Emilio Materassi

Born in Borgo San Lorenzo, near Florence, Italy, Emilio began working in a bicycle shop, learning the basics of applied mechanics.

[2] Materassi's racing debut came at the Gentlemen Grand Prix at Brescia, September 11, 1921, driving an aged car from the Turin automaker Itala.

With the Italona, Materassi won a lot of important, but local, races from 1924 to 1926, including two Mugello Grand Prix and three hillclimbs at the Pistoian Hills (Coppa della Collina Pistoiese).

On the 17th lap of the 1928 Italian Grand Prix held at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Materassi lost control of his Talbot 700 when he tried to overtake Giulio Foresti’s Bugatti T35C on the main straight at over 200 km/h.

The Talbot swerved to the left, jumped over a three-meter deep and four-meter wide protection ditch and a fence, and crashed into the grandstand.

The other drivers of the Scuderia Materassi withdrew from the race immediately after the accident, but the event continued and it was won by Louis Chiron.

[9] By either estimation this is the worst accident, with respect to the number of lives lost, to occur at a Grand Prix and it is only surpassed by the 1955 Le Mans disaster in the history of motor racing.