International titles of the R2000 class
The waters of the Po river, in Cremona, are the scene of the European Championship of the R2000 Inboard Racing. Once again the clear favorite is the top pilot of the Club Nautico Pavese Pier Luigi Brigada, more than ever ready to repeat the incredible "grand slam" (World, European, Italian) achieved in this class in 1988.
Threatening Brigada and his Clerici-Mercury catamaran are the other selected Italians: Arturo Bernasconi, also racing with a similar complex to Brigada's, Paolo Zantelli, again with a Clerici catamaran, but powered by an Alfa Romeo, Adriano Muggiati with a Lucini-Alfa Romeo catamaran, Emilio Capelli and Virgilio Molinari, again with the Lucini-Alfa Romeo racers.
The foreign presence is limited to the usual Swede Roland Paulsson, almost always present in the international R2000 races, with his catamaran Navis powered by a Renault Turbo. A vehicle, on paper, very competitive, but which in the race is never able to express its potential.
At the starting rocket of the first heat the quickest to take the reins of the race is Bernasconi followed by Brigada; the latter then manages to recover, takes the lead and wins the race. Out of the game already in the initial stages and with no chance of resuming the race is the driver from Parma Paolo Zantelli.
On the other hand, a good performance by Muggiati, third place, with his beautiful catamaran which however is unable to keep up with the fast vehicles of the first two.
In the second heat both Bernasconi and Muggiati are downgraded for early start and so for Brigada the victory is more of a formality than anything else.
Behind the winner we find the two racers of Molinari and Capelli who reach the finish line with abysmal gaps.
The Swede Paulsson leaves the scene in this second heat; frankly his performance is rather dull, practically never fighting for the prestigious positions.
Brigada also dominates the third fraction and confirms himself for the second year as European Champion. In the last fraction Bernasconi wins ahead of Muggiati and Brigada, the latter entering the water for the sake of showing off, as he is already mathematically champion.
Final standings European R2000 Championship: 1st Pier Luigi Brigada, 2nd Arturo Bernasconi, 3rd Adriano Muggiati.

At the end of the season, still on the Po River, in Casale Monferrato, the race that awards the World Title for the R2000 is held.
In addition to the reigning champion Brigada, the Italian team presents the same members as the European Championship in Cremona with the exception of the local driver Capelli replaced by Cipriano Lambi from Piacenza. The presence of foreign drivers is more consistent: for Sweden, three catamarans are taken to the water, led by Ronald Paulsson, Kjell Gahmberg and Lars Norman.
Paulsson presents his Navis-Renault Turbo, Gahmberg uses a Seebold-Renault, while Norman, an engineer from Stockholm who was Swedish Champion in 1987-1988-1989, opts for a Suzuki Turbo. The other foreign competitor, the Frenchman Paul Garnier, also fields a catamaran powered by a Renault Turbo engine.
In France Garnier enjoys an excellent reputation as a very expert pilot who has competed in various categories, both outboard and inboard, and for having also won important classics such as the "6 Hours of Paris" and the "24 Hours of Rouen".
Unlike Cremona, where the boats in the four heats started in the classic way, that is with a rolling start marked by the clock, in this circumstance the start with the slipways stopped at the pier is experimented; as regards the first heat, the line-up is made respecting the order of the times achieved in the timed practice session and then based on the order of arrival of the previous fraction.
Although Pier Luigi Brigada holds the pole position, the quickest to jump at the green light and take the lead in the first fraction is Arturo Bernasconi from Como.
Brigada immediately senses that Bernasconi, at this start of the race, has an extra gear, so he launches into pursuit without however managing to regularly overtake him. He succeeds in his intent by carrying out a maneuver that is absolutely forbidden by the rules, that is, passing behind a small island facing the circuit and thus shortening the route.
Brigada, to the amazement of Bernasconi and the public, takes first place, but his stunt does not last long; the black flag is ready for the driver from Pavia, which the race judge waves, forcing him to stop.
Bernasconi wins the heat and the Italian success is completed by the other Italian drivers who occupy the first four positions. In fact, Muggiati is classified second, Lambri third, the feisty Virgilio Molinari fourth (the only competitor in the race with three points), Zantelli fifth and then the three Swedes Norman, Paulsson and Gahmberg. The Frenchman Garnier, stopped even before the start due to a broken transmission, but once the problem was repaired he rejoins the race in the following heats.
In the second and third heats Bernasconi dominates again with Brigada always in second position and surprisingly Lars Norman in third preceding our Muggiati and Lambri. After a somewhat difficult start, the Swede shows the good competitiveness of his catamaran. By virtue of the three victories obtained, Bernasconi mathematically graduates as 1989 R2000 World Champion.
In the last heat Bernasconi and Brigada try a clever team play to allow Muggiati to obtain the third step of the podium, thus making the success of the Italian team total.
Muggiati takes the lead in the race, behind him Norman, increasingly competitive, with Brigada and Bernasconi trying to counter the Swede preventing him from attacking Muggiati.
However, with just over a lap to go, Brigada who occupies the second position followed by Norman, is the victim of an accident that fortunately ends without physical damage but which precludes him from placing on the podium. The heat was won by Muggiati ahead of Norman, Bernasconi and Lambri.

Having exhausted the topic of international R2000 titles, it is necessary to also delve into the subject of national inboard championships which this year involve two classes: the R2000N and the newly formed R1500N; the latter, wanted with the intent of recreating a "reservoir" of new pilots for the major class, will in reality have a short life.
The R1500N is a concentration of novelties and also includes some modern-design catamarans equipped with a "semi-capsule" safety, such as those built by the Larian Lucini, in his advanced shipyard, for his debuting son Natale and for the returning Pavia native Arialdo Marazzi. Also the builder Franco Clerici, for his daughter Milena, is preparing a new catamaran, but without a safety capsule, and Lucini is also creating two small racers for the young talents of Pavia motorboating, which has always been generous with pilots, Massimo Gavazzi and Paolo Romagnoli.
This is the list of the boats built specifically and their pilots, but the list of those registered for the championship also includes names that will soon be talked about, such as Walter Cabrini who competes on a Lucini catamaran already used by Muggiati and Dino Zantelli (brother of Paolo) who uses an old Lucini and Frigerio three-point "shell" with forward steering built in the 70s for the Fiat 128 class and refurbished by the engine preparer Ivo Speroni from Colorno, who also improvised as a wood restorer for the occasion.
From the engine side there is nothing new; all the participants use Alfa Romeo engines (unfortunately, however, as has been the case for years, there is no direct involvement from the parent company). They are therefore engine blocks recovered from various scrap dealers and marinized thanks to the skill of the preparers.
The final ranking of the Italian Championship, after the trials held in the towns of San Nazzaro, Barcis, Capodimonte, Gavazzo, Auronzo, Chignolo, Casale Monferrato, sees Arialdo Marazzi in first place and Milena Clerici in second place. Good performances also provided by debutants Natale Lucini, Dino Zantelli, Gavazzi and Romagnoli.

In the Italian Championship of the other inboard class (R2000N) the remarkable number of eighteen participants was reached, with exciting trials organized in Piacenza, Milano-Idroscalo, Sarnico, Boretto, Taranto, Marta, San Nazzaro, Auronzo and Chignolo. Among the boats brought to the race, the catamaran of the Pavia driver Muggiati aroused much interest, built by the Lucini shipyard with the same characteristics, that is with a safety semi-capsule, as the one used by Marazzi in the minor class.
The innovation of the capsule represents, for inboard catamarans, a decisive step forward in terms of driver safety (such precautions had until then only been present on F1 In-Shore boats). The Como-based manufacturer Lucini therefore deserves credit for believing in this solution that guarantees and safeguards, at least in part, the safety of the driver in the event of a collision and capsizing.
With this boat, Muggiati interrupts, after two years, the domination of the other Pavia pilot Brigada and succeeds, after some seasons of failed successes, in winning the tricolor of the category. The credit for this victory must be equally divided between the great class of the pilot and the excellent catamarans that Lucini builds (even the one by Marazzi proves to be an immediate winner).
The great revelation of the R2000N is Paolo Zantelli, who challenges the winner until the last test, piloting the ex-catamaran Clerici with which Brigada had dominated the tricolor of the previous year. Also Lambri, at his debut in the R2000N, obtains a significant third place in the final classification, while Brigada and Bernasconi, star performers in the R2000, disappoint due to a long series of engine problems.

I would also like to make a special mention to Giuseppe Casanova who, by pure bad luck, is not present at the top of the final R2000N standings. In Piacenza, in fact, the opening race of the championship, a mechanical failure to his racer deprives him of a deserved victory; in Samico, with rather difficult waters, due to the wave motion of Lake Iseo, he capsizes when he is in the lead, after a heat made of textbook overtakings against the catamarans.
It is interesting to know that Casanova runs the first three championship races with the two-year-old Lucini four-point (certainly the best racer among those seen in the race) while the much-desired new Lucini four-point is delivered to him only halfway through the season and unfortunately it does not prove to be up to the level of the previous vessel.
After only two races Casanova decides to put it aside and opts for another hull built by Clerici according to clear specifications by the same pilot (in fact this racer will only be seen in the water in 1990).


Cross-country races
In the Raid Pavia-Venezia we witness the deserved success of Mauro Danini and his catamaran R.Molinari-Lamborghini of the Entrobordo Corsa R°° class. The pilot from Pomponesco (MN) who won with a time of 2h 18' 08" and an average of 158.108 km/h also won the Coppa Theo Rossi di Montelera, covering the Revere-Ponte lagose uro stretch at an average of 151.863 km/h. This success interrupts the incredible series of five consecutive victories established from 1984 to 1988 by Antonio Petrobelli, who, however, returns to make people talk about himself in the Trofeo Due Ponti in Boretto Po, where with his racer class R°° from the Celli shipyard powered by a BPM he wins the beautiful Boretto race for the ninth time, consoling himself, in part, for the withdrawal suffered in the Raid.

As for the Centomiglia del Lario, I would like to point out the beautiful victory obtained by Carlo Bodega with the R°° class catamaran Molinari-BPM. The pilot from Bergamo, with 157.020 Km/h, also established the new average record for the race. Eugenio Molinari also performed excellently in the other Larian race, the Giro del Lario: with this latest triumph, the overall victories of the multi-titled pilot-constructor rise to eight.