Anna Maria Peduzzi (12 July 1912 – 23 August 1979) was an Italian

racecar driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organi ...

. She raced from the 1930s to the 1950s, mostly in her native Italy. She is the first driver on record to have raced for Scuderia Ferrari. During her career, she also raced for

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." "A ...

Stanguellini Automobili Stanguellini was an Italian maker of small sports cars, based in Modena and founded by Vittorio Stanguellini; it was most active between 1946 and 1960. They continued to produce competition cars until 1981, when Vittorio Stanguellini ...

and Fiat.

Biography

Peduzzi was born in Olgiate Olona, a small town close to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. In 1934 she married race car test driver Franco Comotti from Bergamo. In 1933 she bought an Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Gran Sport Testa fissa which she raced alone and occasionally with her husband, such as when they drove for Ferrari in the 1934

Mille Miglia The Mille Miglia (, ''Thousand Miles'') was an open-road, motorsport endurance race established in 1927 by the young Counts Francesco Mazzotti and Aymo Maggi, which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957 (thirteen before World ...

, winning the 1.5 litre class and finishing 13rd overall. As ardent anti-fascists, Peduzzi and Comotti ended up having troubles with Benito Mussolini. The couple relocated to Paris in 1936 where they made their home until the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in 1945. During this period she suffered from

polio Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...

.Anna Maria Peduzzi
in speedqueens.blogspot.com, last accessed on December 19, 2018. Following the end of the War, Peduzzi reprised her racing career. From 1952 to 1956 she raced Stanguellini 750 cc race cars. From 1956 to 1959, she mainly raced a 2-litre

Ferrari 500 TR The Ferrari Monza is one of a series of cars built by Ferrari. In the early 1950s, Ferrari shifted from using the compact Gioacchino Colombo-designed V12 engine in its smallest class of sports racers to a line of four-cylinder engines designe ...

, initially teaming-up with Belgian driver Gilberte Thiroin. Peduzzi's last race seems to have been in 1961 in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta. Comotti died in Bergamo in 1963. Peduzzi died in 1979 in the same town.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peduzzi, Anna Maria Italian racing drivers Italian female racing drivers 1912 births 1979 deaths Sportspeople from Como