Pinuccio welcomes us to his home in Frugarolo, a stone’s throw from the house where Lella Lombardi lived and where he, at a very young age, began working as a helper in the butcher’s shop of the champion’s father.
His blue eyes light up as soon as he begins to talk about those years spent next to Lella, an accomplice in her motoring exploits when no one, not even her family, suspected that behind that sweet smile and those gentle manners lay a lover of speed.
“She always liked to go fast; we had both bought a Lambretta at the same time: I had bought it used, she got a new one. But when Lella tried mine and realized that the engine was brighter, she asked me to swap.”
I often drove with her, but I was never afraid because she had such a confidence and skill, especially in curves and downhill, that made you feel safe. Of course there was no lack of adrenalin! I remember once we had to take 60 quintals of meat to Emilia: we had loaded the truck a bit too much, it could only carry 40. At a certain point, Lella said to me: I think we have no brakes and the gears don’t respond. Start to open the door, get ready and when I say jump, then jump! But there was no need to do that, with her mastery she managed the gears and as soon as she saw a side road going uphill we took it without consequences. The truck stopped, we waited a while and set off again to complete the delivery”.
Pinuccio witnessed the beginnings of Lella’s career and proudly tells us about it.
“When Lella decided to race she bought her first car (a Fiat 850) with the help of some friends without her parents’ knowledge. The car was delivered to the Monza racetrack where she raced for the first time, and then, back in Frugarolo, she had to hide it under the arcades of an old building
of the town’s central square (Piazza Sant’Anna) where years later Uncle Ricci (her mother’s brother) built the two buildings that still exist today. In order to test the various modifications made to the car, she used to test it on the road that runs alongside the railway in the area of the present Green Area. And that was the beginning of her career’.
Today, the Green Area, which is a public garden with a recreation area, houses the monument dedicated to her.
In addition to Pinuccio, two other ‘accomplices’, Checco and Enrico, known as ‘Ricu’, who were also employees of Lella’s father, accompanied her on her several adventures, such as the time when they went to see the Pontedecimo-Giovi race in the Giulietta Sprint. On the way back an MG overtook them and the driver, seeing that there was a woman at the wheel of the Giulietta, made the sign of the horns at her, sneering. Lella did not react for a few seconds.
Then, she decided to go on the attack and started going down the bends at full speed. The three passengers began to hold on to any handholds; Checco, sitting next to her, stuck his head out of the window and, worried, said to her in dialect: “Look Lella, the wheels are not touching the ground!” But she went on, with concentration and self-confidence: the MG was now close, a couple more bends, change gear, heel and toe, as Lella said, and go!
“We overtook the MG, turned laughing towards its driver and without even agreeing, spontaneously all three of us raised our hands with the sign of the horns in full view!”
“Ricu” was the least brave: he liked making deliveries together with Lella but was afraid of speed. “Every time he returned to the workshop he would get out of the van and whisper in dialect while touching his forehead: we can tell that story too. In the old Fiat 1100 he held on so tightly to the door handle that one evening it got stuck in his hand’.
“Trips with her were full of surprises, she would invite you to go for a drive, to try a new car, but you never knew where we would go or how long we would be gone. One Saturday night she said to her father, ‘Hi, I’m going out, I’m going there’. She picked up my sister and me and … where were we going? To Siena to see the Palio. A few hours to sleep after the show and then back to Frugarolo’.
There was no shortage of surprises even on business trips, when Lella delivered meat mainly to Liguria. ‘One evening we left the workshop rather late and were in a hurry. When we were almost in Voltri, Lella realized she had forgotten the transport documents, delivery notes, invoices. We had to go back, but she undaunted continued her travel and said to me ‘Don’t worry, I know what to do’. I was really curious to see what she would come up with. The customs office in Voltri was at the foot of a downhill slope. Then, a few hundred metres ahead, she started to turn off the headlights and the engine and let the car travel by inertia. Silently we drove past the customs office hoping that no one would see us, but instead the attendants noticed our vehicle.
They got out and chased us, shouting Stop! But she was faster and as soon as the van came to a halt, she started the engine again, geared up at full speed and we managed to cross the level crossing that marked the boundary with the municipality of Arenzano: there we entered another jurisdiction and we were safe’.
What maybe not many people know is that Lella was also an accomplished dancer. “She was wild, she loved dancing boogie and she liked inventing steps. When she had some ideas, she would stop working at the butcher’s shop, cross the street and go to her friend Mirosa, who was a seamstress, and would show her the choreography in the kitchen. If it worked, we rehearsed it together and in the evening, in the ballrooms of the countryside around Alessandria, we had our moment of fame. We were greatly admired and we were very close to each other, so much so that my girlfriend at the time, who later became my wife, was very jealous of Lella!
