Attilio Bettega was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 rally

Rallying

Rallying, also known as rally racing, is a form of auto racing that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars...

 driver.

Bettega was born in Molveno

Molveno

Molveno is a comune in Trentino in the northern Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 15 km northwest of Trento...

, Trentino. In 1982

1982 World Rally Championship season

The 1982 World Rally Championship season was the tenth season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile World Rally Championship . The season consisted of 12 rallies. By this time, the schedule format had become generally stable, with only one or two changes to venues year to year...

, he joined the Lancia

Lancia

Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian automobile manufacturer founded in 1906 by Vincenzo Lancia and which became part of the Fiat Group in 1969. The company has a long history of producing distinctive cars and also has a strong rally heritage. Some modern Lancias are seen as presenting a more...

 squad driving the Lancia 037

Lancia 037

The Lancia Rally 037 was a mid-engine rally car built by Lancia in the early 1980s purely for the FIA Group B World Rally Championship. Driven by Markku Alén, Attilio Bettega, and Walter Röhrl, the car won Lancia the manufacturers' world championship in the 1983 season...

 after some years with Fiat

Fiat

FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...

. In his Lancia years he gained four podium finishes in rallies counting towards the World Rally Championship

World Rally Championship

The World Rally Championship is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's world championship and manufacturer's world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 13...

. His last podium was also his best one, driving his Lancia to second place at the 1984 Rallye Sanremo

Rallye Sanremo

Rallye Sanremo is a rally competition held in Sanremo, Italy. Except for the 1995 event, the event was part of the FIA World Rally Championship schedule from the 1973 season to the 2003 season. Currently, it is a round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge and the Italian national rally...

. In the 1985 season

1985 World Rally Championship season

The 1985 World Rally Championship season was the 13th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile World Rally Championship . The season consisted of 12 rallies following the same schedule as the previous season. Peugeot Sport's Timo Salonen beat Audi Sport's Stig Blomqvist and Walter...

, he entered the Safari Rally

Safari Rally

The Safari Rally is considered by many to be the world's toughest rally. It was first held from 27 May to 1 June 1953 as the East African Coronation Safari in Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika, as a celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II...

 and the Tour de Corse

Tour de Corse

The Tour de Corse - Rallye de France is a rally first held in 1956 on the island of Corsica. It was part of the World Rally Championship from the inaugural 1973 season to 2008. The name "Tour de Corse" refers to the fact that in the early days it was run around the island; nowadays it only features...

. In Corsica, on the fourth stage

Special stage (rallying)

Special stages are the competitive sections of a stage rally event where the goal is to cover a stretch of closed road in the shortest time. On a special stage cars are set off individually at set intervals to reduce the chances of being impeded by other competitors. Each special stage is a...

 of the rally - Zerubia, Bettega lost control over his Lancia and crashed into a tree which simply ruptured into the driver's seat and killed him instantly. His co-driver Maurizio Perissinot

Maurizio Perissinot

Maurizio Perissinot was an Italian rally co-driver, mainly for Attilio Bettega.He survived the tragic accident at the 1985 Tour de Corse which claimed the life of Bettega....

 survived the crash uninjured.

Bettega's accident pressured the safety aspects of Group B

Group B

Group B was a set of regulations introduced in 1982 for competition vehicles in sportscar racing and rallying regulated by the FIA. The Group B regulations fostered some of the quickest, most powerful and sophisticated rally cars ever built. However, a series of major accidents, some fatal, were...

 cars. Exactly one year later his former teammate Henri Toivonen

Henri Toivonen

Henri Pauli Toivonen was a Finnish rally driver born in Jyväskylä, the home of Rally Finland. His father, Pauli Toivonen, was the 1968 European Rally Champion for Porsche and his brother, Harri Toivonen, became a professional circuit racer.Toivonen's first World Rally Championship victory came...

 died in a fireball accident at the same event, causing a ban for Group B

Group B

Group B was a set of regulations introduced in 1982 for competition vehicles in sportscar racing and rallying regulated by the FIA. The Group B regulations fostered some of the quickest, most powerful and sophisticated rally cars ever built. However, a series of major accidents, some fatal, were...

.

Bettega's son, Alessandro Bettega has followed his father's footsteps and is also a rally driver.