GT Cup Open Europe – Monza Eni Circuit 11/13 OCTOBER 2019

For the Tecno Montecarlo “Nanni Galli” Ecoracing, with an  Alfa Romeo V8 (LPG) engine, the debut took place on the Monza race track on occasion of the “GT Cup Open Europe 2019”.

Driven by Fulvio Maria Ballabio, the Team Principal of Alfa Racing Club – the racing team based in Monte Carlo, partner of the Scuderia del Portello – and by David Fumanelli, a nephew of the unforgettable Engineer Carlo Chiti, historical technical director of Autodelta – Alfa Romeo, the car went on the race track in the actual days in which Nanni Galli passed away. Nanni Galli was a very important driver known worldwide and he won several times, also at the “Temple of Speed”, with Alfa Romeo cars as well as with cars of other brands in the Tourism, GT, prototypes, sport, Formula 2 and Formula 1 races.

He was one of the best drivers in the Seventies with the sport and the formel cars and died at 79, after a long disease. He was driver and test driver for Alfa Romeo since the times of the first prototypes, such as the Tipo 33/2 “Periscopica”; he raced during a GP d’Italia with a McLaren Alfa Romeo; he was the one who replaced Clay Regazzoni in Formula 1, when Regazzoni had the accident with a Ferrari at the Gran Premio in France.

Fulvio Maria Ballabio dedicated him the Tecno Montecarlo Ecoracing with which Nanni Galli should have raced in the alternative energies championship before the disease. After making the decision, in order to show the mourning, to withdraw the car from the race, the last week end in Monza David Fumanelli covered just the first lap with a special farewell from the track to the family of the great driver.

At the end of the race, the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza awarded Nanni Galli with the lifetime achievement prize; the trophy was given by the Director General Pietro Benvenuti  to the driver, and Nanni Galli’s friend, Tino Brambilla, in the presence of Fulvio Maria Ballabio, Peo Consonni, Alfredo Filippone and David Fumanelli.

Scuderia del Portello gave its “Trofeo Campioni Alfa Romeo” to Nanni Galli several times; the last one was in 2017 at the Scuderia’s hospitality stand in Imola, on occasion of the Historic Minardi Day, in the presence of other Alfa Romeo great drivers such as Teodoro Zeccoli, a teammate of his, who passed away after a short time, too.

www.scuderiadelportello.org

PHOTOS:

1 – Balocco test track, 1967: Nanni Galli, Ignazio Giunti and Spartaco Dini test the Tipo 33/2 “Periscopica”.

2 – Imola, Historic Minardi Day 2017: Scuderia del Portello celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Tipo 33/2 which won in Fléron; the President Marco Cajani gives the “Trofeo Campioni Alfa Romeo” to Teodoro Zeccoli, Nanni Galli and Alessandro Nannini (in the photo, with other driver members of the Scuderia).

3,4 – The Team Alfa Racing Club – Scuderia del Portello and the car dedicated to Nanni Galli, the Tecno Montecarlo Ecoracing: the moment of the commemoration at the pits in Monza during the race of the GT Cup Open Europe.

5 – Nanni Galli on the Alfa Romeo 33/2 “Periscopica” at the 1000 KM of the Nürburgring, 1967.