Carlos Pairetti with the helmet he wore, orange like his famous car.
Carlo Alberto Pairetti, Argentine motorsport idol who shone in the 1960s, was hospitalized in an intensive care unit in the city of Arrecifes in Buenos Aires due to respiratory failure that caused a cardiac arrhythmia. His relatives reported it.
The 86-year-old former driver of Turismo Carretera was transferred to the Municipal Hospital of Arrecifes, where it was discovered that he suffers from “a bilateral pneumonia“, so the doctors decided to leave him hospitalized.
“It got complicated, has had an arrhythmia and is in intensive care. Therefore, he will not be able to attend the 85th anniversary celebration of the TC which will be held this Monday in Buenos Aires, “a person from the former corridor told the Télam news agency.
Carlos Pairetti and his nephew Santino.
The family of the one who became TC champion in the 1968 season (with the famous Chevrolet nicknamed orange thunder) ruled out the possibility that the patient was “transferred to a more complex center for treatment”.
Pairetti, winner of 22 races in his career at TC, is originally from the municipality of Clucellas, in Santa Fe, but settled in Arrecifes, where he grew up and was part of a motorsport “brotherhood of champions” linked to that country. , with representatives of the stature of José Froilán González, Luis Rubén Di Palma, Carlos Marincovich, Néstor Jesús García Veiga, Norberto Fontana and Agustín Canapino, among others.
Tribute to Carlos Pairetti, 60 years after his TC debut
“Homage must be paid in life,” Pairetti said on March 24, 2022, one day before celebrating the 60 years since its debut in Turismo Carretera.
Pairetti was recognized in his hometown, Clucellas, whose main avenue now bears his name and surnameas well as the section of the Provincial Road 13 between Las Rosas and Rafaela.
In turn, in the temple of speed, the Rafaela racetrack, the Athletic Club Board of Directors inaugurated a mural of “Il Matto” (El Loco) in homage to his participation in the 1971 “300 Indy”, in which the pilot it was measured with the axes of North American motorsport and closed with an historic 12th place.
The famous Orange Thunder by Carlos Pairetti.
Last year, the Deliberative Council of Reefs resolved “unanimously” to declare “Distinguished Citizens“to the famous” Poker of Aces “, composed of Pairetti, Carlos Marincovich (recently deceased), Néstor García Veiga and post mortem to Ruben Luis Di Palma.
Pairetti, who will turn 87 on 17 October, he recalled clearly and precisely the day of his TC debutMarch 25, 1962. He passed his mother’s house in Arrecifes with the engine of his Chevrolet coupé “running” and she asked him to run “slowly” so as not to be “risky”.
“It was raining, it’s not a good thing for a rookie, but the beauty is that before leaving, none other than Juan Gálvez (nine-time TC champion) came up and I couldn’t believe it”, got excited at that time.
Carlos Pairetti with the book Clarín TC, in 2004. Clarín archive photo.
And he said, “He wished me luck and gave me advice: ‘Be careful that this car is very fast, be careful, it’s your first race, drizzle, be careful ‘”.
On the last lap, when he had already lost the lead, he suffered a delay due to a broken hose, which left him in tenth place, however meritorious, in a race that was assigned to Santiago Luján and Jorge Saigós.
With information from Telam.
Source: Clarin
