How did you come into contact with the story of Lella Lombardi to the point of becoming passionate about it?
I am in charge of territory promotion for the Novese district.
While reading a book that told about Lella Lombardi, I realized how exceptional she and her story were.
Deepening my interest in this story, I continued to inform myself and realized that there was never any story told about her. Hence my enthusiasm to find out more, delve deeper and get to know who Lella Lombardi really was.
To find out more about Lella Lombardi’s story, I got in touch with Giusy of Lella Lombardi Autosport and from there the idea of organizing something to remember Lella Lombardi was born.
The idea slowly took shape, organizing an exhibition at the Campionissimi museum in Novi ligure.
In addition, to keep Lella Lombardi’s memory alive, but above all to make people know her courage, tenacity and grit on the track, I had a Piedmontese blacksmith make a model of her car to hand it over each year as a symbolic recognition from the Novese district to the emerging driver who will have distinguished himself/herself for the grit and passion on the track, remembering Lella Lombardi’s strength and tenacity so as to carry on her name and pay homage to her.
To enrich the event, I tried to invite people close to her and to collect some memorabilia, such as racing suits and I tried to contact Lavazza for the helmet she used to race, but that collection had now gone to auction.
During the soiree dedicated to Lella Lombardi at the Campionissimi museum, you witnessed the multi-voice narration of those who knew her at different stages of her sporting life, what struck you most about Lella’s stories that evening?
They were all very happy, finally satisfied and excited to rightly recognize Lella, her personality, her achievements. They were all thrilled to participate in the evening, because it is right to shine the spotlight on someone who has had such a success story as a driver and not only.
It was exciting, there were people of all ages, let’s hope that such an event can be repeated in the future. Perhaps with even more people to make her story known and appreciated even more.
A very touching moment was watching the video of the day in Barcelona where she scored the emotional half a point, Giusy with her eyes shining; it was impressive to hear about her great feat and then to talk about it at the Campionissimi Museum, because it seemed as if we were witnessing the accomplishment of something great and beautiful.
The exhibition was a great success. There were so many visits from Turin and neighbouring countries, but also from Lombardy.
After delving into Lella Lombardi’s story, how would you describe her? Do you know any anecdotes?
After delving into her story and getting in touch with those who knew her, I was able to get to know Lella more from a human point of view as well.
Giusy tells of Lella as a very humble person with extraordinary skills, shy and insecure in private but not when driving. In fact, she was nicknamed ‘a tiger from Turin’ because once she was driving, all fear disappeared.
She also recalls another episode that demonstrates the humility and insecurity of this woman. Let me preface this by saying that at that time Lella was ill with cancer, the disease that took her away when she was still too young. They were in a restaurant, Lella and Giusy, and a gentleman was staring at her. Giusy immediately said ‘He recognized you! He wants your autograph!”, but Lella thought she was in disarray because her wig was on wrong. So much so that she was shy and uncomfortable, she couldn’t even eat because he was looking at her. Giusy went to the gentleman and he confessed that he was a Formula 1 enthusiast and that he had recognized Lella at a glance and wanted an autograph.
Even this short anecdote underlines the simplicity of a humble woman who was not used to posing, even after all her achievements as a driver.
She always had the strength to fight for her passions against everyone, even her homecountry. Initially, she preferred to hide so that no one would know she was going racing. For the first races she bought her car in instalments. This once again shows her humility, but also the strength to bet everything on her dream. Intimately, she was a very fragile and humble person, but quite another thing on the track. We can say two people in one.
Barbara Gramolotti is in charge of territory promotion for the Novese district.
