Motor racing driver. Born in Terni, Umbria, Italy, Baconin Francesco Domenico Borzacchini was named by his parents after a Russian anarchist, Mikhail Bakunin. At the age of 14, be began work in a garage as a mechanic, and after serving in the Army during WW1, he began racing motorcycles before moving to cars in 1926. During the next two years he won six Italian hillclimb events driving a Salmson. He began to gain successes in other races as well as class wins in the 1926 and 1927 Targa Florio, and this led to him joining the Alfa Romeo team in 1927. In 1929 he set a new Flying 10km land speed record at 153mph in a Maserati V4. There were further successes in the Circuito do Alessandria and the Tripoli GP. In 1930, Italy was then run by a strict fascist government and Borzacchini was pressured into changing his name from that of a Russian anarchist to Mario Umberto Borzacchini. He was enetered in a Maserati in the 1930 Indianapolis 500 but retired with mechanical problems, but won the Tripoli GP again that year. In 1931 he signed for the Ferrari team to drive their Alfa Romeos but his year was dogged by bad luck finishing second a number of times. In 1932 he won the Mille Miglia. In 1933 he re-joined Maserati but at the Italian GP at Monza, motor racing had one of it's blackest days. Oil had been spilled on the South Curve by a car in the previous race and sand placed there to make it safe. All drivers were warned about the hazard. When the race started, Borzacchini and his team mate and good friend Giuseppe Campari both crashed on the bend with fatal consequences. In a later race Polish aristocrat Count Stanislas Czaykowski crashed and burned to death on the same corner. Three great drivers lost their lives that day.