Cyril Snipe (1888-1944) was a British motor racing driver who won the 1912

Targa Florio The Targa Florio was a public road endurance automobile race held in the mountains of Sicily near the island's capital of Palermo. Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event, part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 ...

in Sicily driving an Italian SCAT motor car.

Early life

Cyril Arthur Snipe was born at Conisborough, Yorkshire, in the first quarter of 1888 to Arthur W Snipe, a schoolmaster, and Fanny (née Banner). By the time of the 1901 census the family were living in

Tamworth, Staffordshire Tamworth (, ) is a market town and borough in Staffordshire, England, north-east of Birmingham. The town borders North Warwickshire to the east and north, Lichfield to the north, south-west and west. The town takes its name from the River T ...

. Snipe was the nephew of a Manchester car dealer, John Bennett of Newton-Bennett, who backed his early racing career.Autosport, 2008, research profile of Cyril Snipe
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Motoring career

Newton and Bennett was an associate company of SCAT (Società Ceirano Automobili Torino), an automobile manufacturer from Turin, Italy, that was founded in 1906 by

Giovanni Battista Ceirano Giovanni Battista Ceirano (1 October 1860 – 1912) was an Italian entrepreneur and car pioneer. The first motorcar he designed and built was the Well-Eyes, but he sold the rights to Giovanni Agnelli of F.I.A.T. who manufactured it in volume as t ...

. Snipe reportedly worked at the Turin factory as a test driver."Targa Florio" by David Owen In 1910 he achieved a class victory in the

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

sprint driving an (Società Piemontese Automobili) S.P.A., manufactured in Turin by

Matteo Ceirano Matteo Ceirano (1870 in Cuneo – 19 March 1941 in Torino) was an Italian businessman in the early automobile industry who co-founded the manufacturers Ceirano; Itala Fabbrica Automobili in 1904 and Società Piemontese Automobili (S.P.A. ...

Targa Florio

Snipe won the

(''Giro di Sicilia'') on 25 and 26 May 1912 when, driving a SCAT 25/35 with his co-driver Pedrini, they completed the 965 kilometre course around the island of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

in 24 hours 37 minutes 39 seconds. Snipe defeated a field of 26 cars, including Lancia, Isotta-Fraschini, Fiat and Alfa. The race passed through Palermo; Messina; Catania; Syracuse; Ragusa; Gela; Agrigento; Marsala; Trapani; and back to Palermo. Snipe drove a SCAT again in the 1913 Targa Florio race but failed to finish. In 1919 the British manufacture Eric-Campbell entered two cars in the tenth

held on 23 November and comprising 4 laps of the 108 kilometre Madonie circuit. The drivers were Snipe and Jack Scales who would subsequently race for the Italian marque

Chiribiri Chiribiri was an aircraft and automobile manufacturer in Turin Italy from 1910-1929. Fabbrica Torinese Velivoli Chiribiri & C., (Chiribiri Aircraft of Turin), was founded by the Venetian Antonio Chiribiri, Maurizio Ramassotto and the engineer Gau ...

. ''l'Inglese Scalese'' (''The Englishman Scales'') in car number 23 retired after 1 lap due to a broken steering arm, whilst Snipe did not complete a single lap in car number 24.The Nostalgia Forum at Atlas F1
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Family life

In 1911 Snipe married Blanche L Blainey in

Salford, Greater Manchester Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county aft ...

but she died in 1918 in Portsmouth aged 28. Thus in 1922 he married Emily Hendrey (or Moreton) in Paddington. His death was registered in Surrey in 1944 at the age of 55.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snipe, Cyril 1888 births 1944 deaths People from Conisbrough Sportspeople from Doncaster British racing drivers Grand Prix drivers