Lella Lombardi

Bio by Stephen Lahtamq

Climbing out of her car after the shortened 1975 Spanish GP, Lella Lombardi was classified in sixth place but it would go down in history as the only time a woman has scored points in a Championship event.

Born during the War in the village of Frugarolo, near Turin, Italy, on the 26th March 1941 it was surprising Lella became a race driver as no one in the family was interested in the sport, nor even drove on public roads, as the fastest vehicle they owned was a ten-speed bicycle. An all-around sportswoman, it was said her interest in cars was only formed after she broke her nose while playing in the local handball team. After the match she was waiting at a bus stop with her nose buried in a handkerchief when a car driven by the opponent who injured her pulled up and drove her to hospital. Despite her injury Lella watched the girl’s driving with fascination and a passion for driving was formed. She began to learn to drive and once she obtained her driving license she bought a run down Fiat with her savings and would drive around in it for fun. One day Lella met a young man, who happened to be a race driver, and she eventually started helping him, being in charge of the tires, changing the spark plugs and timing his laps. On one occasion she teamed in a rally as his co-driver and persuaded him to change places for the next event but when she appeared at it, the other drivers’s attitudes angered her and channeling it into her driving she promptly won her debut race!

Lella began climbing up the motor sport ladder and raced in Formula Monza in 1965 and by 1968 was racing in Italian F3, ending the season as runner-up. During this time she was given the chance to drive a works Alfa Romeo in the Italian Touring Car Championship and though early results were modest, she finished third at a round at Palermo and in 1970 was third in a GTA in the Coppa Piemonte at Monza. 1970 also saw her in the Italian Formula 850 series where she won four of the ten races on her way to claiming the championship and she achieved another two wins in 1971. In 1972 she was paired with Giorgio Francia for the Monza 4 Hours and was twelfth in a Jolly Club Alfa 2000 GTAm, while racing solo in an Abarth 3000 she was eleventh at a 500 Km Interlagos event. Her main racing that year came in Italian F3 and of the nine races with Scuderia Jolly Club Milano’s Lotus 69, after finishing ninth in the first two rounds at Monza and Imola, results included fifth at Imola and Varano, eighth at Monza, eleventh at Misano, twelfth at Varano and sixth in Vallelunga In September.

In F3 in 1973 there were four rounds in Britain and nine in the Italian series with a Brabham BT41, finishing fourth in the first round at Alessandria and another fourth later at Valetta, fifth at Varano, seventh in Misano, eleventh at Vallelunga and twelfth at Alessandria and Monaco. The ShellSPORT Celebrity Series (racing Ford Escort Mexicos) was launched that year and she was invited to compete at Brands Hatch by John Webb. After starting the race from the third row of the grid she went on to win the race and by the time the championship arrived in Monaco in June, she’ had taken three wins out of six races and was Italy’s Ford Escort Mexico Challenge Champion. John Webb arranged a trial with an F5000 team and after a successful test she joined the ShellSPORT Luxembourg squad for 1974’s F5000 Championship, alongside Ian Ashley. She took fourth at Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Monza and Mallory Park, fifth at Snetterton and Oulton Park, sixth at Mugello, Thruxton and Mondello Park and seventh at Zandvoort and Mallory Park with the team’s Lola T330. She was fifth in the Championship standings, behind Bob Evans, Peter Gethin, Ian Ashley and Teddy Pilette. Racing Jolly Club’s T282 in 1974 she was third in an Interserie race at Casale, Italy, and was set to race it in the Brands Hatch 1000km but the car expired during her team-mate Pino Pica’s stint and she did not get to drive. There were two races in SCCA/USAC F5000 in an Eagle 73A and Lola T332 with Mir Racing and travelling down under she had two races in Formula 1 Australia with a Matich and though she qualified fourth she retired from the Australian GP at Oran Park. Her former F5000 teammate Ian Ashley said he was seriously impressed by her as “those were not easy cars to drive-basically a Formula 2 with a big, tall lump stuck in the back-but she got quicker and quicker during the year.” The year also marked her first appearance in F1, with a Brabham for the British GP at Brands Hatch. Unfortunately her car suffered a broken gearbox in the final qualifying session though journalist Pete Lyons wrote “Lella Lombardi drove her BT42-the same chassis with which Pace failed to qualify in France-in a brisk enough, and clean enough, manner to impress people favourably.” At Brands Hatch’s Race of Champions, she entered with a Lola-Chevrolet and finished fourteenth but was not classified. In the same event the following year she qualified with a Ford powered March but was forced to retire after twenty laps.

Lella came back into F1 in 1975 at the wheel of a March, with support from Count Zanon and the Lavazza coffee company, and in the eleven races entered she qualified for every race except Monaco. In qualifying for the South African GP at Kyalami, Lella became only the second female to race in the World Championship (preceded by Maria-Teresa de Filippis) though her car was retired with low fuel pressure. The following race at Montjuic Park, in Spain, saw her make history though she could not have had a harsher environment in which to achieve it. Journalist Pete Lyons described the event “as an unmitigated debacle. Most of the scheduled practice was boycotted by a majority of drivers, who were adamant that the circuit barriers as erected on the round-the-houses circuit were badly assembled. Only a last minute threat by the race organisers to have the entirety of the Formula One equipment impounded by the police induced the drivers to practise in the last session.” Emerson Fittipaldi did the bare legal minimum of practice and refused to start the race while Wilson Fittipaldi and Arturo Merzario retired after completing one token lap. “There was a multiple crash at the first corner involving at least nine cars, and there were other incidents for some 35 minutes, until finally the leading car suffered a structural failure and went over the barrier killing four bystanders.” The race was stopped soon after and half points were awarded to the top six positions. After failing to qualify in Monaco, problems with the cooling and fuel systems saw her retire in Belgium and Sweden though she was fourteenth and eighteenth at Zandvoort and Paul Ricard. There was a retirement at Silverstone due to an ignition fault but Lella was seventh at the German GP at Nurburgring (missing out on a point by one place) and observers said she ran her best race of the year. Her final race in a March that year came saw retirement at Monza as she had switched to a Williams, alongside Jacques Lafitte, for the US GP at Watkins Glen but despite qualifying neither Williams managed to get into the race, with Lella unable to start due to ignition failure on her way to the grid. At Watkins Glen, in her ‘old’ team, Vittorio Brambilla qualified his March 751 sixth though this was after a crash on Friday when his car had been launched into the air, bouncing down nose-first onto the circuit and then spinning violently round into the catch fencing. He climbed out shaken but unhurt and the session temporarily came to a halt. After inspecting the damage back in the paddock, the March mechanics found a local firm of aircraft engineers where they could strip it down to try and have it repaired for the race. They worked for almost 36 hours without a break and were still working on it on race morning but they were rewarded when he got it onto the grid and started the race. Besides the races with March she shared an Ecurie Elf Switzerland entered Alpine A441 with Marie Claude Beaumont though on her debut Le Mans race they retired after 8 hours. They were sixth at Mugello and thirteenth at Dijon, while Monza saw a strong fourth and a class win. Unfortunately, broken rear suspension put them out at Pergusa before the race even started and a camshaft belt drive went early on at Zeltweg.

1976’s opening race came at Interlagos and she brought the March home fourteenth but lost her seat when was replaced by Ronnie Peterson afterwards. She returned with a RAM Racing Brabham for the British, German and Austrian GPs but only finished at the Osterreichring (in twelfth place) and did not qualify at Brands Hatch while the car was impounded at the Nurburgring due to the team being in dispute with a former driver. Despite leaving March she maintained a great relationship with team owner Robin Herd, who spoke highly of her, stating “She wasn’t a publicity seeker. BBC News came to her first test with us at Goodwood and she wanted to know why. That she was a woman was an irrelevancy to Lella. She was a racing driver first and foremost. She was very professional and we enjoyed working with her. Delightful. No trouble.” There were drives in a series of Porsches, starting with Michele di Gioia and Vittorio Bernasconi in a Carrera RSR at Mugello, but its engine failed five laps in. The Silverstone 6 Hours saw her in Egon Evert’s 934 with Heinz Martin and they finished fifth (and first in GT class) and they were joined by Evertz himself at the Nurburgring 1000km though crashed out on lap 29. Contesting several events with an Osella PA4, she and Danilo Tesini retired from the Coppa Florio though were sixteenth at Dijon while racing alone she was fifth in an Interseies race at Nurburgring though retired from the Salzburgring 200 Miles event. A return to Le Mans came in a Aseptogyl entered Lancia Stratos alongside Christine Dacremont and they were second in class and twentieth overall.

1977 was a mixed year driving a variety of machinery including a Lola, Inaltera, Osella and a Porsche. The year started with Christine Beckers in an Inaltera LM at the Daytona 24 Hours, finishing 47th after an accident, and in June they teamed again with the car at Le Mans and were eleventh, her best result there. Three weeks before Le Mans, she entered the Firecracker 400 at Daytona with a Bearfinder Chevrolet. With a grid of 41 drivers, there were three female racers in the field as Christine Beckers and American Janet Guthrie also competed. It was the first time since 1949 that three women had competed in a NASCAR event and J.Guthrie retired with engine failure after 11 laps, C.Beckers had brake problems after 33 laps, while Lella’s race ended on lap 103 when her Chevrolet had rear-end problems. Three races with Kenneth Leim’s Porsche 911 Carrera saw a retirement at Brands Hatch, fourteenth at Hockenheim and fourth at Vallelunga (and victory in GT class) though there were retirements in a Lola T282 at Monza (with Giorgio Pianta) and Vallelunga. Lella was back in an Osella, this time a PA5, with Giovanni Anzeloni for the Coppa Florio and they later finished third at the Imola 250km. In the following year she returned to the World Sportscar Championship with Kenneth Leim in a Porsche 934 though they did not make the start at Mugello and the car did not appear at Vallelunga but were fifteenth at Silverstone while the Nurburgring race ended after a crash. Contesting a number of races in a Fiat 128 Sports Coupe with Carlo Giani, their best results were fourth and eighth at Estoril and Brands Hatch while other cars that year included a Toyota Sprinter Trueno with Thierry Boutsen and Marc Duez in the Spa 24 Hours, an Alfa Romeo GTA with Giovanni Gino Bisio in the Giro d’Italia event and fourth at Salzburgring in an Osella PA6.

Lella was back with K.Leim at Brands Hatch with his 934 in 1979 though the rest of the year saw her in an Osella and it proved to be her most successful season. A single outing in a PA6 at Mugello with G.Francia saw a fourth place though the rest of the season was contested with a PA7. Although Le Mans brought retirement, she took two seconds and two fourth place finishes in Interserie rounds at Wunstorf, Nurburgring, Ulm and Hockenheim, then ninth at Kassel-Calden. A shared drive with G.Francia saw a second place finish at Vallelunga but at Enna-Pergusa with Enrico Grimaldi she became the first woman to win a World Championship race and returning to Vallelunga in September with Francia, she won again, dominating the race and finishing four laps up on the nearest rival. By 1980 Lella was running and driving for her own team, with an Osella PA8, but frustratingly there were retirements in the first four rounds at Brands Hatch, Mugello, Monza and Silverstone and later in the season at Vallelunga and Dijon. She did not finish any of the World Championship rounds she entered, after a mixture of accidents and mechanical problems, with co-drivers Marco Rocca and Vittorio Brambilla but racing alone she had podium finishes at Varano, Magione and Vallelunga. She was teamed with Marianne Hoepfner and Anna Cambiaghi in an Opel Commodore in the Mugello 24 Hours though they did not finish. Returning to Le Mans, she was teamed with Mark Thatcher (the son of the British Prime Minister) though they retired after 157 laps. In a sidenote to their race, while at Le Mans a sponsor invited him to contest a future Paris-Dakar Rally, a gruelling event over a period of nearly three weeks. After agreeing to contest it, accounts vary but it said he then forgot all about it for either 4 months or 18 months and did no preparation for it. But while contesting the event in 1982 he and Anne-Charlotte Verney went missing for six days in the desert and a major search was launched; four Algerian aeroplanes and a helicopter, plus three French aircraft and an RAF Hercules, were involved in the search.

The following year started with Anna Cambiaghi in a Jolly Club Chevrolet Camaro though they retired from their first race at the Monza 4 Hours. But at the next race, the Vallelunga 500km, they finished fifth, with a class win, followed by third at the Donington 500km but though Salzburg saw them start from pole it ended in retirement. It was the same situation at Brno (where they raced the sister car of Luigi Racing) as despite a third grid position they had an engine-related retirement. Lella and Giorgio Francia had a successful final season together in 1981 in a works supported PA9 and this would be her last year with an Osella. There was victory at Mugello, second at Monza and Enna-Pergusa plus fourth and fifth at Silverstone and Brands Hatch while racing it alone she was third and fifth at Magione and Vallelunga plus reverting back to a PA8 took fourth at Pergusa.

Lella then turned to touring car racing, in an association with Alfa Romeo that would continue for the following five seasons and earned many good class positions. She drove in 1982’s European Championship in a Jolly Club Alfetta GTV/6, mostly with Anna Cambiaghi though Antonio Palma was another team-mate for three races. Anna and Lella were fifth at Monza, ninth at Vallelunga, fourth at Donington, seventh at Pergusa, and did not finish again at Brno. They scored class wins at Pergusa and Donington and their performances were enough to give them the Group Two class of the ETCC. Racing alongside Antonio Palma and Marcello Gallo they were twelfth in the Spa 24 Hours plus she teamed with them for the Tourist Trophy. Lella continued with a GTV6 from 1983 until 1985 and highest placings came in the final season, with sixth at Monza and Zeltweg and seventh at Anderstorp with Rinaldo Drovandi. She and Giancarlo Naddeo drove an Alfa Romeo 75 the following year, which proved unreliable to begin with, though driving alongside R.Drovandi and Roberto Castagna in the Spa 24 Hours, Lella managed to bring it home in eighth, by far her best result all year. 1987 saw a number of rounds in the ETTC with a Ford Sierra RS Cosworth for Jolly Club and TRS Racing with Tiziano Serattini and Federico D’Amore, at Donington, Anderstorp, Zolder, Zeltweg and Imola. Top ten finishes were out of her reach and she pulled out of the last round at Nogaro due to illness and hoped to return for the first round of 1988 but was unable to do so.

Unfortunately, ill health plagued Lella towards the end of the 1980s and eventually forced her to retire. She had become aware that she was ill in 1985 but blamed her problems on an injury sustained whilst sailing though her condition deteriorated so quickly that she realised it was not anything minor. She tried to to form her own touring car team in 1989 with the help of Guisy Remondi but her condition reached the point where she was unable to run it. In February 1992, she went into the San Camillo Clinic in Milan where she sadly died of cancer on the 3rd March 1992 at the age of 50, survived by her partner Fiorenza, who had been by her side for much of her career. Lella was buried in the cemetery of her home town.

Like any female drivers she was not particularly conscious of her gender and it was all about the racing. Looking back on her points-scoring race, Lella told the New York Times, “I don’t think it dawned on me that I was the very first woman to collect championship points. Things like that just don’t worry me. I’m just as competitive as any male in my mind..I feel it’s simply a competitive sport…I love motor racing and that’s all I want to do. I’m not terribly conscious of there being a difference between male and female in this sort of thing. The thing I like is the feeling when you pass the checkered flag first. That’s something I don’t have any problems sharing with my male colleagues.” On one occasion she was asked in a press conference how she was coping with such a heavy car, to which she replied, “I don’t have to carry it, I just have to drive it.” Angela Webb, a race promoter who knew Lella, said of her that “he was charming but stubborn and independent and a tremendously careful road driver. I went with her from Snetterton to Norwich once: 30mph all the way. Painful. People were staring and peeping. She didn’t care.” Her friends remember her fondly as someone humble who enjoyed her life and Guisy Remondi told Motorsport Magazine “She would often speak of sacrifices. She wasn’t rich and, with no sponsors to begin with, she slept in her truck to save money. She worked hard to get what she wanted…On her deathbed she asked us to continue the team to preserve what she had achieved. We miss her passion, determination and modesty.”