The last roar of “Jena” Cambiaghi

In the last days, at the age of 69, the great rally pilot Roberto Cambiaghi has died. He had won the Italian championship in 1975, and he was really bound to Gemonio and Valcuvia

Bobo Cambiaghi, la \"Jena\" dalle sette vite

He was called “La Jena”, and this nickname ended up even in the title of his autobiography, because, during his career, Roberto Cambiaghi had been up to all sorts of things, and in 2014 he decided to write a book about all the experiences of his “nine lives”.

Cambiaghi, at the age of 69, has died (his funeral was celebrated on Saturday 29 of October, in Milan) but he should be remembered for his personal life, which was extremely bound (just like his sporting career) to our province. Cambiaghi was an industrialist in the chemicals sector, he was born in the Regional capital of Lombardy, and he was really bound to Gemonio, where his family has had a mansion with a big garden for years, where “Bobo” had built a motocross racetrack and a kart one.

Motocross and karting were just two of the many activities he was good at, even if the most important adventures of Jena, at least as far as sport is concerned, were about rally.

His great talent, along with a pinch of necessary wildness, led him to win the Italian championship in 1975, driving a 124 Spider Abarth, (he had become the official Fiat pilot) but Cambiaghi, already the previous year, had given a great performance during the European Championship, in which he ended up second, only after the German legend Walter Rohrl.

After leaving behind “the Roaring Seventies” (in which he competed as equals against the great of the period even on the biggest stage), Bobo Cambiaghi made an effort to support rally in the area of Varese, thanks to the collaboration with Valcuvia Corse. He competed on the streets of his country with a 131 Abarth, made by Nocentini, which he helped to test, and he was often a guest talking to amateur pilots about his experiences, and sometimes he was accompanied by his sister Anna, who was herself a good rally pilot, driving the legendary Jolly Club. With Valcuvia Corse he obtained numerous successes, among which the one of Coppa Feraboli of Cremona, where he was helped by a great co-pilot from Laveno, Valerio Arioli.

The great versatility of Cambiaghi did not stop at rally: in addition to his industrial “side”, Jena was also a TV host (Grand Prix, on Italia1 in the early Eighties), great musician (pipe organ and piano), good basketball player (when he was young), an enthusiastic bobsledder and an international bridge champion, but even a golfer and an expert of deep-sea fisheries. A well-rounded man who obtained success even with his rival of that period, thanks to his wit and his conviviality.

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