometimes in dispute. The Monza officials went so far as to warn Alfa that the driver would be unwelcome there unless he moderated his impetuous style and stopped cornering dangerously. You see, explained the driver himself, the difficult thing is not letting yourself - how can I say? - be tempted ... charmed by speed. Its like being in a big tube. But you have to resist.

Journalist Sandro Ferretti said at the time that Ascaris apparent audacity was the fruit of the methodical training that he conducted, scrupulously and zealously, over the route of every race. He knew the road so well, in other words, that he exploited it more fully than less assiduous drivers could.

Antonio Ascari brought both an exceptional physique and inextinguishable passion to his race driving, Ferretti continued, adding, the smile on his lips, a bit sceptical, was a reflection of his profound generosity. When he spoke of his family, his broad face was illuminated by a serene and radiant glow. He welcomed little Alberto to the pits and the races, where he posed in his sailors suit with his successful father.

Alberto was only five in 1923 when, on park roads in Milan, his father plunked him on his thighs, presented him with the steering wheel of his RL Alfa and said, Now you drive. Undaunted, already experienced with his own pedal car, the lad gripped and turned with confidence. Hell be an ace, bragged his proud dad. Later at Monza after a day of testing the Alfa P2 young Alberto again perched in his fathers lap to guide one of Italys finest racing cars around its newest track. Small wonder he was captivated by speed!