FEATURED ARTICLE
Remembering Fangio | Juergen Zoellter
Juan Manuel Fangio, considered by many to be the greatest driver in history, remains a national hero in his beloved Argentina. On the occasion of what would have been Fangio’s 100th birthday, the humble people of his hometown, Balcarce, remembered.
By Juergen Zoellter
Photography by Markus Bolsinger
“Juan Manuel Fangio was a hero, a giant his entire life!” With wild gestures, sculptor Carlos Regazzoni explained the assemblage of metal he had created for a monument to honor the five-time grand prix world champion. The metal sculpture, built from 331 plow blades, replicates, in a size much larger than the original, the Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrow (Silberpfeil) W196. And this is supposed to honor Fangio?
Many of the friends of the legendary race-car driver, who won the Formula One Grand Prix World Driver’s Championships in 1951, ’54, ’55, ’56 and ’57 for Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari and Maserati respectively, are appalled by the sculpture. Many think Regazzoni, an internationally known and respected artist, is crazy. Some even think he is tarnishing the memory of the famous son of Balcarce. Regazzoni is unfazed. The plow-blade sculpture is what ties the internationally known Fangio to the scrape-and-scrabble agricultural life around Balcarce.
“Fangio hails from this godforsaken place,” he thundered, and pointed to the city of Balcarce, where the plow blades are from. “My creation is as energetic as Fangio was!”
On June 24, 2011, Juan Manuel Fangio would have turned 100 years old. And on that day, Regazzoni unveiled his tribute to Fangio in front of several hundred celebrants. The Fangio sculpture is installed on a 60-meter (196.85-foot) piece of “racetrack” built specifically for this purpose. It lies close to Highway 226 heading to Mar Del Plata. “Fangio is triumphantly ignoring the chicane,” Regazzoni explained as he interpreted the stance of his iron car sculpture. “Fangio was more significant than any car racer during his time and any since. That is what my monument will live up to.”
The dedication was part of a ceremony organized by the president of the Fangio Foundation, Antonio Mandiola. Politicians from the state and the community were invited, as well as friends and artists. First, the attendees visited Fangio’s grave in Balcarce, and then they listened to the music of a military band and watched a brief parade. The “official” part of the day ended at the Museo del Automovilismo Juan M. Fangio (Fangio Automobile Museum) that was built to honor the hero of Balcarce.
Fangio’s close circle of friends met later with family members about 18km (11 miles) outside of Balcarce. Taking a dusty back road off Provincial Route 55, they reached El Casco, also known as “Casa de Fangio,” the guesthouse of the Fangio Foundation, which offers guestrooms, a spa and a restaurant in a parklike setting. Here, among friends, the familiar people of Balcarce remembered their hero and enjoyed Argentinean barbeque, just like Fangio enjoyed it. The recollections continued, and the night turned into day. They toasted and argued about Regazzoni’s sculpture once again, and the last few left in the early morning hours, just like it always had been. “Fangio,” recalled 80-year-old Ali Musa, his closest friend from the early years, “was always one of the last to go. And he seldom left a party alone.” Musa grinned slyly and allowed himself one more remark before departing. “Sometimes people appear here who bear a strong resemblance to him.”
Life with FangioIn contrast to Fagio’s renowned speed, the pace of life is slow in Balcarce. Most of the 40,000 citizens work in agriculture but meet in town occasionally to eat at the Fangio Sport Café across from the Fangio Museum. Pedro Pasquele, the town barber, is never in short supply of Fangio stories. Pasquele was Fangio’s barber and has a picture hanging over his mirror to prove it. “One day, Fangio brought me a razor from Germany,” he recalled. “I still use it today!”
When strolling through the streets of Balcarce with open eyes, one will experience Fangio’s hometown as an open-air museum of a bygone era, a time when Fangio brought people together through the power of his personality and showed them a future outside of Balcarce’s boundaries.
Fangio recruited almost exclusively workers from his hometown and allowed them to share his fame. Rafael Radogna worked in Fangio’s younger brother Toto’s auto-mechanic shop. They prepared Fangio’s race cars, like his winning Chevrolet TC from 1939. Radogna still tunes everything from old Fords to farm tractors. “People even come from Mar Del Plata to bring me their vehicles,” he said proudly. Fangio, the son of Italian immigrants, went to Escuela No. 1 until the 6th grade in 1924. Primary-school students are still being taught there. Vice Principal Mabel Montes de Oca opens a timeworn class register and finds Fangio’s first day of school documented in handwritten ink nearly a century old. Today, an annual visit to the Fangio Museum is a required part of the curriculum. Every Balcarce child grows up with his legend and knows Fangio’s various cars. Not surprisingly, every boy wants to become a race driver.
At the town’s edge in the direction of Mar Del Plata, 73-year-old Tulio Crespi still builds race cars for private race teams. Fangio was often here, giving advice and encouraging Crespi to build race cars approved for normal roads. Crespi created the Tulietta GT on a Renault 4 chassis, in addition to nearly 1,000 race cars. His latest creation is the “Campo Mavil,” a mini pickup with a hydraulic engine for agriculture. The first customer was the Casa de Fangio guesthouse.
Crespi recalled that Fangio often came into his workshop just for small talk. But while Crespi was working on his cars, Fangio would secretly study the plans for the various race cars under construction.
And then there is Eduardo Crovetto. He was sponsored by Fangio and raced cars between 1972 and 1981 in the Formula 2 and 3 championships. He earned his first money, though, as Fangio’s personal chauffeur – that is, when Fangio would let him drive. “When he got into his Mercedes 300SL,” remembered Crovetto, “he usually got in behind the steering wheel. He chauffeured me more than I did him! He just liked driving, that’s all. And if I needed a car for my personal use, he would lend me his blue Mercedes.”
There is no one in Balcarce who does not live with the Fangio history. Each street, each building breathes the spirit of the famous son who became a national and international hero. The whole of Argentina knows his stories and anecdotes. Fangio’s popularity comes as no surprise to notary Lily De Benedetti, who shared a relationship with the world champion. She immediately broke into tears when she opened her door in Buenos Aires. “You are here because of Fangio? Then come in.”
De Benedetti met Fangio in 1986 when Fangio was 75. “It was love at first sight,” she said as she took another tissue. De Benedetti was a companion to Fangio until his death in 1995. She was the bridge between Fangio’s worlds, the provincial Balcarce and the international places of his fame. She knew politicians and stars, even introducing Fangio to the Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti.
De Benedetti talked about her drives with Fangio from Buenos Aires to Balcarce. Fangio always drove very fast, mostly in his Mercedes. Once, at night, a truck without any rear lights appeared suddenly in front of Fangio’s car. Fangio was moving much too fast to brake, and he could not overtake the truck on the left because of opposing traffic. So Fangio took the only chance to prevent an accident. He turned the steering wheel to the right, pushed the throttle, and overtook the truck on the right, leaving the pavement in the process. He pushed the car hard through the brush, overtook the truck and turned back onto the pavement. “I didn’t breathe for minutes,” De Benedetti said. But both survived.
Preserving Fangio’s LegacySince Fangio’s death at the age of 84, until the 100th-birthday celebration, life in Balcarce has stayed relatively calm in the wake of its famous son, who had no known descendants. But the seeds of Fangio’s legacy are beginning to grow as a result of the Fangio Foundation and its president, Antonio Mandiola. With the help of Bridgestone, Pirelli, Continental, TAG Heuer and especially Daimler and Mercedes-Benz, the foundation is not only conserving Fangio history but also helping to stir up creative ideas for growth. It is hoped that new business ideas based on the Fangio legend will open Balcarce to investors and tourists. The sculptor Regazzoni may be at the right place at the right time, regardless of how people view his work. His Fangio monument at the gateway of Balcarce may be the perfect symbol for this reawakening.
Max-Gerrit von Pein, retired from Mercedes-Benz, was not born in Balcarce, but because he recognized Fangio’s brilliance early on, he is an adopted son of the Fangio community. Von Pein is a German who has been the face of classic Mercedes-Benz cars for decades and is most responsible for the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. As honorary president of the Fangio Foundation, he works tirelessly alongside Mandiola to separate the truths from the myths about the “best car racer of all time.” Balcarce, Von Pein believes, as the hometown of the national hero, should finally benefit from Fangio’s fame, the goal that Fangio himself once envisioned. As such, the Fangio Foundation has become the licensing agent for the Fangio brand.
This has meant Fangio-branded gasoline, a Fangio-branded hotel next to the racetrack Autodromo Juan Manuel Fangio, and a Fangio-branded coffeehouse chain with three cafés so far. Streets and a technical school are named after Fangio. One shop even sells pastry in the shape of Fangio’s helmet.
Unfortunately, Fangio gas stations, operated by government-owned Repsol, have disappeared. Now it is uncertain whether the Fangio Hotel at the racetrack, a projected multimillion dollar project, can still be financed. The road to “Fangio town,” however, is assured; the name of the 220-mile (350 km) highway between Buenos Aires and the beach resort Mar del Plata is now named Autovia Juan Manuel Fangio. Each year 3.3 million Argentineans drive the Fangio road.
From Mar del Plata, it is a short drive to Balcarce. Someday, if one wants to stay at the Fangio Hotel, simply make a left turn at the sculpture made of plow blades.
Juan Manuel Fangio is still revered the world over for his racing prowess and will be forever honored and remembered. But for the people of Balcarce, the Fangio they remember most fondly is the man who lived with them, befriended them and who, for more than eight shining decades, made a common town and its citizens uncommon.
Read more about Remembering Fangio | Volume 51 No. 3
