The R2000 Class World Championship
The highlight of the event in the "Città di Cremona" Powerboat Grand Prix is ​​the four heats that will be valid for the assignment of the R2000 Inboard Racing World Championship. The very small foreign participation, consisting only of the reigning champion, the Swede Ears Norman, is joined by the five pilots selected for the Italian team: Walter Cabrini, Paolo Zantelli, Cipriano Lambri, Arturo Bernasconi and Franco Leidi.
Looking at the boats in the race, all catamarans, only two have engines derived from the automobile: Leidi's, which represents his powerful BMW, and Walter Cabrini's, who, by forced choice, mounts the Alfa Romeo. In fact, the pilot from Cremona, during a test carried out on the Po at Ponte della Becca (PV), with the brand new and competitive Lucini-Mercury catamaran, runs into an irreparable failure that consequently forces him to put the old Alfa Romeo-powered boat back into the water. Bernasconi, Lambri and Zantelli always use Mercury engines, while the Swede Norman remains faithful to his Suzuki Turbo.
As for the hulls, Bernasconi competes with the DAC catamaran that Mike Zamparelli (Italian-English driver, second driver of Guido Cappellini's team) used in the Formula 1 World Championship and that for the occasion he transforms specifically into an inboard. Zantelli relies on his already winning catamaran Clerici; Lambri and Leidi compete with the Lucini and Norman uses as usual a Sjocberg. In the first two heats, victory smiles on Lambri; the driver from Piacenza secures the title by coming third in the penultimate race.
With the world title already mathematically won, Lambri does not go into the water in the fourth heat (rumors are of a problem with the accelerator) thus allowing Bernasconi, who retired in the first two heats and won the third, to also win in the fourth.
In the final classification, however, Bernasconi occupies "only" the third step of the podium, since Zantelli, three times second in the heats, also manages to obtain the second place overall.
Paolo Zantelli, the reigning European Champion, must however complain about an unfortunate start to the race, as in the opening heat of the championship, run on Saturday, he is the victim of a spectacular capsize shortly after the start. Only the great and admirable effort of the builder Franco Clerici who works all night, allows the pilot to get into the water, albeit with a rather damaged hull (part of the right horn is missing from the bow) and certainly not able to express all its considerable potential.
In fourth and fifth final positions we find Leidi and Cabrini respectively. The first not at his best due to engine problems (even if in some moments the BMW shows how much power it is credited with) and Cabrini who despite fighting until the end, pays for the inferiority of his vehicle.
Much in the shade is the performance of the Swedish Norman who, having arrived in Italy with a decidedly uncompetitive complex, places himself in sixth and last position.
This is a year to frame for Cipriano Lambri who after the World Championship also manages to boast the Italian Title always in the R2000N class, resisting the tenacious attack led by the outgoing champion Walter Cabrini, second classified.
This Italian Championship which includes only a few tests in the locations of Stagno di Roccabianca, Milano-ldroscalo, Chignolo, Boretto, Rosolina and Cremona, has as its only flaw the low presence of participants.


Cross-country races
From the circuit it is a must to move on to cross-country races, starting from the fact that the most important result, namely the overall victory in the Raid Pavia-Venezia, was won by Giuseppe Landini. The champion from Boretto, normally more accustomed to small outboard engine displacements, is also competing in the Entrobordo Corsa R°° class this year and adds this prestigious result to his already extensive list of prizes.
Landini has the R.Molinari-Lamborghini 8200 cc catamaran, already driven to overall victory in the 1991 Trofeo Due Ponti by his son Giuliano.
The average speed achieved in the Raid by Landini with a time of 1h 20' 06" is remarkable: 192.509 Km/h. An edition, this one in 1992 which, for the second time in the history of the Raid, sees the route shortened, with the start given from Cremona. The cause of all this, are the non-optimal situations of the Ticino and Po, the latter in a very low flow especially in the first hundred kilometers. Landini also wins the Coppa d'Oro Theo Rossi di Montelera for the highest speed recorded on the Revere-Pontelagoscuro stretch with 184.118 Km/h.
Behind the winner, in the final ranking, we find Luca Radice and Mauro Danini both, like Landini, driving R.Molinari-Lamborghini catamarans of the R°° class. Worth mentioning among the illustrious retirees, due to mechanical problems with his Celli-BPM, is Antonio Petrobelli. In fourth place overall and first of the racers at the finish line is classified, the three-point Lucini-Alfa Romeo 2000 cc of Dino Zantelli who precedes Fabrizio Benzi, also racing with a Lucini-Alfa Romeo 2000 cc complex.
A curiosity: among the first ten classified, nine are Entrobordo Corsa: three catamarans and six three-pointers. An excellent result, "in the face" of those who believe only and exclusively in the outboard classes.

With the same aforementioned vehicle, Giuseppe Landini, after the Raid, also triumphs on his home waters in the 24th edition of the Trofeo Due Ponti.

At the end of the season, the Centomiglia del Lario is held and a new name is added to the roll of honor of this now historic competition. It is Sandro Gianella, an Italian resident in Switzerland who competes with the colors of the MlLA of Como.
Gianella wins the 1992 edition of the Larian race and repeats the success the following year, where in this case he takes advantage of the disqualification inflicted on the British Steve Curtis (due to missing a buoy) and records the fantastic average of 195.434 Km/h (a limit that is still unbeaten).
For Gianella and his wooden catamaran built by the Lucini shipyard and equipped with a 12-cylinder Lamborghini, it is a sensational victory obtained in front of highly rated opponents, such as Tullio Abbate and the F1 World Champion Guido Cappellini.


Fabio Buzzi's Diesel Class Record
I don't know if 1992 will go down in history for the new world record in the Diesel class set by Fabio Buzzi, but it is certain that before then, in Europe, only Achille Castoldi, in 1953, had managed to obtain a similar speed on the water (241.708 km/h) driving his Timossi-Ferrari racer. Regardless of the times and means used, the absolute performance must be highlighted.
It is interesting to remember that already in 1991 the records of Panatta and Buzzi, with the Seatek diesel, put an end to the domination of Iveco Aifo, confirming the validity of the engine from Brianza.
The three-point that Fabio Buzzi uses to set the 1992 record, in the past, had also been used to improve several records with the Lamborghini and was brought into the race, in the 1990 Raid, by Andrea Bonomi, winner of the Prototypes category with a 650 HP Pratt & Whitney gas turbine.
After these experiences, the hull is subjected to a complete facelift, that is, the boots are reinforced and, for the first time in a record attempt, a special safety capsule designed by Buzzi himself is used that in the event of an accident automatically detaches from the vessel (this solution had already been successfully tested in 1989 by the same designer on his maxi catamaran Off-Shore). With the vessel thus modified, Buzzi goes to the measured base of Moregallo which at the end of November is the scene of the usual week of records.
After three days spent searching for an ideal situation with calm waters, he launches into the ascending base section recording a speed of over 250 km/h; on the descending section, however, he suffers a slight drop in performance, but in the end, the sum of the times gives a record average: 252.277 km/h.

With this result. Buzzi is also the fastest man in Europe and Seatek is the number one diesel engine in the world.