International titles of the R2000
Since the seventies, Sweden has maintained a long tradition of international victories in the outboard classes in motorboat sports. Numerous are the titles won by its most representative champions, among which I mention the brothers Lasse and Lennart Strom and Bertil Vik. The Swedes have also always done well with inboard sports; for example, in the S3 2000 cc class, Roland Paulsson won the World Championship in 1982 ahead of the Italian Giulio Crippa.
I also remember that it was in Sweden, way back in 1972 in Stenungsund, that the first edition of the Continental Championship of the R3 2000 cc Inboard Racing class took place in a single event where, despite the large presence of Scandinavian pilots, our Erino Facchini triumphed. Same fate, that is, clear affirmation of the Italian team with the title won by Pier Luigi Brigada, sixteen years later (1988) in Vastervik in the R2000 cc class (or the R3 so renamed by the new UIM regulation). In 1991, again in Swedish waters, in Leksand the R2000 cc World Championship was organized on a characteristic circuit as it was located on two concurrent lakes.
In the race, in addition to the Swedes lined up on catamarans with Volvo, Opel, Renault Turbo, Ford engines, there was the novelty of the multiple champion Ears Norman who decided to use a new Suzuki 850 turbocharged engine, credited with 240/250 Hp which already in the first tests revealed all its potential.
The Italian team was supported by Walter Cabrini, Franco Leidi, Cipriano Lambi and Arturo Bernasconi. All have catamarans: the first three built by the Lucini shipyard, the one by Bernasconi by DAC. Different engines: from the Alfa Romeo by Cabrini to the BMW by Leidi up to the Mercury 2000 cc injection by Lambri and Bernasconi.
Lambi, unlike Bernasconi, opts to fix the engine block in the hull in a horizontal position and connects it to the stern group, also by Mercury.
This modification (already used in the past by Renato Molinari) gives an engine born for outboard use the same characteristics as an engine derived from the automotive industry. Among the various schools of thought on how to conceive engines in the R2000 cc class, I believe I can define Lambri's vessel as a true inboard.
Bernasconi, on the other hand, modifies a DAC catamaran born for Formula 1 into an inboard version. He uses the stratagem of extending the hull grille which thus covers the vertical engine block, which in turn lacks its original grille. The transformation, of course, leaves only the foot exposed.
Based on the means presented by the Italian pilots there should not be any particular problems in booking yet another international title, but instead it will not be so. At the end of the four heats disputed, Ears Norman and our Walter Cabrini share the first position in the standings ex-aequo, having both achieved two victories and two second places. Only thanks to the fastest heat, Ears Norman prevails, who the local press calls " The flying engineer".
This event causes much bitterness in Walter Cabrini, more than ever convinced that he can graduate champion, while Lambri, Leidi and Bernasconi complain of various mechanical problems. With the world title won, the Swedish Norman can boast of having interrupted the long predominance of our pilots in the R2000 cc class.

At the end of the season, in Sacca di Colorilo (PR), the Continental Championship is awarded on the Po River, again for the R2000 cc class. The long-awaited revenge of our riders on Lars Norman, however, does not happen as the new World Champion gives up the Italian trip.
Compared to Leksand, where the Azzurri were present in four, in Sacca Giuseppe Cabrini and Paolo Zantelli are added, the latter more than ever determined to make a good impression on home waters. Disappointing once again is the foreign participation limited to the two Swedes Kjell Gamberg and the old acquaintance Roland Paulsson who, after the race, do not disdain to stay in the area again with the aim of visiting our beautiful country.

Let's get to the chronicle of the Continental Championship by analyzing the group of participants. Among the favorites for the title we have the Lucini catamaran driven by Lambri, the DAC driven by Bernasconi and the Clerici driven by Zantelli, all powered by Mercury.
Faithful instead to the engines derived from the automobile are the Cremonese Walter and Giuseppe Cabrini who, on their Lucini catamarans, have installed Alfa Romeo engines; in particular Walter uses a 16 valve excellently prepared by Carlo Papetti from Pavia. Leidi proposes again, after the not so happy debut of Leksand, the 300 Hp Lucini-BMW catamaran derived from the 320 IS car that participates in the Super Turismo championship.
With this notable line-up the first heat starts and sees a very fast Cipriano Lambri excel in front of Walter Cabrini, Zantelli, Bernasconi, Leidi, Giuseppe Cabrini and the two Swedes Paulson and Gamberg. Unfortunately, during the second heat, an overheating problem with the exhaust pipe forces Lambri to give up and retire definitively.
With the Piacenza driver out of the race, Bernasconi secures the victory in this race with Walter Cabrini once again second and Zantelli third.
Bernasconi is also the victim, during the third heat, of some mechanical problems with his Mercury thus securing first place for Zantelli, second for Walter Cabrini and third for his son Giuseppe. Leidi also leaves the scene whose powerful BMW still has several reliability problems. Everything is up for discussion in the fourth and final race where, due to the title resignation, the fight is restricted to the "regular" Walter Cabrini who has a very fast complex at his disposal, and to Zantelli from Parma.
After the start, Walter Cabrini stops at the first turn and leaves the lead to Zantelli who heads for an easy victory, also because behind him Giuseppe Cabrini and the two Swedes certainly cannot worry him. In the final laps, however, something on the Clerici-Mercury hull of the Parma native seems not to be working for the best; he still manages to finish the heat in first position and graduates for the first time as Continental Champion of the R2000 cc, thanks to two third places and two victories.


The cross-country races
After the parenthesis of 1990, in which the start given from Cremona had distorted the race by significantly reducing the route, in 1991 the Raid Pavia-Venezia sees the start from the Ponte della Becca, at the mouth of the Ticino, with the finish line set in Malamocco.
The Roll of Honour of the historic inline race, now in its 51st edition, includes an absolute victory obtained by an inboard monohull of the TVN 2 8000 cc class (Turismo Veloce Nazionale) and this thanks to the Bergamo driver Antonio Gervasoni paired with navigator Bianchini. A result that confirms the absolute validity of a TVN hull in a competition of about 400 km such as the Raid. Gervasoni-Bianchini with their Mostes-BPM 8000 cc recorded a time of 2h 24' and 37" and a very respectable average speed: 147.286 Km/h.
Their victory is also the result of bad luck that struck excellent names such as Petrobelli and Danini, who retired due to mechanical problems and Buzzi who was stopped by an accident that, given its circumstances, could have ended with a very different outcome. In fact, just under 30 Km. from the start, Buzzi, at full speed (over 250 Km/h) on board his three-point "Clinex" powered by a Seatek 10.3-litre 750 Hp diesel, lost control of the boat.
The whole thing is probably attributable to the crossing of the river by a wicked tourist who, not respecting the absolute ban on navigation on the day of the Raid, created, with a "small boat", a slight ripple in the water, the which, when Buzzi's boat arrives, travelling with his boots completely out of the water, leaving only the rudder and one blade of the propeller immersed, proves fatal.
The boat loses stability and finds itself, with its starboard side completely detached, brushing a floating wooden house, crowded with clearly frightened spectators.
Fortunately Buzzi (and what remains of his boat) manages, without taking the gas off, to gradually lose speed, ending his crazy race on a sandy islet and thus miraculously emerging unharmed. A sad epilogue for a glorious boat that in 1985, led by Carlo Bonomi, with the Aifo engine, set the world speed record in the Diesel class.
Not to be overlooked are the good performances of the racers Romanello Balocchi (Lucini-Alfa Romeo) and Fabrizio Benzi (Lucini-Alfa Romeo) who classified second and third overall respectively, both with a gap of about two minutes from the winners. Balocchi, who with a little more good luck could have even won the race, consoles himself with the Coppa d'Oro Theo Rossi di Montelera for the best speed recorded on the Revere-Pontelagoscuro stretch with 147.761 km/h.

From the Raid we move on to the Due Ponti of Boretto Po, where the local idol, the "red" Giuliano Landini, writes his name for the first time in the roll of honor of the always fascinating cross-country race. Giuliano Landini has a very powerful catamaran (formerly owned by Danini from Mantua) of the R°° class built by Renato Molinari and powered by a Lamborghini 8200 cc. This hull is not owned by Landini, but by the Goccia Team of Ruini and Gallerani (the first Modena-based manufacturer of exhausts for Formula 1 single-seaters, the second technician of Lamborghini Marine) who decides to entrust the vehicle to the Landini family.
With the absolute success in the Due Ponti Trophy, Giuliano Landini confirms once again his versatility and ability to lead any racing hull to success. On the other hand, his incredible career speaks for him: he has won multiple titles in the outboard classes 0250, 0350, Formula 500 and Formula 3000.
Behind Landini in the overall ranking of the "Due Ponti" we find Giuseppe Casanova who, as always, is a great protagonist among the R2000N racers and achieved a good performance with his Clerici-Alfa Romeo.
Also excellent was the third overall place of the other racer, also of the R2000N, Ferruccio Ferrari. Staying in this class, I would like to mention the hard-fought Italian Championship which at the end of the eight scheduled trials held in Capodimonte, Chignolo, Boretto, Ampollino Auronzo, Milano-Idroscalo (2 times) and Sarnico, saw Walter Cabrini win over Cipriano Lambri and Franco Leidi. Not to be underestimated is the fact that Cabrini uses the former Lucini-Alfa Romeo catamaran which has already won in the last two championships with Adriano Muggiati.


Speed ​​records
On the basis of Moregallo's measurement, Adriano Panatta and Fabio Buzzi obtain other significant speed records.
On board a three-point hull very similar to the one used by Carlo Bonomi for the Diesel record with Aifo in 1985, powered in this case by a 7800 cc Seatek, the former tennis player Panatta, who for some years has been a regular presence in the world of Off-Shore racing, establishes the new speed limit of the Inboard Sport Unlimited class with 238.897 Km/h.
With the same hull also measured for the Race Unlimited class, Buzzi adds a new world speed record (233.545 Km/h) although the pilot is forced to use a non-optimal propeller since the "good" one broke after Panatta's record. These two prestigious results, as usual, are not much praised by the mass media; needless to say, they would have deserved more attention.
First of all because the skill and professionalism of a character such as Panatta are beyond discussion and even more so because Fabio Buzzi is a designer of world-class value and importance for whom any praise is practically superfluous.

It is nice to note how in the space of a few years since its creation (1986), the national diesel engine manufacturer Seatek has come to win everything there is to win in the motorboating field, first with Off-Shore and now also with In-Shore hulls. The great inspirer and financier of this new production reality in the field of diesel engines is once again Carlo Bonomi, who, after having achieved various records as a driver with other engines (Isotta Fraschini and Fiat Aifo) wanted to launch, together with Fabio Buzzi and Romeo Ferraris, a new challenge in the industrial sector. A challenge that, as can be deduced, has certainly been won.