_his career started with motorbikes and he had his first official race on june 20, 1920 in cremona at the circuito internazionale motoristico. he won his first race on march 20, 1921 in verona.
he became a professional driver, and soon met enzo ferrari (still a driver and not yet the founder of ferrari). nuvolari quickly became very popular in italy, where he was called il campionissimo delle due ruote , the two wheeler campionissimo (1) (the same title will be later given only to fausto coppi, bicycle champion).
he begun testing himself in grand prix motor racing and he won the prestigious targa florio, in sicily. after that, he decided to dedicate himself only to cars. his fame grew rapidly and famous poet gabriele d annunzio gave him a little golden turtle with dedication: to the fastest man in the world, the slowest animal (2). he obtained victories on most of the italian circuits and in the mille miglia. in 1932 he dominated grand prix motor racing, winning the monaco, french and italian grand prix events.
perhaps his greatest ever victory was the german grand prix of 1935, where, in an outdated and uncompetitive alfa romeo p3 he defeated germany s vaunted auto union and mercedes benz racing outfits in front of adolf hitler, who was said to be outraged and refused to shake his hand afterwards (3). the hosts were so expectant of a german victory that they didn t have an italian anthem to play._
(1) será que querem repetir essa história com o valentino rossi?
(2) a origem da tartaruga
(3) não foi só o jesse owens que chutou a bunda do bigodinho…
