Motorsports Mondial

 Motorsport Diaries

With Leonardo Dantas Bertella. The Sao Paulo native is a long time listener and member of F1 Weekly global familia. He is a ‘techie’ who works for a large US corporation. He was kind enough to take me to the Interlagos circuit, which is named after Jose Carlos Pace. “Moco”, as he was known, was teammate to “Lole”, the other Carlos (Reutemann) at Bernie Ecclestone-owned Brabham. 

Pace was also a Sao Paulo native and was a school friend of Wilson Fittipaldi. In 1975, he would score his only F1 victory in his hometown over fellow Paulista, Emerson Fittipaldi.

Two years later, Pace was killed in a plane crash in the hills near Sao Paulo. Also killed was his longtime friend and racer Marivaldo Fenandes.

The Interlagos track is conveniently located from downtown Sao Paulo and was the scene of the epic world championship decider in 2008 between another local hero, Felipe Massa, and Lewis Hamilton.

Turn one at Interlagos. This is a steep downhill left hand turn. On the day of our trip a local motor cycle event was taking place. The limited runoff area to the right made me think of Michael Andretti’s vicious opening lap coming together with Gerhard Berger in the 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Miss Raissa. Leonardo’s lady friend. A mighty fine example of Brazilian beauty. She is a native of Minas Gerais state, which also produced Pelé and Cristiano da Matta. Miss Raissa is pursuing career in PR and event management.

My sincere thanks to Miss Raissa and Senor Leonardo for a great time in Sao Paulo.

Moi is hoping to make another Lat Am excursion late next year.

Time will tell.

And TAM will take me there.

— Nasir Hameed