Autograph hunting

Sir,

I read with interest Nigel Roebuck’s article on Giuseppe Farina, and especially about how he never liked signing autographs. At the 1951 Goodwood Whitsun meeting I got him to sign his autograph, and again at the British Grand Prix the next year.

The first time was quite amusing as my friend who accompanied me to the meeting was part-Maltese and his father spoke Italian. He told me to say “uno momento, Nino”, to attract his attention. This I did, and Farina looked round with a smile, thinking it was a friend. When he saw that it wasn’t his face changed entirely. However, I got the autograph, as did six other people, and he used my old broken piece of orange pencil to write them.

With the passage of time I have lost the first autograph and the pencil, but still have the other one, complete with all the Ferrari team and others from Silverstone in 1952.

G H Bell, Emsworth, Hants