This is a beautiful story that connects Modena to Zolder. And the common thread is Gilles Villeneuve, or rather Alessandro Rasponi, the Italian artist who had created a bust of the Canadian champion that had been placed in 2003 at the Enzo Ferrari Park in the city of the Ghirlandina.
The bronze statue was stolen from its base in 2012 along with four other works dedicated to Tazio Nuvolari, Vittorio Stanguellini, Juan Manuel Fangio, and Eugenio Castellotti, which had been placed in the immediate vicinity of the entrances to Via Emilia Est and Viale Autodromo.
The stolen goods were never found, but the effigy of Gilles was remade and placed back in the Enzo Ferrari Park. Alessandro Rasponi had kept a copy that he decided to give to the Zolder racetrack this year, where former Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve lost his life on May 8, 1982, in the qualifying accident after the tragic incident with Jochen Mass’ March.
Giulio Giulietti, president of the Ferrari Club in Genk, worked to get in touch with the enthusiastic director of the circuit, Harry Steegmans, who was immediately willing to place the monument at the Terlaemen corner after a delegation of Ferrari fans had paid tribute to the Canadian driver’s memory last year on the 40th anniversary of his tragic death.
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One year later, the delegation returned to the Flemish circuit to discover the bust of Gilles in the presence of an emotional Alessandro Rasponi. At 6 pm on May 8th, a moving ceremony began that unites the tragic Zolder with Modena in the memory of one of the Ferrari drivers who has remained in the hearts of the fans the most, eternalizing a legend that is not at all affected by the passage of time.
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