 He entered and drove his cars in more than 60 races, both hillclimb events and track racing, including the Mille Miglia from 1947 until 1965, achieving 19 first-place finishes and 18 podiums in the 750cc and 1000cc classes.In the United States, Bandini cars won the SCCA HM class championship in 1955 thanks to driver Dolph Vilardi.In 1957 Melvin Sachs won the HM class, one of five Bandini's in the first ten positions.The successes resulted in Ilario being presented with the Gold Key of Daytona and later in 1981 the Laurea H.C. award in mechanical engineering from PRODEO university of New York.