Racing history
enthusiasts will readily remember some of the darkest days of the sport, when
multiple drivers and spectators died on a same race. Le Mans 1955, Monza 1933,
Rouen 1970, Indy 1973, Imola 1994, are just some of those sad days that remind
us how thousands of people lost their lives at race tracks or places where races were held
since the late 19th century, in spite of today’s false sense of
security.
The earliest races took
place on open roads, generally from one city to another. With increasing number
of vehicles and the inconvenience of closing roads for racing events, soon
closed circuits emerged, while the “stradale” Targa Florio insisted in
remaining open for business until the 70s. Now such racing is restricted to rallies
and hill climbs.
It is not surprising
that it was in Italy, in spite of the veteran Monza circuit, that there was
some resistance to building of purpose made tracks with a semblances of safety.
Very dangerous races were held in several Italian cities: Messina, Naples,
Garda, Pescara, Modena, Bari, Syracuse, among others, and Caserta. In fact such
races continued in the 60s, and Caserta was one of the venues used in the 1967
Italian F-3 Championship.
This championship was
reasonably competitive, even though it did not generate world racing stars such
as the British and French championships. However, on that year several future
F-1 drivers contested Italian F-3: Andrea de Adamich, Clay Regazzoni, Ernesto
Brambilla, Silvio Moser, Carlo Facetti. In fact, even an Italian driver who had
already raced in F-1 was back in F-3, Giacomo “Geki” Russo. The latter was not
only experienced (he had been racing since 1959), but he also had a special weapon
for that season: he bought a Matra to compete against a number of British cars,
such as Lotus and Brabham, and the Italian De Sanctis and BWA.
The circuit had a triangular
shape and it was very narrow. The qualifying race was very animated, and it was
won by Moser, followed by Geki, Corti and Reggazoni, who crossed the finish
line practically together. The drama occurred on the seventh lap of the final
heat. The Swiss driver Beat Fehr and Andrea Saltari touched each other on a
quick part of the track and the cars ended up in a walled area, allowing little
visibility. In fact Fehr’s Brabham was thrown back to the
middle of the track. A back marker, Franco Foresti, realized very late that
Fehr’s car was there, hit it, and his own car was destroyed in the mayhem.
To avoid more accidents
Beat Fehr decided to warn the front runners who were approaching very
quickly. One thing is clear, out of several versions: Geki Russo lost
control of his Matra, collided with one of the cars that had already crashed,
and was thrown out of his F3, which caught fire immediately. Geki died on the
spot. The well intentioned Fehr ended up run over by a car, maybe Geki’s car, maybe
another driver’s car, and ended up in the hospital, as did Corrado Manfredini,
Jurg Dubler and Clay Regazzoni. Fehr died from his injuries some days later. Crashes continued throughout the entire track,
and the Italian driver Romano Perdoni, known as“Tiger”, ended up the third
fatality of the weekend, trapped inside
his car with several internal and external injuries.
When the race was
finally stopped, there were only four cars running – the other drivers were
either dead, at hospital or out of the race, their cars utterly destroyed. Caserta’s
streets were a war zone.
At the time, there were
only two permanent closed circuits in Italy: Monza and Vallelunga. After
Caserta 67, which never again hosted a car race, little by little street races
disappeared, and race tracks such as Misano, Mugello, Varano and Imola were
built. Targa Florio survived as a round
of the World Championship of Makes until 1973, taking one final victim, as
forgotten as Russo, Fehr and Tiger: Charles Blyth.
