Torino's Nürburgring anecdotes: pilots who escaped at night and a "cart" between Fangio and Berta

This month is half a century since three Torino and a national team of drivers and mechanics will surprise the world of motor racing. The 84 hours of the Nürburgring 1969 they showed that, with effort and dedication, the country could be well on the slopes.

This team was led not less than by Juan Manuel Fangio and Oreste Berta, and while the only car that ended the difficult competition was sanctioned and relegated to fourth place overall, the goal has been achieved. The country has lived with euphoria.

Since yesterday and until Sunday in Alta Gracia, province of Córdoba, there are several tributes to those who were part of this adventure that, among his pilots, had Rubén Luis Di Palma, Oscar "Cacho" Fangio, Carmelo Galbato (Torino number 1), Gastón Perkins, Eduardo Rodríguez Canedo and Jorge Cupeiro (Torino number 2), Eduardo Copello, Oscar "Cacho" Franco and Alberto "Larry" Rodríguez Larreta (Torino number 3).

The competition was tough and full of complicationsbut in the days before, there was funny anecdotes. Some of them Berta recounted in his autobiography Engines, cars and dreamsand here we revive two that involve the big Fangiowhich was as fast as off track.

Berta emphasizes that one day Fangio, always attentive to the importance of the physical condition of the pilotsHe said worried that he believed that some escaped at night. "A tired pilot makes macanas," repeated the Quintuple.

On suspicion, the magician from Alta Gracia began to watch them carefully and after dinner did a visit of the rooms. "I came back to rebadure him that he was wrong, that they were play the guitar and sing in the room of Gastón Perkins "wrote.

But at breakfast, Eduardo Rodríguez Canedo the next morning he missed a word that betrayed him: "Big". Berta account: "In the disco of the region, which we visited during one of our previous trips, the dancer was a very pretty German girl but really huge"

So, both have corroborated that pilots have come outand it is Fangio himself who has taken steps to ensure that this is not repeated.

The second anecdote is even more unthinkable than the first and that's when Fangio suggested to Berta to check which of the two was faster in a return to the German circuit. "At 31, maybe at some point the ego that young people have I thought I could run it and I finally accepted it ", writes the magician.

A few minutes ago, Berta had convinced Fangio to try the Torino for his opinion. They were together in the car and the Nürburgring Professor – Quintuple – accelerated seriously. However, before finishing the tour, he stopped so that nobody could time it and compare it with that of the pilots. In this detention, he proposed the "duel" to his friend.

Which cars would run? In the boxes there were some Opel six cylinders that Berta can no longer remember the pretext (it should not have been difficult for Fangio). To hide, they were separated and they met after the second curve.

Textual Berta: "I followed him very closely. I have tried several times to pbad it but I have not been able to. Arriving at the famous Karussel, I made a bad maneuver and it took me a few meters. Then we arrived at a sector with three very fast curves, one of which could not be done thoroughly, then I hesitated and it took me a little further. We are entering the last part of our tour in depth and now I had taken another small".

The venue agreed to end the chopped Before reaching the stands, it was a bridge to logically avoid being seen doing such a madness. The magician remembers it like this: "I stopped by his side and approached his car. I will not forget what he said:Little brother, you're going fast, but you're not Fangio yet!& # 39; ".