Leo Cella

Lancia Fulvia, Leo Cella's rally car from 1965

Leo Cella (born October 1, 1938 in Rimini , † February 17, 1968 in Balocco ) was an Italian motorcycle , rally and car racing driver .

Career

First steps in motorsport

Leo Cella began his motorsport career in 1957 as a motorcycle racer . At the age of 21 he competed in the Italian road championship as a works driver for Aermacchi from 1959 . In 1961 he switched to automobile racing. The first racing car he drove was an Abarth 700 Bialbero , and it won its class in the Italian GT Championship in 1961. In the same year he drove his first rally near his hometown Sanremo in a Volkswagen. In the following years he showed a great fondness for this rally , which he won twice, in 1965 and 1966.

In 1962 Leo Cella drove an Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ in hill climbs and circuit races and won the Chamrousse Grenoble hill climb in France. The following year he races for Lancia Corse with Franco Patria , another young and promising Italian driver. The two made their debut at the Rallye dei Fiori. Later in the season they shared a Lancia Flaminia Zagato and finished 11th overall in the Targa Florio . The duo also competed in the first edition of the European Touring Car Championship , with Cella winning in its class and placing 9th overall. In Italy he now drove a Lancia Flaminia GT. Leo Cella won the title in the 2500cc class in the 1963 Italian GT Championship.

1964

In 1964 he also drove a Cooper T72 in races for the Italian Formula 3 championship . His greatest success was second place at the Lotteria Grand Prix in Monza behind Giacomo Russo . A serious accident during the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps in July 1964, the same run in which his Lancia team-mate Piero Frescobaldi lost his life, forced him to bed for several days. This eventually turned into a longer convalescence until the end of the year.

1965

The season began with Cella's first big win at the San Remo Rally in a Lancia Fulvia 2C, with Sergio Gamenara as co-driver. Then he competed as a factory driver for Abarth in sports and touring car races. In the 1964 sports car world championship , he celebrated a class win at the Targa Florio together with Hans Herrmann in an Abarth 1600 Spyder and finished sixth in the overall standings. Then came second at the Bozen-Mendel hill climb in an Abarth-Simca 2000 GT , behind his team-mate Herbert Demetz . In the same car, Cella won the Garessio-San Bernardo hill climb , a lap in the Italian hill climb championship. In the touring car championship he was fourth overall in Division 1 with a Fiat-Abarth 1000TC and a race win in Zolder .

1966

In the 1966 season, Celle celebrated further international successes in circuit races. In sports car races he drove for the Abarth works team and for Lancia Corse, and in June at the 24 Hours of Le Mans he came 9th overall and won the class on a works - Alpine A210 in the 1300 cc class. But he continued to favor rallying and became a prominent rally driver in Italy in the new Lancia Fulvia HF 1300. In 1966, Cella finished fifth in the overall standings with Lombardini as a co-driver at the Monte Carlo Rally . He then won the Rallye dei Fiori, the Spain Rally and the San Martino di Castrozza Rally (with co-driver Romano Ramoino), came second in the Sardinia Rally and second in the Tri-City Rally Munich-Vienna-Budapest.

1967

In 1967 Cella drove sports car races again and achieved 14th place in the 12-hour race in Sebring with Sandro Munari and Claudio Maglioli in a Lancia Fulvia HF. In May 1967 Leo Cella reached in his career best result in the World Sportscar Championship, second overall in the 51th Targa Florio, together with Giampiero Biscaldi on a plant - Porsche 910 . After this great success, Scuderia Ferrari wanted to sign him for the Le Mans 24 Hours, but he refused to sign the contract because he did not yet feel ready to drive such a large prototype. He drove a factory Alpine again (with Frenchman Philippe Vidal as co-driver), but was unable to finish the race in the sixth hour due to an oil pressure problem.

The 1967 season ended with fifth place overall in the Tour de Corse .

Death in Balocco

The season began with the Monte Carlo Rally, in which Leo Cella drove with a new young co-driver, Alcide Paganelli. Luciano Lombardini found his place again next to Sandro Munari . During the transfer from Athens to Montecarlo, her Lancia Fulvia HF had a traffic accident near Skopje in Macedonia and Lombardini died at the scene of the accident. Cella was deeply affected by Lombardini's death, but nevertheless took part in the rally. While in the lead, his young navigator made a serious mistake on a special stage, which cost him victory.

After the Monte Carlo Rally, he concentrated on his new role as a works driver for the Autodelta- Alfa Romeo team with a view to the World Sports Car Championship. His first assignment as an Alfa Romeo driver was in the Daytona 24-hour race . Cella drove an Alfa Romeo GTA 1600 with Teodoro Zeccoli and Giampiero Biscaldi as co-drivers, and achieved 20th place overall.

Back in Italy, Leo Cella did test drives in an Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 in Balocco, near Milan, in preparation for the 12 Hours of Sebring in March 1968. During the test, he fell off the track and died on impact with one Barrier.

After Cella's fatal accident, the Balocco route was closed for a while by the Italian authorities.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1966	Société des Automobiles Alpine	Alpine A210	Henri Grandsire	9th place and class win
1967	Société des Automobiles Alpine	Alpine A210	Philippe Vidal	failure	no oil pressure

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1967	HF Squadra	Lancia Fulvia HF	Claudio Maglioli	Sandro Munari	Rank 14

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1963	Leo Cella	Lancia Flaminia Lancia Flavia	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
						11				21st												10
1964	Lancia Leo Cella	Lancia Flavia	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
					DNF				DNF
1965	Abarth	Abarth-Simca 1300 Bialbero Abarth 1600 OT Abarth-Simca 2000 Fiat-Abarth 1000	DAY	SEB	BOL	MON	MON	RTT	TAR	SPA	ONLY	MUG	ROS	LEM	REI	BOZ	FRE	CCE	OVI	ONLY	BRI	BRI
					9	DNF			6th		DNF		9			2	11		27	9
1966	Abarth Lancia Alpine	Abarth 1300 OT Lancia Fulvia Alpine A210	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
					DNF	11		15th	9	27
1967	Lancia Porsche Alpine	Lancia Fulvia Porsche 910 Alpine A210 Porsche 906	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
				14th			2		DNF		5
1968	Autodelta	Alfa Romeo GTA	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	ONLY	SPA	WAT	ZEL	LEM
			20th

Web links

Commons : Leo Cella  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Cella's entry at motorsportmemorial.org (English)
• Leo Cella at Racing Sports Cars