Racing season 1982
The 1982 World Championship of Inboard Racing R°° class was assigned again to Italy and organized by MAC (Motonautica Associazione Cremona) in collaboration with CMC (Circolo Motonautico Cremonese).
After twelve years, a World Championship reserved for large unlimited racers returns to Cremona on the waters of the Po (in 1970 the 7-liter APBA was held).
If on that occasion only Italian pilots lined up, now we can at least boast the presence of two Swiss competitors, the same ones already seen in the 1981 edition of the Campionese world championship. The Italians are also the same with only one variation consisting of Claudio "Popo" Giovio who replaces Eugenio Molinari, still convalescing after a very serious injury suffered in his shipyard.
The forecasts are practically unanimous and include Tullio Abbate and the reigning champion Giuseppe Todeschini as favorites, underestimating Carlo Bodega who instead will be one of the protagonists. Giovio, for the occasion, uses in the race the former hull of Abbate who almost won the title the previous year at Campione d'Italia, while Bodega uses his Molinari catamaran, both powered by a 11,059 cc Chevrolet Biturbo
. Monstrous, it is right to say, the new catamaran of Tullio Abbate that is brought to the debut by the same builder. The complex is powered by an interesting Holman Moody of 7,982 cc that it seems was intended for the late Ferrari champion, Gilles Villeneuve, for his 36-foot monohull, also from the Abbate shipyard.
Giuseppe Todeschini re-presents the winning R.Molinari catamaran, no longer powered by the Mercruiser but by a new BPM 8,200 cc that however lacks, compared to the Chevrolets, about 200 / 250 HP. The other Italian Giovanni Cima, fresh winner of the Raid Pavia-Venezia, also re-proposes his old three-point Timossi-BPM while the Swiss Paul Hoffmann and Joseph Ulrich, with their Herzog and Molivio powered by BPM, play a supporting role.
The championship, which takes place on a three-kilometer track to be covered eight times for each of the four heats, sees Giovio win the first leg with a minimum advantage of two seconds and three tenths over Bodega, Cima is third, while Todeschini abandons due to mechanical problems. Tullio Abbate retires shortly after the start due to a broken water pump pulley. This inconvenience puts an end to his umpteenth world championship in the R°°; a race that for him seems to be "jinxed".
In the second heat the finishing order is reversed with Bodega ahead of Giovio, Todeschini (who rejoined the race) and Cima.
The third race was thrilling, with Bodega leading for six laps ahead of Giovio; however, during the seventh lap, Bodega was forced to go wide during the maneuver to overtake the "non-existent" Swiss pilots, ending up giving Giovio the advantage and he, like an "old fox", took the lead of the race.
Bodega, in an attempt to regain the lead, accelerated violently, but suddenly found himself looking at the sky as his red catamaran reared up dramatically. Fortunately, he fell back into position, but in the rather violent impact with the water the pilot suffered a severe contusion to the chest that forced him to retire.
In the meantime, Giovio, who won the heat, was disqualified for cutting the course and gave the victory to Todeschini. The last decisive heat began amidst a thousand controversies, which also saw the return of the injured Carlo Bodega. Both these and Giovio, however, in the heat of the moment, find themselves demoted for early departure and hand over on a silver platter the second consecutive world title to the incredulous Todeschini.
At the end of the race the aftermath of the controversy does not subside: Giovio decides to lodge a complaint with the Federation and at first the Sole Judge seems to agree with him by awarding him the championship. Subsequently, however, the counter-complaint by Todeschini is accepted and by appealing he definitively returns "owner" of the title.
Stefano Signoretti's International Titles
From Cremona we move on to Casale Monferrato where the Continental Championship of the Inboard Corsa R3 2000 cc class is being held.
With last season's star drivers absent, namely Renato Molinari, the reigning champion, Francesco Manfredini and Alcide Ballotta, the Italian "clan" counterposes the limited foreign participation, consisting only of the Swede Roland Paulsson, the drivers: Stefano Signoretti, Roberto Savioli, Claudio Marsi, Giulio Ricci and Virgilio Molinari.
Signoretti, Savioli and Marsi have new catamarans from the Renato Molinari shipyard, the first with Evinrude engines, the others with Mercury, while Ricci and Virgilio Molinari line up with the traditional three-points.
For Savioli and Marsi, pilots who have experience in the Inboard Sport and TVN (Turismo Veloce Nazionale) classes, this is a debut in the R3, as is Signoretti who has good results in the Off-Shore (European and Italian Champion in the OP.2 class between 1974 and 1979) and is practically unfamiliar with the In-shore field.
Those who maintain that an Off-Shore pilot is uncomfortable driving a fast circuit catamaran, such as the R3, are immediately proven wrong. Signoretti demonstrates his skill by winning the opening heat of the championship ahead of Ricci, Virgilio Molinari, Savioli and Marsi and repeating in the second with Marsi, Molinari and Ricci following.
In the third race Signoretti wants to control the situation, trying to accumulate those points necessary to mathematically win the title and not return to the water in the last fraction. He doesn't take any risks, he ranks second and leaves the victory to Savioli: behind their catamarans we find the indomitable three-pointers Molinari and Ricci.
Savioli also wins the fourth heat, with Molinari, Ricci and Paulsson closing. Thanks to two successes and a second place, Stefano Signoretti is the new European Champion of the R3 2000 cc. In second place in the final classification we find in order Roberto Savioli, Virgilio Molinari, Giulio Ricci, Claudio Marsi and Roland Paulsson.
Also for the R3 class, on the waters of the Mar Piccolo of Taranto, the World Championship is being held. Stefano Signoretti confirms his good moment by winning this title after the Continental, equalling the same results obtained in 1981 by his "great master" Renato Molinari.
Unlike the European, this is a hard-fought victory for Signoretti as in the sum of the four heats he finds himself tied in the standings with Alcide Ballotta having obtained, like the latter, two first and two second places. He wins thanks to the best performance on the lap.
Ballotta, who returns to racing on this occasion, does not use his tested Molinari-BMW catamaran, but the one kindly lent to him by Manfredini.
The third final place in the standings by Giulio Ricci is surprising, being the only competitor in the running with a racer, while the other members of the Italian team, Savioli and Marsi are not lucky, especially Marsi who is the protagonist of a spectacular looping which fortunately ended without any physical consequences.
Also interesting is the presence of the German Michael Werner, World Champion of Formula 2 outboard motorsport (FONDA Trophy) who shows up in Taranto with the then brand new Clerici-Mercury catamaran, owned by the manufacturer himself. Franco Clerici, who had debuted with this vessel a week earlier by winning the 100 km Po cross-country race in Cremona in record time, thought (also thanks to the R1 World Title he had just won) that he would be called up to the national team. However, being excluded, he decides to entrust the vessel to a champion like Werner (the only foreigner in the race) who can seriously aspire to victory.
He proves to be very fast in testing, but in the race, after having taken the lead in the first heat, he probably asks too much of the engine which suddenly goes silent. Unfortunately, the failure is irreparable and the championship is definitively compromised.
After the international races of the Entrobordo Corsa R3 it is right to point out that in 1982 the Entrobordo Sport S3 2000 cc World Championship is also taking place in Nora, Sweden. This is a class that we have totally abandoned, but that the Bergamo driver Giulio Crippa is about to tackle with the three-point forward-drive C & B Corse; a Mercury-powered complex, already used in 1981 by the same driver in the R3 which in this circumstance is sized as an S3. Even though, on paper, the Italian driver's vessel is the fastest of the entire group of participants, the Swedish trip does not prove to be a winning one. Crippa is second behind the Volvo Penta-powered catamaran of the local driver Roland Paulsson.
Returning to the racing classes and specifically to the R1 1000 cc, it must be said that the supremacy of the pilots who have catamarans is becoming increasingly clear over those who continue to compete with the three-pointers (two new ones can be seen from the Clerici shipyard in addition to the one previously seen from the Gardin shipyard and used by Maurizio Selva).
The World Laurel of Franco Clerici
Franco Clerici dominates the world championship of this category in Lignano, also arousing the interest of the sports daily newspaper par excellence, the "pink" Gazzetta dello Sport which, always attentive to motorboating events, reports the news the following day in this way: "On the Tagliamento in Lignano, in front of 40,000 spectators, the Italian Franco Clerici, 48 years old from Cremona, has been crowned World Champion of the 1000 cc Inboard Racing".
The Italian team that faces the British team (the only foreign team present), sees, in addition to Clerici, Pier Luigi Brigada, also on a Clerici catamaran powered by Selva, Maurizio Selva with his aforementioned Gardin, while both the 1981 European Champion Franco Cantando and the Italian Champion Angelo Palazzi present their three-pointers Lucini and Frigerio powered respectively by Speed Car and Hillman.
The English team faces Len Moore (R1 world speed record holder with 177.088 km/h), Andy Chesman (multiple R1 World Champion), the holder of the national title Nigel Billon and Gavin Sigmey, all competing on boats from the Noone shipyard powered by Hillman.
The forecast seems to be oriented towards the three catamarans of Clerici, Brigada and Selva but for the latter the championship starts in the worst possible way as he retires in the first heat due to a broken exhaust pipe and is downgraded for an early start in the second. It was also a bad day for Brigada, who was immediately knocked out in the first heat by the broken foot of his Selva engine.
Clerici, the only one of the three with a reliable machine, managed to keep Len Moore and Nigel Bilton in his wake and put a serious mortgage on the title by winning the first two heats with this same order of arrival.
In the third race Maurizio Selva redeemed himself and preceded Clerici, who however, by virtue of the points acquired, was enough to win the world title with one race to spare. Also noteworthy was Moore's overturning in a turn, who fortunately escaped without any physical consequences.
The last leg saw Selva take off in first position and remain there until a few hundred metres from the finish line, when Clerici with a splendid recovery came alongside him and overtook him, taking victory in this heat too.
Clerici's joy at winning the World Title, which seals a career spanning more than twenty years (to tell the truth, more as a constructor than as a driver), contrasts with Selva's disappointment, whose only reason for satisfaction is the fastest lap of the championship, obtained during the first heat with an average of 138.461 km/h.
Unfortunately, there is little to say about the other Italians in the race (Cantando and Palazzi), the technical gap between their three-pointers and the catamarans is too obvious.
Staying in the R1 class, in the Italian Championship, Pier Luigi Brigada's "revenge", after the unfortunate world championship, is recorded, who wins the title fighting with Clerici and Selva.
In the other inboard class, the R3N 2000 cc, victory goes to Virgilio Molinari, who gets the better of the more highly rated Muggiati, Roberto, Ricci and Telaio.
Cross-country races
In the 42nd Raid Pavia-Venezia, after several participations, Giovanni Cima finds a great day and wins at the wheel of his old three-point Timossi-BPM 8200 cc class R°°, achieving a respectable time (2h 30' 54"-152.286 Km/h average) but not exceptional if compared to the vehicle he has at his disposal. Cima completes the success by also winning the prestigious Coppa d'Oro Theo Rossi di Montelera having covered the Pontelagoscuro-Voltagrimana stretch at an average speed of 157.195 Km/h.
Also noteworthy is the good performance of Giulio Ricci who, driving a racer from the Lucini and Frigerio shipyard with an Alfa Romeo 2000 cc engine, comes in second less than 22 seconds behind Cima.
The 33rd edition of the Centomiglia del Lario saw the third success (two of which were consecutive) of Giuseppe Todeschini who, with his tried and tested Molinari-Mercruiser catamaran, also set a new race record with 145.421 km/h. On the other hand, the two pilots of the Abbate Team were unlucky: Claudio Giovio was forced to abandon due to the failure of a turbine on his Chevrolet after having been in the lead and Tullio Abbate who had to give up already in the warm-up phase before the start due to the failure of a connecting rod on the American Ghel Bons engine.
The diesel class record of Carlo Bonomi
In 1982, surprisingly, the former Off-Shore World Champion Carlo Campanini Bonomi returned to the news of motorboating by declaring that he wanted to attack the world speed record for diesel boats held by the constructor pilot Fabio Buzzi.
Bonomi is convinced that he can exceed 200 km/h and become, in the history of diesel, the first driver to achieve this goal.
Surprisingly, however, to succeed in the enterprise, he decides to contact Buzzi, through his friend Cesare Fiorio (Sports Director of Lancia Rally and former Sports Director of the Off-Shore Martini Racing team with which Bonomi, between 1973-1975 won two OP.1 class World Titles), trying to convince him to give up a new personal record attempt (which was already in the pipeline) and at the same time to entrust him with his hull.
Fiorio reminds Buzzi that Bonomi was the victim of a serious accident while testing a circuit catamaran, sustaining permanent injuries to a leg, such as to preclude him from continuing to compete in Off-Shore. The engineer from Annone Brianza is not enthusiastic about the idea that a customer could beat his prestigious record, but since we are talking about Bonomi in this case, the problem does not arise.
Although Buzzi was linked to VM, in this case he opted for an Isotta Fraschini engine, on the strict advice of engineer Brighigna, CEO of both brands. The decision was made because the industrial group wanted to combine the possible record with the relaunch of this glorious brand that had been in serious difficulty for some time.
Initially, the company was leaning towards the famous 6-cylinder in-line ID 32. However, Buzzi and Romeo Ferraris considered this engine rather dated and not up to the task, so the choice rightly fell on the latest addition, marked by the acronym ID 38: a 6-cylinder V-engine of 9800 cc designed to power the tanks produced by Oto Melara.
At this point, Bonomi's mediation was necessary to definitively impose the presence of the preparer Romeo Ferraris on the staff, who in a short time completely developed the two engines purchased and made them even more powerful.
In his shipyard Buzzi creates a hull of larger dimensions than the previous one; the new three-pointer is printed in fiber and epoxy resin and measures 7.30 meters in length and 2.90 meters in width.
After the first positive tests, a few days before going to the timed base of Moregallo, the news arrives that Buzzi's record has been beaten on Lake Coniston, in Great Britain, by the pilot Christopher Kaye. The latter, at the helm of a hydroplane christened "Miss Britain IV" powered by an industrial Ford 2720 (an elaboration of the one installed on the Ford Largo) which delivers a power of 525 HP at 2400 rpm, brings the new world speed limit to 199.940 Km/h.
Kaye's performance does not faze Bonomi and Buzzi too much, more convinced than ever that they can improve on this new record which has beaten the previous record, but not surpassed the fateful and much-desired 200 km/h barrier.
In Moregallo, after a few days of forced stop on the dock due to the prohibitive weather conditions, the right day finally arrives. On October 4, the bad weather grants a truce: Bonomi slips into the cockpit of the large three-point Rothmans World Leader and launches himself on the measured "Marco Polo" base, heedless of Buzzi's recommendations who suggests that he improve the record but not exaggerate, so that there is still room to attack it. In reality, Bonomi goes well beyond 200 km/h and obtains an amazing average of 215 km/h.
In addition to Bonomi's record, it is important to point out another important record, this time achieved by Fabio Buzzi himself; it is the world speed record (194.736 km/h) for the Entrobordo Corsa R3 2000 cc class, established on the measured base of Sarnico with a three-point FB Design powered by Mercury.
The same hull, measured for the Entrobordo Sport S3 2000 cc, goes back into the water with Fulvio Bertinetti at the helm and obtains the new world limit also in this category with 188.264 km/h.
Unfortunately, 1982 will also be remembered for the dramatic passing of one of the greatest Italian inboard racers: Guido Caimi.
Caimi, who had inherited his passion from his father Franco, also an excellent racer, began his motorboat career at a young age, immediately making himself known for his great temperament that in a very short time had led him to achieve significant results first with outboards and then with inboards.
In over twenty years of racing he collected four World Titles, nine Europeans, ten Italians and also a historic victory at the Raid Pavia-Venezia. Since 1981 he had returned to racing full time; his move to the top class, Formula 1 (OZ), was considered a deserved achievement after a long and positive career.
On September 25, on the waters of the Idroscalo in Milan, exactly twenty-four hours before his 42nd birthday, in a race of the OZ World Championship, he was the victim of a fatal accident. Ironically, he said, that was supposed to be the last race before his final retirement from racing. Guido, fifteen days before the accident, also suffered the sudden loss of his father Franco.
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Racing season 1983
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