Motorsport Memorial -

Geki Russo

Complete name: Giacomo Russo (a.k.a. "Geki")

Birth date: 23.Oct.1937

Birth Place: Milan, Italy

Death date: 18.Jun.1967

Death Place: Caserta, Italy

Nationality: Italy

Gender: male

Age at death: 29

Event date: 18.Jun.1967

Series: Campionato Italiano Formula 3 [Italian Formula 3 Championship]

Race: Gran Premio di Caserta - XVIII Coppa d'Oro Pasquale Amato

Event type: race

Country: Italy

Venue: Caserta

Variant: 4.55-kilometer street circuit (1952-1967)

Role: driver

Vehicle type: car

Vehicle sub-type: single seater

Vehicle brand/model: Matra MS5 - Ford

Vehicle number: 26

Notes:

Geki Russo
1937 - 1967

Picture courtesy of Béatrice Russo. Reproduced with permission, all rights reserved.

"Geki" Russo's Biography
by Nanni Dietrich

Giacomo Russo, universally known as Geki Russo, was the son of a wealthy family from Milan. His own dream was to compete in Formula 1 as a professional driver. In a newspaper interview, once he said: "As a child I attended with my father a restaurant in Milan, where also Fangio was sitting for a lunch. I approached him and asked with religious admiration for an autograph..."

He entered his first races under the pseudonym of "Geki" that later became simply his racing name. A very successful, talented driver in the Italian lower formulae, he was always unsurpassable at Monza and soon he became tremendously popular with the Italian crowds. He won three times in a row the Italian Formula Junior Championship for the Scuderia Madunina, in 1961 in a Stanguellini–Fiat, in 1962 in a Lotus 22–Ford and in 1963 in a De Sanctis 63-Ford. Geki Russo finished two times sixth in the prestigious Monaco Formula Junior Grand Prix, in 1962 and 1963. On 18 August 1963 he made his Formula 1 debut, at the wheel of a Lotus 27-Ford in the non-championship Mediterranean Grand Prix at Pergusa - retired on 15th lap.

As his close friend "Tiger" Perdomi, also Geki Russo remained loyal for a number of years to car manufacturer Gino De Sanctis of Rome. In 1964, when the new Formula 3 category was introduced in Italy, he drove a De Sanctis entered by the Scuderia Sorocaima, winning the first race of the season at Monza. He won most of the races and captured the championship, his fourth consecutive title.

After an abortive time with the Abarth Formula 2 car, in the Autumn of 1964 Geki Russo rented from Rob Walker a Formula 1 Brabham BT11-BRM for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, but he failed to qualify. In 1965 he joined team Autodelta-Alfa Romeo, driving the works Alfa Romeo TZ2s in the World Sportscar Championship. He won his class in the 1000 Km of Monza, with Sandro Arcioni and in the 1000 Km of the Nürburgring, with Andrea de Adamich, making his debut in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Carlo Zuccoli as team mate. Geki Russo went on in Formula 3 in 1965, winning races at Monza and Imola in a De Sanctis and at Vallelunga near the end of the season, at the wheel of a Wainer–Ford built in Milan by Wainer Mantovani.

Finally he made the grid in a Formula 1 World Championship event in 1965, driving a third Team Lotus car in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. He qualified 20th in a Lotus 25-Climax but did not finish the race due to gearbox problem on 39th lap. In that event Geki Russo carried an advert on his Lotus by "Salumi Rondanini" that backed his entry. Supposedly this was the first sponsorship sticker which appeared on a Formula 1 car in Europe; before 1968 advertising was prohibited on competition cars unless there was a local rule which permitted it, as it happened in Italy. The same salami manufacturer make, "Salumi Rondanini" at the time was the main sponsor of "Tiger"'s De Sanctis Formula 3 car.

In 1965 Geki Russo and "Tiger" raced together in the Rally Jolly Hotels-Giro d'Italia, driving two Citroën DS19s, finishing respectively 14th and 15th in the touring-car class, with Corrado Manfredini and Matteo Cormio as co-drivers.

The following year in the European Touring Car Championship, Geki Russo was second with Enrico Pinto in the 4 Hours of Monza, in a factory Alfa Romeo GTA, behind team mates Teodoro Zeccoli-Andrea de Adamich, winners of the race. He won his class in the 12 Hours of Sebring, sharing an Alfa Romeo TZ2 with Gaston Andrey, and in the Targa Florio he was 13th with Zeccoli. After retiring with mechanical trouble in 1965, Geki’s third Formula 1 attempt finally resulted in a creditable ninth place in the 1966 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, five laps behind the winning Lodovico Scarfiotti's Ferrari.

As a member of the Alfa Romeo-Autodelta works team, Geki Russo was one of the drivers of the four new 2-litre Alfa Romeo T33 sportscars entered in the 1967 Targa Florio. He shared the #200 car with Nino Todaro, the other crews being #172 Andrea de Adamich-Jean Rolland; #190 Jo Bonnier-Giancarlo Baghetti; #192 Nanni Galli-Ignazio Giunti. All the 8-cylinder new Alfa Romeo cars proved to be very fast on the Madonie circuit but no one of them finished the race. Geki Russo’s co-driver Todaro crashed on eighth lap.

Besides racing for Alfa Romeo’s works sportscar team, in 1967 Geki Russo at the age of 30 returned to the Italian Formula 3 Championship. Once again at the wheel of a De Sanctis, he scored an outright win in the first round of the series at Monza, and a second place at Vallelunga behind Jürg Dubler's Brabham BT21-Ford. In May of 1967 Russo acquired a Matra MS5–Ford in which he made his debut at Imola. He achieved an astonishing second place, a tenth of a second behind the winner Andrea de Adamich in a Bellasi’s Ippocampo – Ford. Then he obtained a third and a fourth place in two races at Monza and did not finish the next event at San Piero a Sieve road circuit. The Caserta Grand Prix was scheduled to be contested just one week later .

Geki Russo, aged 29, was survived by his wife and their two daughters, Daniela, 2 and Béatrice, six-month-old.

The 1967 Caserta Grand Prix

The Caserta Grand Prix was held on Sunday, 18 June 1967 over a somewhat triangular street course near the Reggia of Caserta, the largest building erected in Europe in the 18th Century. The event was marred by the organizer's complete lack of concern for security. A number of accidents occurred during the race, resulting in the deaths of three men.

What really happened at Caserta is still quite controversial. There were no eyewitnesses, the precise circumstances of the accidents are still unclear, since the part of the track in which they happened was surrounded by wall, buildings and trees, covering the view from distance. But it is likely that all began when two vehicles collided each other in the first laps of the final race.

Silvio Moser in a Brabham BT18-Ford had won the first heat, Ernesto Brambilla, universally known as Tino, in a Birel-Ford, the second. On seventh lap of the final, the Brabhams of backmarkers Andrea Saltari and Beat Fehr touched wheels near the end of the Via Domenico Mondo straight, just as it led into a blind right-hander, in a section of the circuit where stone walls on each side of the road impose a severe limit on visibility. The car of the Swiss newcomer Fehr was thrown into the air, crashing against the railway’s wall on the left side. It bounced, landing on its wheels in the middle of the track. Both cars were damaged, but neither driver was hurt. Franco Foresti in a Lotus 32-Ford was the first driver who arrived at full speed, slid on the oil patch and hit a kerb ending into a pole. Worried about the dangerous situation, Fehr managed to get off his car and leaped out onto the track in an attempt to slow down the oncoming drivers.

Shortly later Geki Russo arrived, running in third position, close behind the leaders Brambilla and Antonio Maglione. He lost control of his Matra MS5–Ford, presumably the car had a punctured tyre, and crashed into the wrecks partially blocking the road. Russo ploughed into a concrete wall on the right side. He was thrown out of the car, being killed upon impact, his body lying on the roadside. The car was broken in two and caught fire.

Waving in the middle of the track, Beat Fehr was knocked down by the next group of racers, including Corrado Manfredini’s Brabham, Clay Regazzoni’s Tecno, "Tiger"'s De Sanctis, Massimo Natili’s Bianchini, Manfred Mohr's Brabham and others, tangled amidst a cloud of smoke and debris. Also Jürg Dubler’s Brabham BT21-Ford was involved and he went off the road, trying to avoid the wreckage, flying over another car and crashing into a pole, several meters off the ground. Dubler suffered injuries but survived the accident.

The unfortunate Beat Fehr died shortly later, during the transport to Caserta hospital. Different accounts report that he had been struck by Russo's car, this has not yet been confirmed.

Chaos took place at the circuit when several people, soldiers on duty at the track, marshals and spectators invaded the place of accident, trying to help. One of the drivers, reportedly Dubler, had a call by public telephone with the organizers for ambulances and rescue equipment; about twenty minutes later the local fire brigade reached the scene.

In the general confusion that followed Romano Perdomi, who raced under pseudonym "Tiger", lost control of his De Sanctis–Ford and crashed head-on into a concrete pole, suffering serious legs and internal injuries. He was trapped in the wreckage for about half an hour, speaking with his rescuers which equipment was inadequate to extricate him from his battered car. He was eventually removed by his own mechanics who carried the equipment from their pit, some distance away, and was taken to Caserta hospital. The news that the condition of the patient was improving were reported in the following days by newspapers but, having difficulty breathing, he was soon transferred to the intensive care unit of Naples hospital. Unfortunately "Tiger" succumbed to his injuries a week later, on Monday, 26 June 1967.

The organizers didn't stop the race immediately but only after four laps the marshals signaled with a red flag the only four competitors who were still running, Ernesto Brambilla in a Birel-Ford, Antonio Maglione in a De Sanctis–Ford, Enzo Corti in a BWA–Ford and Massimo Natili in a Bianchini-Ford. It was Natili who walked to the pits to inform the race director about the multiple pile-up.

This was a tragic race. Several drivers were injured, three of them lost their lives, others had miraculous escapes, eleven cars were destroyed along a 300 meters stretch of the course. A number of famous pictures of a twisted pile of tubes stuffed into the wall laying atop two other racers were published by newspaper and magazines. Possibly this unfortunate event marked the beginning of the end of an era, in which European Formula 3 racers were involved in titanic battles on unprotected circuits. Within a few weeks, in addition to Caserta tragedy, two other fatalities occurred in Formula 3 events: Bo Pittard died on 04 June 1967 after steering his blazing car to a safe position at Monza; Tim Cash lost his life after hitting a wall at Montes Claros road course in Monsanto, near Lisbon, Portugal, on 30 July 1967.

The 1967 Italian Formula 3 Championship was cancelled in tribute to Geki Russo, who was leading the series when he lost his life. Before the final round at Vallelunga, both Maurizio Montagnani and Brambilla who followed Russo in the championship standings, could became the Italian Champion by winning the race. Ernesto Brambilla in a Tecno-Ford dominated the race, but was forced into a withdraw due to mechanical failure, with nine laps to go, and Francesco Ghezzi astonishingly won in a Lotus-Ford. Maurizio Montagnani finished fourth at Vallelunga in a Brabham-Ford, and was first in points, behind deceased Geki, but he was not declared the champion.

Sources:

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