The R2000 class World Championship
The UIM (Union International Motonautique) is re-proposing, after three years, the R3 2000 cc Inboard Racing World Championship, naturally assigning the organization to Italy. The event, called "1st Sissa Grand Prix", is held on the new circuit set up on the Po by the local nautical association based in Torricella (PR).
Seven competitors of three nationalities participate in the race. All the Italian pilots participate with catamarans: Adriano Muggiati (R.Molinari-Alfa Romeo), Arturo Bernasconi (Clerici-Alfa Romeo), Mario Pecci (Clerici-Alfa Romeo) and Roberto Savioli (R.Molinari-Mercury).
Franco Clerici was also supposed to be part of the Italian team, but the constructor pilot is forced to withdraw at the last minute because, the day before the race, while he was carrying out a test on the Po in front of his shipyard, he performs a spectacular looping. Fortunately, on a physical level he only suffers some bruises, but the hull breakage precludes his participation in the world race.
It is a real shame because the fast catamaran he built with a Mercury engine was a complex with the same potential as Savioli's and would certainly have made the fight for the final victory more exciting and uncertain.
To threaten (so to speak) the clear supremacy of our pilots we have two other catamarans in the race piloted respectively by the Swedes Kjell Gahmberg (Seebold-Renault) and Roland Paulsson (Navis-Renault Turbo); means far inferior if compared to those of the Italians.
The same can be said for the Frenchman Jean Paul Garnier competing with the only racer (Popoli-Alfa Romeo) kindly made available to him for the occasion by the Parma pilot Giuseppe Casanova. Naturally, the presence in the race of this pilot leaves no tangible sign.
The race is held over the distance of four heats, one test is discarded and the three best placings are counted; the circuit is 1800 m long and is covered twelve times at each test.
The Milanese driver Roberto Ravioli, who has a very high-performance vehicle, takes off and wins the first heat. But, surprise, a judge notices that the latter has bumped a buoy. Savioli is thus demoted, in this first test, to fifth place, preceded by the winner Muggiati also by Pecci, Bernasconi and the Swede Gahmberg, but in turn preceding the "extinguished" Paulsson and Garnier (for whom the world championship is to be considered practically over).
In the other heats there is no contest: we witness peremptory successes by Savioli (first three times preceding Muggiati in second position twice and Pecci once) who wins his first and deserved world championship laurel in the room.

This season it is also possible to witness an interesting and hard-fought Italian Championship for the R2000N class (national restriction) which ends with the surprising success of Mario Pecci ahead of Muggiati and Bernasconi. It is a championship that for three years has been divided into three heats per day and which this year takes place on the following race courses: Milan-Idroscalo, Orbetello, Boretto, Piacenza, Cremona, Lignano, Milan again and Bocca di Magra.
For the first time this championship is won by a pilot at the helm of a catamaran. Despite the few remaining racers providing spectacular ideas and sometimes vigorously contrasting the most modern catamarans, no three-pointer will ever again be able to win the title in this category.

Among the sore points of the 1986 racing season I would also like to mention the serious accident that occurred to the Mantua driver Franco Michelini.
During the third round of the Italian Championship taking place on the Po in Cremona, after having already won the race, while returning to the slipways, he ran into a rather high wave created, without much consideration, by a rescue boat that was intent, in the circumstance, on quickly recovering another competitor who had capsized.
The jolt of the three-point boat on the wave made the unfortunate Michelini slip from his seat and, falling into the water, he suffered, due to the violent impact, a permanent injury to one arm that forced him to give up motorboat racing forever.


The long-distance races
In the endurance races we witness another success by Antonio Petrobelli and his inboard Celli-BPM R°° class who wins the fourth (the last three consecutive) Raid Pavia-Venezia with a time of 2h 04' 45" (average 179.880 Km/h). He also wins the Coppa d'Oro Theo Rossi di Montelcra for the highest speed (172.594 Km/h) achieved on the Revere-Pontelagoscuro stretch.
In second place in the final overall ranking we find Carlo Bodega with the catamaran from the R.Molinari shipyard powered by Mercruiser while third is Franco Bonazzi, faithful to the three-pointer with advanced steering built by Abbate and powered by a BPM; all the first three classified compete in the Inboard Race R°° class (unlimited). Among
the illustrious retirements, that of Fabio Buzzi stands out, who unfortunately finishes, at a speed of just under 200 km/h, on a dry road, suffering a broken leg and breaking part of his beautiful red three-pointer powered by a twelve-cylinder Lamborghini.

In Boretto Petrobelli won, for the sixth time (four consecutive), in the prestigious Due Ponti Trophy with the remarkable average speed of 184.407 Km/h.
Behind the winner were Franco Bonazzi from Luzzara, with the usual three-point Abbate-BPM and Remigio Telasio with a small racer of the R2000N.

From the Po River we move to Lake Como where the surprising success of Stefano Casiraghi in the Centomiglia del Lario is noted.
This "famous" Italian character, passionate motorboater, competes for the Principality of Monaco and alternates Off-Shore races with some rare participation in long-distance trials with In-Shore hulls.
Casiraghi, a customer and driver of Tullio Abbate's team for two years, accepts the proposal of the same builder to bring back to the race, in the Centomiglia, one of his glorious four-point hulls rated for the Inboard Sport S°° class and powered by a 12-cylinder Lamborghini. It is a complex that Abbate, a few years ago, used with another engine, establishing an important record in the Diesel class.


The records of the FB Marin team drivers
The current year is also remembered for the world speed records achieved in October, on the Moregallo measured base, by Fabio Buzzi, Fulvio Bertinetti and Giorgio Villa with Lamborghini engines.
Buzzi, recovered from the terrible accident that occurred to him at the Raid and repaired the damaged hull, sets, with a Lamborghini Countach 5000 cc engine, the new record for the Entrobordo Corsa R5 class with 203.736 Km/h.
Always using the same boat, but with another engine with a higher displacement (5700 cc), Fulvio Bertinetti achieves the speed record for the Entrobordo Sport S6 class with 203.830 Km/h. Finally, it was Giorgio Villa's turn to improve on two other significant speed records in the Inboard Sport S5 and Corsa R6 classes, with 192.617 km/h and 213.958 km/h respectively.