By the way, that's the article I did a long time ago on Attilio Bettega, the model of articles will be more or less like this, although I pretend to update these version.
Attilio Bettega was born in Molveno, Trentino; among the Italian Dolomite mountains, on 19th February, 1953.
Since an early age, the young Bettega developed a great interest in motorsports and, after taking his license, he entered in a local race (by chance, the well-known and prestigious Italian Rally San Martino di Castrozza, near his hometown Molveno), with his family’s car, a small Fiat 128. While only nineteen years old, he finished in forty-second place in that distant year of 1972. Pleased by his experience and showing some abilities, young Attilio began racing in local rallies, winning his class at the 1973 Triveneto Regional Championship.
After 1974, Bettega switched to an Opel Kadett GTE, tuned by Carenini, racing both in the regional and national championships, but it was only in 1977, at twenty-four years old, that he appeared as one of the greatest promises of the Italian motorsport, when he won the Fiat-sponsored Trofeo Autobianchi A112. During the seventies, Fiat and Lancia (although they were part of the same industrial group), fought for the primacy of Italy among the World rally scene, vying hard with Ford, Alpine Renault and Opel, among others. Both teams had their own youngsters’ development programmes, like the Autobianchi Trophy, which was part of the Italian national championship. Thanks to his fast, but also smooth driving style, and consistency, he won the Trophy aboard his Grifone-tuned Autobianchi with five wins in fourteen races, beating in the process some future successful drivers like Vanni Fusaro and Fabrizio Tabaton. After this success, he was presented to the Lancia manager, Cesare Fiorio; and was given as a prize an entry to the Val d’Aosta Rally, the final race of the Italian national championship, but with one of the powerful official Lancia Stratos, besides nothing more than Sandro Munari, a veteran, but still regarded as one of the best drivers at the time (and nowadays, regarded as one of the best in rally history). Again, he used consistency and speed and, with a competitive machine, Bettega surprised everyone and proved how fast he was, finishing in second, less than two minutes behind “Il Campeoníssmo” Munari, in what would be the last win of his career.
While he proved on the terrain his innate driving skills, Bettega crossed paths with Isabella Torghele, also a young motorsport fan, that would become not only his co-driver but also his girlfriend and, later, wife. Isabella accompanied his husband on the beginnings of his career, and it was beside her that he took the Trofeo Autobianchi.
Having impressed those responsible for Lancia, Bettega started driving an ex-official Stratos, supported by the small Lancia’s satellite teams, racing in Italy and also in some races of the European Championship. And the results appeared in a hurry, with three second places in events of high national and international reputation, like the French Rally d’Antibes (behind Darniche), the German Hunsruck Rally (behind Walter Rohrl), and the Italian Coppa Liburna, where he was only beaten by the National Champion Adartico Vudafieri. He also made his debut in the then called FIA Rally Cup, but retiring in the two events he entered, the Rally Sanremo and the Tour de Corse. At the end of the season, he signed with Fiat and premiered at his new team with a win at his hometown Rally Val d’Aosta, driving the renowned Fiat 131 Abarth. It was also at this race that he had as co-driver for the first time the man which would occupy that position for almost his entire international career, Maurizio Perissinot.
For 1979, the pair Bettega/Perissinot focused mainly on the Italian Championship, appearing occasionally in European and World ones, but with quite positive results. Bettega won the Rally Costa Smeralda (one of the main ERC events), Rally della Lana, Rally di Quattro Regioni and, again the Rally Val d’Aosta. The wins in the Italian events, plus the consistency of results in the most ranked European events, led Bettega to a wonderful sixth place in the championship, with 140 points. It was also the year of the creation of the World Rally Championship, with the format that we know nowadays. Bettega debuted at Monte Carlo, with a retirement, but his second experience was quite good, with a third place at the end of the Sanremo Rally.
After two years with good results, Fiat provided Bettega with a more ambitious and complete schedule in the WRC. At Monte Carlo, he used the Fiat 75 Abarth, instead of the conventional 131, and had the renowned Mario Manucci – a long time former co-driver of Sandro Mundari - as the co-driver. But he hadn’t any problems with the change and finished in sixth, although he made the fastest time at one of the special stages at the famous Col de Turini and fought for the win till a bad choice of tires during the second half of the rally ruined his chances. Returning to the 131 Abarth and with another co-driver, Arnaldo Bernacchini, Bettega raced on another more five rounds of the WRC, with mixed results, but gaining a lot more of experience. At the end of the season he was invited by Lancia to be part of their team in the Giro d’Italia – not the centennial cycle race, but a captivating race mixing Sport/Prototypes and Touring Cars on a kind of rally, but the standings were defined by special stages that could be on open roads, circuits or even hillclimbs! Driving one of the super-favourites Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo, with his co-driver Bernacchini and an unknown Michele Alboreto, Bettega finished in second, proving his evolution as a driver, only beaten by his rally teammates Alén/Kivimäki and the F1 driver Riccardo Patrese.
For 1981, Bettega remained at Fiat, with a schedule similar to the years before, but with Perissinot returning to his right side. But the 131 had a lot of years upon it, and the performances started to decrease, so the results at the beginning of the season weren’t anything of note. But talent can help in overcoming the problem of an aging car, and Bettega finished third on the Acropolis and was leading Sanremo till he spun off and had to retire.
Meanwhile, on his sporadic entries in the Italian championship, Bettega won again one of his favourite races, the Costa Smeralda, and the Rally Il Ciocco. For the next season, the Fiat Group decided to focus on Lancia for the assault to the Constructors’ Championship, through their new model, the famous and powerful Lancia 037. Known by his talent and consistency, he was called to develop the car, and spent the beginning of the 1982 season on extensive test schedules, premiering at the wheel of the new car on a rally at the Tour de Corse. The race was going well and Attilio was third at the eleventh special stage when, near the small village of Salvareccio, he lost the control of the Lancia and collided brutally with a wall, breaking both legs seriously, among other injuries. Against all logic, the organization didn’t interrupt the stage and the wrecked Lancia remained at the locale. Bettega took forty minutes to be rescued and was airlifted to Turin Hospital, where he was submitted to surgery twice and started a long process of recovery, having remained near half a year in a hospital bed.
That serious crash put his career at risk, but Bettega was stronger and, a year later, he was again behind the wheel of a Lancia 037 and capable of racing at the highest level. Ironically, he returned... at Corsica. Attilio had developed a “love-hate” relationship with this rally, as he indeed liked the rally due its unique and challenging route, but also loathed the risks implicit in such an event, mainly with the increasingly bigger amount of power of the Group B cars. The return was well achieved, with a fourth place, behind his teammates Alén and Rohrl, and the semi-official Lancia of Vudafieri. And the good results continued during the season, in particular two consecutive third places in New Zealand and Sanremo. His results helped Lancia to win the Constructors’ title, and proved the constant evolution of the thirty year old driver. However, he had another mighty scare, with a violent accident on the Costa Smeralda, immediately after Corsica. This time, he suffered nothing, unlike Perissinot, who broke his legs.
The Group B cars developed fast and, in 1984, Lancia with their 037 faced the deluxe opposition of the four-wheel driven Audi Quattro Sport and the Peugeot 205 T16. Although he wasn’t driving the best car, Bettega had his best season ever in his career, finishing fifth at the Drivers’ standings, with forty-nine points, and achieving his highest place on a WRC event, the intermediate place of the podium at Sanremo. Besides, he also added to his resumé the national Rally di Monza.
1985 arrived and it was expected to be an even more difficult year for Lancia as they were “condemned”, while waiting for the new model, the Delta S4; to use the old 037. And that year, Bettega had not only his WRC schedule, but it was also in his plans to race the main ERC rallies, where Lancia had an almost unchallenged supremacy, with the Tre Gazelle-West team, co-driven by Sergio Cresto, who had already accompanied him before in the 1984 Corsica and Acropolis rallies. The season started poorly, with a series of retirements and, returning to Napoleon’s island, Bettega wanted to invert the unlucky tendency and, since the start he was fighting for the win, taking fourth place before the Zerúbia-Santa Giulia stage in the Southeast of Corsica, near Aullène. Shortly after the beginning of the special staged, Bettega lost the control of the car leaving a fast right turn, while going at 150 Km/h. The Lancia swerved to the left, hit a pole and fell on a ravine with 2,5 meters depth, brutally hitting a tree between the roof and the windshield on the right side of the car. The force of the impact caused the immediate death of Bettega, while Maurizio Perissionot escaped unscathed and climbed rapidly to the road, to alert the other riders of the accident. Biasion, Béguin and Chatriot stopped their cars immediately and the organization cancelled the stage on the moment. The ambulance arrived twenty minutes later, but they could do nothing more than to confirm the death of the Italian driver. Lancia’s works team retired immediately, Markku Alén in a sign of mourning, while Miki Biasion, driving for the semi-works Jolly Club team, retired after the sixth stage, as he felt he had no conditions to continue. When the news of the death became public, the Tre Gazelle-West team also retired both his cars from the Zlatni Piassatzi Rally, in Bulgaria, that was another round of the European Championship.
Ironically, a year later, Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto (that had raced with Bettega earlier) suffered the same fate and died from burns when their Lancia Delta S4 slid off the road at another place on the Corsican rally. Both cars were entered with the number four, and that number was never attributed to anyone by the organization till 1996, when Tommi Mäkinen used it on his Mitsubishi. Off course, the number hadn’t anything with to do with it, but the Finn would retire with the car damaged, after hitting a cow.
Bettega lived with his wife Isabella and his two sons, Angela and Alessandro, in his hometown Molveno, where he had a hotel near the lake that he wanted to manage after finishing his racing career. Alessandro would inherit the passion for speed of his father, and debuted on rallies when nineteen years old and nowadays he is still a rally driver.
Attilio Bettega will be forever remembered as one of the best Italian drivers of the Eighties and, although he hadn’t managed to win even a single WRC rally, we have to take into account that he had as teammates men like Markku Alén and Walter Rohrl, not to mention the remaining opponents with good cars on that period; and also the time he lost with his accidents. When he died, he was thirty-two years old and was moving to his maturity as a driver, and with the good Lancia Delta S4, he would be certainly a favourite for wins, becoming a threat in particular on the tarmac, which was his preferred terrain. Remembered as a skilled, brave and greatly endeavouring while developing and driving a car, he deserves to be recorded also as a Man; one passionate for motorsport, but extremely humble, simple and handy, remembered also for the sympathy that dedicated to the enthusiasts and the respect with which he treated his adversaries; due to that, both admired him and labelled him as one of the last Gentlemen of motorsport. In spite of being an Italian, he hadn’t a Latin temperament, and was a very private person, specially known for his hate of Italian football, due to the violence associated with it.
For me, this is and would forever be the legacy of Attilio Bettega.
Bibliography:
I also want to say a big thank you to Nanni Dietrich, from Atlas Nostalgia Forum, a former Italian journalist, that wrote the article about Attilio Bettega at Motorsport Memorial website. That article was my main source and in which I have relied widely (with Mr. Dietrich’s permission).
Guilherme Ribeiro
