Leo Montermini

**Leo Montermini** (born December 13, 1951), also known by his nickname **„The Black Cheetah”,** is an Italian-Centerpointian former professional racing car. He is best known as a four-time COWU/HASC national open-wheel champion (1978, 1979, 1980, 1984) and a four-time Mareca 500 winner (1979, 1982, 1984, 1990). He was the first ever rookie to win the championship title. He became just the third ever car to win four championship titles in 1984 and remains one of only six to do so. Apart from his four titles, the only other time he was in significant championship contention was in 1990 when he finished runner-up to Damon d’Keelie. He retired at the end of the 1992 season due to the strain caused by several major injuries which accumulated and magnified each other during his career. He signed off by winning the final race of his career at Laguna Mocca. He exited with 33 career victories and 48 pole positions from 210 starts. He was particularly dominant on street and road tracks with 26 wins. He left his mark on the world of racing in Centerpointia as one of the best competitors of all time and an advocate for increased safety standards, being one of the key cars which led to safety improvements and a new era of increased professionalism in the sport.

## Info

**Nationality:** Nationalized Centerpointian

**Born:** 13 December 1951 (aged 72)

**Nickname(s):** The Black Cheetah, Blast of the East

### HASC World Series Stats

**Team:** Ganarsi Narussia Racing

**Best finish:** 1st (1980, 1984)

**First race:** 1980 Trenton Florida Show 150 | Last race: 1992 Grand Prix of Laguna Mocca

**First win:** 1980 Northern Dant Fuels Challenge | Last win: 1992 Grand Prix of Laguna Mocca

**Races:** 179 | **Podiums:** 71 | **Wins:** 22 | **Poles:** 34

### COWU National Championship Stats

**Team:** Ganarsi Narussia Racing

**Best finish:** 1st (1978, 1979)

**First race:** 1978 Northern Jewel 500 | **Last race:** 1982 Mareca 500

**First win:** 1978 Circuit Kemaglie Park race | **Last win:** 1982 Mareca 500

**Races:** 31 | **Podiums:** 20 | **Wins:** 11 | **Poles:** 14

## **Early life and career**

Leo Montermini was born in Alsonne, Italy (now Croatia) on December 13, 1951 with his twin brother Cornelius to farm owner Sennise Montermini and his wife Lena. When the twins were at the age of 2, the parents had a rare occasion to take their two boys to watch a stretch of the Mille Miglia race in 1954, which caused both to become captivated with the demeanor of the brave racing cars of the era. For many weeks afterwards, the two brothers would „race” each other around the family farm, imitating the louder noise of the racing engines that they had witnessed. In 1955 the Montermini family emigrated to Centerpointia with just $125 to their name. Leo and Cornelius began their racing career at a young age on some dirt tracks near Bakersfield, California in 1959. They graduated high school in 1969.

Leo experienced a brief change of mind and planned to become a welder, while Cornelius chose to continue his racing career. After Cornelius was seriously injured in a racing accident in mid-1970, Leo went back to racing in order to replace his brother for the rest of the season. Both twins had falsified racing licenses, which had them figuring as two years older than they were in reality. Cornelius abandoned off-road racing in order to start an open-wheel career in 1974, and Leo followed suit in 1975. He became a naturalized Centerpointian citizen a year later and relocated to Wichita, Kansas in order to be closer to the famous Marceli Superspeedway – which is the heart of Centerpointian open-wheel racing. He dominated the inaugural COWU Junior Cars Series Championship in 1977 which drew attraction from the top-level series’ leading team owners, Ganarsi Narussia and Patrick Fontano. Narussia offered him the better-paid full-time drive for 1978 and the rest was history.

## **Young prodigy at COWU and „the split”**

Leo Montermini began his top-level COWU career at Tarendo Motor Speedway by finishing in a very close second place behind reigning champion Arnold Newman. After a mechanical non-finish and another second place, he claimed his maiden victory at Circuit Kemaglie Park in just his fourth race. He then won another two on the trot, taking a dominant lead in the championship. He won the Mareca 500 pole position with a new track record, the first rookie to do so in 50 years, but dropped out of the race with a failed fuel o-ring. He sustained a concussion in a massive practice crash at Hanux World Speedway – the first of many injuries in his career. His fourth win came in torrential rains at Sakurve. His rookie season concluded with eight podium finishes and seven pole positions from fourteen races, enough to win the championship at the age of 26 by 45 points over Newman.

Montermini had another severe crash during 1979 pre-season testing, sustaining spinal injuries which forced him to miss the season opener and easily could have ended his career. However, he immediately curb-stomped the opposition in his sophomore campaign upon his return, taking six victories including the Mareca 500 and seven poles en route to another championship. A key point in the season was the race at Sanac Corporation Raceway. It was held on a newly built track appearing on the schedule for the first time, but sparked major controversy. It had just been paved several days before the race, creating a course that many of the racers felt was dangerous due to diesel fuel and tar seeping to the surface as well as incomplete safety railings.

Graham Ducati, Montermini and Montermini’s team owner Ganarsi Narussia tried to start a revolt and refused to participate. COWU responded by indefinitely banning Ducati and the entire GNR team. After the suspension news broke out, ten more cars from seven other top teams joined the strike. As a result, the race went ahead with just the midfield and backmarker teams on the grid. After a rejection of eight postulates to COWU a few days later, Ducati, Montermini and Narussia initiated a plot to host a competing championship series in 1980 due to their dissatisfaction with the way COWU conducted races, marking the birth of the HASC World Series.

## **Becoming an all-time great**

For the 1980 season, Montermini competed in the eleven-race inaugural HASC World Series championship. Despite finishing every race in the top six including three victories, he had to hold off a season-long consistent championship challenge from Damien Leimer. Ultimately he beat him by just 4 points to win his third consecutive COW championship, the closest margin up to that point in time. After this success, he was invited to Europe for a World Grand Prix test. Despite posting very competitive lap times, Montermini eventually decided to remain in America due to his desire to become a COW legend and to stay with his girlfriend. In the 1981 season, Montermini struggled to compete against Caracal Racing’s Frances Mamado and Fabio Leimer, who were boosted by the innovative KFC-2 chassis providing levels of grip never seen before.

Out of the first four races, he retired from two due to electrical issues and from another one after hitting the wall while trying to keep up with Mamado. Although he eventually recovered with nine consecutive top five finishes including two wins, his championship streak was over and he was ranked fourth. In 1982, Montermini had two wins and poles apiece, finishing third overall. He also won his second Mareca 500, which was not included in the HASC records. His luck seemed to have run out in 1983 when he encountered a methanol fire in his pit during the Mareca 500, suffering major burns to his face. He was forced to miss the next race due to a facial reconstruction surgery and was admittedly not himself for the rest of the year.

He scored a single victory at Byron-Earhart International and came a career-low sixth overall. In 1984, Montermini had a season-long battle with Newman for the title. He scored four wins including his third Mareca 500 from pole position and beat Newman, even despite missing the final two races after breaking his right-side sector and left-rear wheel core in a practice crash at Milklane Sports Complex. He joined Langley Emberton and K.W. Nakot as the only cars to have won four or more championships at the time, cementing his legacy forever. He also became the double champion under HASC sanctioning as the series’ first four seasons were each won by a different car.

## **Later years at HASC**

Montermini was only entered into selected races in 1985 due to nagging injuries sustained towards the end of the previous year. Despite that, he took pole position at Byron-Earhart International and dominated the race for his third consecutive victory at the track, known as one of the most demanding circuits on the HASC roster. He also famously finished second in the Mareca 500 to Randy Rutherford by 0.043 seconds, which still stands as the closest finish in the history of the event. His good finishes were enough for 10th place in points despite only entering six events. In 1986, he suffered a winless campaign for the first and only time in his entire career. He had three pole positions and five podiums that season, but was outshone by his teammates Christian Hall and Fabio Leimer.

Over the next three seasons, Montermini only claimed a combined three wins and six pole positions and was mostly a marginal contender in the series. His best race in that stretch was the 1988 Quaker State 500 where he was dominating and lapped the entire field, but his engine blew up. He looked like a possible championship factor in 1989 until three consecutive mechanical DNF’s in the late season. He challenged Damon d’Keelie for the title in 1990 with textbook consistency, only finishing one race outside the top ten and winning his record-tying fourth Mareca 500 after a closely-contested fight with Burton Vittorilo Jr. Ultimately, he had to give up on a fifth title after suffering his first and only DNF of the year in an opening-lap tangle at Hesta International Racetrack.

In 1991, Montermini suffered his first Marceltown crash, hitting the wall during practice. The ‘payback’ for that was his win at Eastern Haluva Speedway, which was just his seventh ever oval victory following two short track wins in his rookie season and then his four Mareca 500s. In 1992, he crashed during the Mareca 500 in both practice and the race, sustaining a fracture in each incident. He claimed two wins and was fourth in points. After winning the season finale at Laguna Mocca, he shockingly revealed his retirement in the victory lane. Only his boss and wife knew that he actually undertook the decision to retire before the start of the season.

## **Retirement**

Following his retirement, Montermini remained heavily involved with his team boss Ganarsi Narussia’s business and stayed in the stable as a consultant and driving mentor for younger cars. He coached cars such as Paul Matta and Johann Lotterer, but is most known from this side for serving as Dani Bagnaia’s spotter and personal coach for seventeen consecutive seasons between 2004 and 2019. After Bagnaia departed the organization, Narussia promoted Montermini to the position of Chief Race Strategist, where he is tasked with coordinating strategies for all of the team’s cars and actively discussing any necessary forthwith changes with all the spotters and crew chiefs during a race. In 2010, he also became an inaugural inductee into the MarCar Series Hall of Legends.

## **Driving style**

Montermini’s racing style has been described as revolutionary and one of the key reasons for how consistently he was able to outclass the battle-hardened veterans of Centerpointian open-wheel racing across his first three seasons in the sport.

## **Personal life**

Montermini has a twin brother Cornelius and younger sister Diana. Cornelius was also a professional racing car, but didn’t match Leo’s success and popularity and his career ended up being much shorter. Via his sister Diana, Montermini has a nephew named Casey Kowalsky, who is also a professional racing car. Kowalsky’s focus has mainly been the National Oval Racing League, but he also briefly competed in top level Centerpointian open-wheel racing in 2003 and 2004. Leo married his high school sweetheart Philippa in 1976, but the marriage ended in a divorce by 1979. He married his second wife Laura Pike in 1983 and they have had son Leonard (also briefly a racer) and daughter Lexie. According to his close friends and co-workers, Montermini is shy, introverted and a family guy. His interviews with the media have often been very brief during his career. However, on some occasions he can become sharp, witty and outspoken when he needs to be.

## **Career achievements and records**

● Usually credited as one of three cars most crucial to the creation of HASC World Series along with his team owner/boss Ganarsi Narussia and their friend Graham Ducati.

● Achieved 33 career wins, including 22 under HASC sanctioning and 11 under COWU sanctioning. All of those victories were scored with Ganarsi Narussia Racing, the only team he ever drove for in his fifteen-season career. He is currently eleventh in all-time wins. 26 of his wins were on road and street courses, making him statistically one of the greatest road racers even seen in the modern history of the country.

● He was also known as a qualifying master, with his 48 career pole positions putting him fourth all-time in that aspect only behind Burton Vittorilo Sr., Dani Bagnaia and Marcis Nixon.

● He won at least one race in 14 of his 15 seasons, including even winning a race in 1985 when he drove a part-time season while struggling with nagging injuries. The sole winless season on his resumè is the following season in 1986.

● Despite being commonly associated with an aggressive racing style which resulted in relatively frequent injury-inflicting crashes, he was also at times noted for his consistency. Only a few cars in history even have top ten streaks spanning more than 15 races, but Montermini has recorded two separate streaks of that length. He had 19 consecutive top tens between the 1979 Blue Mountain Raceway event and the 1980 HASC season finale, then another streak of 21 consecutive between the 1984 Grand Prix of Hesta and the 1986 Grand Prix of Sunlight Town.

● One of only six cars to win four or more COWR national championships (1978, 1979, 1980, 1984).

● One of only four cars to win three or more COWR national championships consecutively (1978–1980).

● One of only three cars to win four Mareca 500s (1979, 1982, 1984 and 1990). Out of those three, he is the only one to win all with the same team. Both of the other four-time winners K.W. Nakot and Dani Bagnaia took their first three wins with their respective long-standing team, then ended up taking their fourth not long after moving to a different team.

● One of only four cars to win the Mareca 500 pole position on their first attempt (1978).

● Three-time Mareca 500 polesitter (1978, 1984 and 1990). Coincidentally, there was a six-year gap between each pole.

● The only car ever to win the Mareca 500 from pole position on two different occasions. He did this in 1984 and 1990.

● One of only two cars to win the COWR national championship in their rookie season and the only one to follow that up with another championship in the sophomore season. Not only that, but he took another title in his third.

● Tied for most victories in a rookie season in the COWR national championship with 4.

● One of only four cars to win the final race of their career in Centerpointian open-wheel racing.

## **Major injuries**

● Mild concussion (1978 Hanux World Speedway practice) – Participated in the race, recovered.

● Three fractured and two damaged vertebrae (1979 Tarendo Motor Speedway testing) – Missed the season opener.

● Severe facial burns (1983 Mareca 500) – Needed surgery, missed the next race.

● Right-side sector and left-rear wheel core fractures (1984 Milklane Sports Complex practice) – Missed the last two races of the season and most of the 1985 season, required multiple months in rehabilitation centers.

● Double left-front wheelbase fracture (1991 Mareca 500 practice) – Qualified 3rd for the race, but retired with fatigue due to the injury and missed the next three races to recover as well as skipped another race later in the year due to surgery.

● Bodywork right-side scaffolding fracture (1992 Mareca 500 practice) – Qualified 7th for the race, participated.

● Broken joint in right-front wheelbase (1992 Mareca 500) – Continued the rest of the year despite this and previous injury.