Dario Resta

DARIO RESTA, raised in England by Italian parents, brought a French Peugeot to the United States in 1915 after competing successfully in European races since 1909. In the United States, he scored an impressive number of victories for two straight seasons against America’s best cars and drivers. Resta’s 1915 record included triumphs in the American Grand Prize and the Vanderbilt Cup race as well as in featured board track races at Chicago, Illinois, and Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. During the following season he won the Vanderbilt Cup race again, the annual Indianapolis race (cut by management to 300 miles that year), and other major races on board speedways to capture the American Automobile Association National Championship. In 1923, after an absence of several years, Resta was invited by Ralph DePalma to be part of a three-car entry of Packards for the Indianapolis 500, and he qualified in the third position for the outside of the front row. Resta was fatally injured at the Brooklands track, south west of London, in September 1924 while attempting to break long distance records for the English Sunbeam company.