In occasion of the forthcoming Trofeo delle Industrie at South Garda Karting next October 26-28, an interesting exhibit will be on show in Lonato about Ayrton Senna’s karting past. The DAP #17 kart used by the Brazilian and photographic material on the initial stages of his career will be the icing on the cake of this exhibit.

The exhibit has been set up thanks to Angelo Parrilla, co-founder of DAP with his brother Achille, who spotted the talent of the demised Brazilian Champion in the early days of his career, with the contribution of Massimo Beacco, who has set up the stand to tell all fans about the period Ayrton Senna spent in karting.

This is how the itinerant exhibit “Angelo Parrilla tells about Ayrton” was born, with its unpublished images. “I am really proud of this”, Parrilla tells us, “they were incredible years back then, amazing, full of passion and dedication to work by Ayrton. Sometimes it was really impossible to meet his requests”. Alongside images, Angelo Parrilla conceded the presence of the kart used by the Brazilian Champion.

Ayrton Senna became a DAP official driver in 1978 after a test held in Parma with the Parrilla brothers, in which he turned out to be quicker than the DAP official driver and World Champion Terry Fullerton. Ayrton Senna never managed to win a World Championship, despite getting close to it often, like in 1979 when he lost out the title to team mate Peter Koene when the qualifying result was used as tie breaker. Senna tried to get the title from 1980 to 1982. In Belgium 1980 he was put off track at the start, but managed to climb back up to P2 nevertheless, as the victory went to Peter De Bruyn. In 1981, he came fourth in Parma due to competitiveness issues and the victory went to Mike Wilson. In Sweden 1982, during his final presence at the World Championship, Senna had a troubled start in qualifying but managed to climb all the way back up to the top, but an incident relegated him eventually to P14. Mike Wilson won the title for the second time in a row, before winning four more World titles in the following years. When Senna become an appreciated Formula 1 driver he often reminded of the importance of karting in the training of a driver: “Karts have been my best school”.