.:: Attilio Bettega : That time on the Turinì ... ::.

ATTILIO BETTEGA was a champion. A true champion. A special man that has been able to do of his humility, his loyalty and his honesty his winning weapons, qualities these that belong only to a great men. He has gone soon, too soon, in a clear morning in spring while he was doing the thing that he loved more in his life: racing in a car. That accursed curve, perhaps too much clammy because of the damp of the morning or perhaps because faced to too speed, has been fatal.
It seems to be so unbelievable and impossible. That LANCIA 037 was a car that he "felt" from the moment that he had developed it, that same car that he knew in every small detail but that betrayed him twice, the second time in a definitive way. Everything is simply absurd.
ATTILIO BETTEGA had courage. Courage to be sold. In slopes he was unbeatable, on the dirty he didn't have rivals. He knew how to drive over the limits but always in the total respect of the danger. Only the death has stopped him.
He was born in MOLVENO, a small town in the mountains of the TRENTINO, a calm zone, quiet as his character. A man of few words but of great modesty, he had known how to infuse on each adversary that sense of total respect that every man nourishes towards his rivals. ATTILIO didn't have enemies. Many adversaries, as every champion, but anyone hostile. It was impossible to have feelings of hate in his comparisons. His class was immense. And he showed it in quite a lot occasions. Like that time that, gone down by the small A112 ABARTH, with which he won the TROPHY and gone up on the official LANCIA STRATOS, he put in crisis the "DRAGON" SANDRO MUNARI reaching his shoulders in the competition "premium" in AOSTA. In Corsica ATTILIO desired to win to all the costs. He had an account open with the destiny, that two years before stopped him. The terrible accident, the double fracture to the legs and the long convalescence away from the fields of competition, fed in him a feeling of love-hate for the rally of the Napoleon island, that he defined the "more beautiful in the world" but that at the same time he hated. A feeling this that ATTILIO would never have expressed, because in the heart of a true mountaineer there is no place for resentment. The law of the mountain is hard, such as the one of the sport and, aware of this, he knew that soon or later the destiny would have issued its hard sentence. Who races in car knows that the accident can be always behind the corner and ATTILIO knew that the risk had to be faced to open face, otherwise it is not possible to be a fast and winning driver. He sustained that only the fate could determine the worse... And the fate, without pity, awful and perverse decided to stop his race on that accursed island where ATTILIO was able to express his own abilities of driver at the maximum levels. Only a moment, not even the time to understand what was happening and to warn the friend MAURIZIO, companion of thousand battles, and here is the terrible breaking against the tree of the destiny. ATTILIO was looking for his revenge but the destiny pretended its one at the higher price. It is today still difficult after twenty years, to quantify the void that he left in the world of the rallies, even if the time cancels the memories. However, we didn't forget. Our memories are always alive and we jealously preserve them. An important thing must finally be remembered. The law of the rallies imposes that only the greater drivers are able to win the stage of the "TURINI", the most difficult, the most selective, the most beautiful special stage of the world in the most beautiful rally of the world: the MONTECARLO. We want to remember him while, on board of a small Fiat RITMO 75 ABARTH, flies toward the finishing line of the "TURINI", with courage and mastery, entering in that way from the main door in the legend of the rallies. Today ATTILIO BETTEGA is a champion. A true champion, a special man that has been able to do of his humility, his loyalty and his honesty his winning weapons, virtues these that belong only to a great men. ATTILIO is an example for everybody.


.:: The memories album... ::.
A112 AUTOBIANCHI A112 ABARTH
  • 1977 - 1st place end AUTOBIANCHI A112 ABARTH trophy
  • LANCIA STRATOS LANCIA STRATOS
  • 1977 - 2nd place end RALLY VALLE d'AOSTA
  • 1978 - 2nd place end RALLY ANTIBES
  • 1978 - 2nd place end RALLY HUNSRUCK
  • FIAT 131 ABARTH FIAT 131 ABARTH
  • 1979 - 1st place end RALLY VALLE d'AOSTA
  • 1979 - 1st place end RALLY COSTA SMERALDA
  • 1979 - 1st place end RALLY della LANA
  • 1979 - 1st place end RALLY 4 REGIONI
  • 1979 - 2nd place end RALLY ISOLA d'ELBA
  • 1980 - 8th place end ACROPOLIS RALLY
  • 1980 - 6th place end RALLY di SANREMO
  • 1981 - 1st place end RALLY del CIOCCO
  • 1981 - 2nd place end RALLY VALLE d'AOSTA
  • 1981 - 3rd place end ACROPOLIS RALLY
  • FIAT RITMO  ABARTH FIAT RITMO 75 ABARTH
  • 1979 - 2nd place end GIRO d'ITALIA
  • 1980 - 6th place end RALLY MONTECARLO
    Winning at COL de TURINI SS.
  • LANCIA 037 LANCIA RALLY 037
  • 1983 - 4th place end TOUR de CORSE
  • 1983 - 5th place end ACROPOLIS RALLY
  • 1983 - 3rd place end RALLY SANREMO
  • 1983 - 3rd place end RALLY NUOVA ZELANDA
  • 1984 - 5th place end RALLY MONTECARLO
  • 1984 - 3rd place end RALLY del PORTOGALLO
  • 1984 - 7th place end TOUR de CORSE
  • 1984 - 4th place end ACROPOLIS RALLY
  • 1984 - 2nd place end RALLY di SANREMO
  • 1984 - 3rd place end RALLY SANMARINO
  • 1984 - 1st place end RALLY di MONZA
  • LANCIA 037
  • 02-05-1985 - TOUR de CORSE the last race ...
  • Pictures www.rallyclubattiliobettega.it

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