From cross in Franciacorta to the Vairano circuit

The end of the season is really intense! At this time there’s loads of travelling then you head back to Europe, and in the space of a day, one season ends and the new one starts straight away with the first tests for 2010.
Oh well, let’s talk about other things. Were any of you at the MX of Nations in Franciacorta? After 23 years it returned to Italy and what an Italy it was!!!! I was at Estoril and I only saw it on the TV, what an incredible event. It was only the fall in the 3rd race putting Tonino Cairoli out of the event that stopped Italy from hitting the bull’s eye in front of an amazing crowd. There were more than 50,000 paying spectators and in motocross, particularly in Italy, this has never been seen before. I’m happy for them, these guys deserve it! In any case Tony was outstanding in the first race and flattened the big American champion Chad Reed and the real phenomenon of Ryan Dungey. Race 2: Philippaerts fast and determined as never before. He set out in 25th place and finished in 20th passing even the American, Ivan Tedesco, on the last lap. Guarnieri was also getting on well, then came the bad fall with Byrne the Australian, what a pity. Race 3: unfortunately for us Italians, did the rest.
I’d like to take the chance to invite all of you to Franciacorta again for a charity race for Luca Pellegrini, promising talent of Italian cross, stopped in his tracks by a bad spinal injury, if you’d like to help him, be there one and all!!! They’ll be a cross race with pairs drawn from sprinters and crossers in front of the crowd, then of course separate races with motocross nations style points.
They’ll be many riders, myself and Cairoli (first race on ktm if he gets permission or for old time sake on a Yamaha 250 2t), Dovizioso, Philippaerts, Simoncelli, Simon, Puzar, Chiodi, Gramigni and many more… You’re the only one missing!!!
They asked me to race in the Monza rally in a Lotus, but I preferred to take a nice holiday, rallies aren’t really for me, I prefer track racing.
I’ve had loads of fun over the week, I spent a whole day at Vairano on bikes moving from a kawi 600 to a 1,000, taking turns for a quarter of an hour on my own having fun, to spins with passengers. It’s not easy to get around on the track in pairs, you can’t really push it because the passenger’s reactions are unpredictable, but you can see the adrenalin rush on their faces when they get off. I had a great time; it’d been ages since I spent a day on the circuit just enjoying myself. When I was on my own I passed the journalists breaking all askew and more than once I ended up at the end nearly laying myself out…hahaha… what a spectacle it would have been. I must say that the ultra-sports bikes aren’t really for the Italian roads but are real racing cross bikes in terms of power and drivability.
Ah!!! Thanks to our friends at Nolan that instead of the usual endless presentations (let’s come out and say it, a real pain even for the employees…), turned a work day into a real and authentic blast for all, winning over everyone with their biking philosophy…SAFETY AND FUN!!!
Now I’ve got a good 20 hours of flying ahead of me, I hope there’ll be an enjoyable film that I haven’t caught up with yet.
Ciao!!!