His name was Luca Persiani, the Roman tourist who died in a car accident in Abruzzo while on vacation. The 40-year-old man, originally from Albano Laziale, had been a Formula 3000 driver. In the past, he had raced in series such as International Formula Master and Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. After hours of work, his body was recovered this morning by the firefighters of Sulmona and by volunteers from the alpine and speleological rescue teams. Luca Persiani was driving a jeep and was on an excursion with a friend when, after making a wrong maneuver, he fell into a ravine on Monte Genzana at night, on the path connecting the Piano delle Cinque Miglia with Frattura, a fraction of Scanno.
After the excursion, where he had gone to enjoy the sunset, he was supposed to depart for the United States where he worked. The victim, as reconstructed, was accompanied by a 27-year-old woman also from Albano Laziale when they encountered a very slippery stretch of road due to the rain. Thus, Luca Persiani, an experienced driver, made the passenger get out and attempted a complex maneuver to return to the path.
However, the Jeep could not hold, and it plunged approximately six hundred meters down a ravine, resulting in the man’s death. The recovery operations, due to the bad weather, were only concluded this morning while the removal of the vehicle is still ongoing.
Upon hearing the news, many in the motorsport community went into mourning. The 40-year-old Roman had started his journey in single-seaters in 2003 in the Renault 1.6 with the Target team, followed by a series of podiums achieved in the following year and a switch to Cram in 2005, participating in the World Series Renault championship in 2005 before moving to Formula 3000.
According to his Instagram profile, Persiani, after being a driver, became a driving performance analyst, analyzing driving performances to improve the quality of races, with recent collaboration with Sky Tempesta Racing. He loved sports and adrenaline, from the Spartan Race to surfing.