Giancarlo Falappa

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Giancarlo Falappa (born June 30, 1964 in Jesi ( AN ), Italy ) is a former Italian motorcycle racer .

He was a Ducati factory rider in the Superbike World Championship for years and was considered a daring driver. During his brief active career, Falappa was known as Il leone di Jesi ( The Lion of Jesi ) and was famous for his wild wheelies . After falling seriously, he narrowly escaped death twice.

Career

Beginnings

Giancarlo Falappa began his career in motocross in 1979, against the will of his family . He already finished his first race victorious; until 1980 many more victories in amateur races followed. In 1981 Falappa became the official MotoVilla driver and won the Campionato Italiano Cadetti Junior . From 1982 to 1984 he raced in the 250 cc - Motocross World Championship . In 1985 and 1986 Giancarlo Falappa did not take part in any races for financial reasons.

In the summer of 1987, Falappa drove a street motorcycle on a racetrack for the first time during a public training session on the Misano track. He drove a friend's Kawasaki GPZ 600 and after an hour was only eight tenths of a second above the current lap record of the Italian 600 cc championship. The following week he bought a Suzuki GSX-R 1100 , with which he won his first official race shortly afterwards in Vallelunga .

After Giancarlo Falappa had won all four preliminary rounds of the Italian Sport Production Championship with his Suzuki in 1988, Bimota offered him a motorcycle for the three final races of the championship. In addition, he was offered a place as test driver and pilot in the Superbike World Championship team of the manufacturer from Rimini for 1989 if he won the championship . Falappa won the first two finals, the last race at Mugello he crashed on the formation lap and broke his shifter on the bike from. Nevertheless, he turned the fastest lap, but fell in the middle of the race. Since his biggest rival could not finish the race either, Falappa won the championship and was promoted to the Superbike World Championship, although he had not even contested ten road races by then.

Superbike World Championship

In the first race of the 1989 season in Donington , England , Falappa took pole position and won the second race. After another race victory in Mosport , Canada , Giancarlo Falappa also won the second race in Le Castellet . At the end of the season he finished sixth in the World Championship.

Because of his good performance, Giancarlo Falappa was signed for the 1990 season by rival Ducati . He drove a Ducati 851 for the works team Squadra Corse Ducati Lucchinelli , his team mate was Raymond Roche from France , who won the title. After a slow start to the season with just one win in Donington, Falappa had a serious accident on his birthday during qualifying for the seventh event at the Österreichring . At the entrance to a curve that was driven through at about 270 km / h, he had to avoid a slower driver and crashed into the guardrail , which was only a meter from the route. The Italian suffered 27 broken bones and a ruptured femoral artery and fell into a coma due to the high blood loss , from which he woke up after twelve days. He then spent several months in a hospital in Bologna and did not start again this season.

For the 1991 season , Giancarlo Falappa returned to the Superbike World Championship against the advice of his doctors and although he could not lift his left arm and bend his left leg after 13 broken bones. He again started together with Raymond Roche for the Ducati works team Ducati Meccanica , this time on the new 888 , and was regularly among the points. At the second race in Mugello , Falappa, still in poor physical condition, was in the lead by almost a minute over second-placed Doug Poland , before he had to give up the race due to a defect in the fuel pump . He finished the World Cup in eleventh place overall.

Giancarlo Falappa also started for the Ducati factory team in 1992 , which was called Team Police Ducati this season , and drove the new 888 together with Raymond Roche and Doug Poland . The position as team manager was held this year by Franco Uncini . Another innovation was the Dunlop tires, after having started on Michelin in the preseason . Falappa achieved four race wins, including two at the Österreichring, and came fourth overall. Teammate Poland secured the world title, Roche became vice world champion.

In 1993 , the Briton Carl Fogarty Falappas became the new teammate in the works team, Team Raymond Roche Ducati , Roche acted as team manager, and they returned to Michelin tires. Giancarlo Falappa won six of the first ten races. Including both at Brands Hatch , where he left the competition behind by over a minute each. In the second half of the season, however, there were differences of opinion about the setting of the motorcycle and Falappa slipped from first to fifth place in the World Championship.

For the 1994 season , Giancarlo Falappa received an offer from Honda , where he should start in the Castrol Honda factory team . However, the Italian refused and decided to continue racing for Ducati. There, the team structures were changed after the disagreements of the preseason. Falappa and Fogarty contested the season in the works team under the leadership of Virginio Ferrari and started for the first time on the 916 R , which was to become legendary in the following years. At the first event in Donington, Falappa finished fifth after technical problems in both races. There were also problems at the following races in Hockenheim , this time with the electronic gear shift . The following two races at Misano , in which he finished second and first, would be the last in Giancarlo Falappa's career. A short time later he crashed during tests in Spanish Albacete , where Ducati a new fork -tested and an improved electronic control system, due to a sudden failure of the new circuit. Falappa was thrown over four meters and fell on his head. He was in a coma for 33 days, most of which were between life and death.

After a long period of rehabilitation, Giancarlo Falappa really wanted to race again, but after a test drive in Rijeka in 1997, he had to realize that his physical condition made it impossible to continue his career.

Today he works as a representative for Ducati, is a frequent guest at Superbike World Championship races and visits Ducati dealers and tank clubs.

statistics

title

  • 1988 - Italian sports production champion

In the Superbike World Championship

season team motorcycle run Victories Second Third Poles Nice Race laps Points position
1989 Bimota SpA Bimota YB4EI 18th 3 1 1 1 1 139 6th
1990 Squadra Corse Ducati Lucchinelli Ducati 851S 9 1 1 1 2 - 94 11.
1991 Ducati Meccanica Ducati 888 22nd - - 1 - 1 113 9.
1992 Team Police Ducati Ducati 888 26th 4th 2 3 4th 1 279 4th
1993 Team Raymond Roche Ducati Ducati 888 26th 7th 1 2 1 7th 255 5.
1994 Ducati Corse Virginio Ferrari Ducati 916 6th 1 1 - - 1 74 15th
total 107 16 6th 8th 8th 11 954

Trivia

  • When he won Le Castellet in 1989, Falappa finished the race without the left side of his handlebars, which had broken off after contact in a tough battle with teammate Mike Baldwin . During the last three laps he controlled the machine with his left hand in the front fork. Before entering the parc fermé after the race , he stopped at his pits and instructed his mechanics to change the handlebars so as not to be disqualified .
  • During the test drive of a Bimota YB6 1000 on the A14 motorway near Ravenna in 1989, Falappa discovered the car of the then Ducati team manager Marco Lucchinelli and overtook it to the right with a wheelie at around 170 km / h. The two met again at the following motorway service station . Lucchinelli was so impressed that he immediately offered Falappa a place on the Ducati factory team and invited him to the headquarters in Borgo Panigale , where the contract was later closed.
  • When Giancarlo Falappa was in a coma after his serious accident in Albacete in 1994 , videos of his last victories were played in the hospital room for days, which were supposed to help him wake up again. When that did not succeed and people began to give up hope, the then TV commentator of the Superbike races, Giovanni Di Pillo, visited him. He talked to him as if he was commenting on a dramatic race and kept shouting "Giancarlo, wake up! You have to wake up, Scott Russell is catching up! He will overtake you! Hit the gas!" . The following day, Falappa awoke from the coma after 33 days.

References

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dean Adams: Mind Over Matter: Giancarlo Falappa. (No longer available online.) Www.superbikeplanet.com, August 22, 2003, archived from the original on July 3, 2007 ; accessed on January 14, 2008 .
  2. ↑ a b c Falappa Day. www.docsalerno.it, archived from the original on September 26, 2009 ; Retrieved January 14, 2008 (Italian).
personal data
SURNAME Falappa, Giancarlo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian motorcycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH June 30, 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Jesi