A passionate gentleman driver
Author
- Guilherme Miranda
Date
- March 13, 2009
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Who?Guido Daccò What?Lola-Cosworth T90/00 Where?Detroit When?1991 CART Detroit Grand Prix (16 June 1991) |
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Why?
Guido Daccò was born in Limbiate, near Milan, on September 10, 1942. Dacco was a truly passionate gentleman driver who loved racing everywhere. Still he only started racing motorcycles in 1969 before finally moving to single-seaters in the late seventies, at the age of 35.
He debuted in the Italian F3 Championship and moved to Formula 2 in 1980, joining his friend Arturo Merzario in the Merzario team. He also drove a race in the British F1 series that year. The next two years Guido continued in F2, now at Minardi Team, and in 1982 also did the Monza 1000kms on board a Lancia Beta Montecarlo, sharing with Mark Thatcher and Gianni Giudici, finishing 7th overall.
For 1983 Daccò remained in F2, now with Sanremo Team, scoring 4 points, but at the end of the year, Guido started working with Jolly Club on the Alba AR2-Giannini project. He was seen racing this Group C2 car with some good results until 1985, with an outstanding 3rd place in the 1984 Mosport 1000kms, with only the two works Porsches ahead of him, as the undoubted highlight. Meanwhile in single-seaters, Daccò remained with Sanremo for 1984, scoring two more points, and moved into F3000 with them the following season, harvesting a total of six points.
Then, Daccò's passion gave him the wings to cross the Atlantic Ocean and so, in 1986, we suddenly found Guido racing Indy Lights, at the time still called the American Racing Series. Despite his 43 years he gathered some good results, including a podium, until he was promoted to the CART World Series in 1989, racing for Dale Coyne Racing. Until 1992 Daccò stayed in the USA, racing for teams like Bettenhausen, Euromotorsport, Burns and Genoa. He wasn't to succeed, with only four points from 23 starts to show for and failing to qualify for the Indy 500 in both 1990 and '91, his only two attempts at the big event.
In 1992, he came back to Europe to race a Eufra-Opel 390 in two races of the German F3 Championship before retiring at the end of the season. During his career Daccò also raced in the IMSA and ETCC championships, making him a truly versatile enthusiast.
In the years that followed Guido kept himself busy racing occasionally in historic and sportscar series before becoming team manager of FIA GT team AB. Guido Daccò died on Saturday July 29, 2006, at 64 years of age, after a long and unidentified illness.