WORLD SUPERBIKES - MONZA ROUND 30th MAY 1999

Memories of a trip by Paul James and James Thompson Courtesy of

Shell Advance Motorcycle Oils

The motor racing circuit at Monza, located in the middle of magnificent park land, must be one of the most evocative circuits in both motor and motorcycle racing terms. Imagine my surprise on hearing that I had won first prize in the Shell Advance Oils MCN competition, a trip for two to the Monza round of WSB '99. Included in the trip was a visit to the Ducati factory at Bologna, having toured the factory during the '98 World Ducati Weekend festivities I was keen to see the advances made since the American influence took hold. As one of Ducati's main sponsors for the '99 season expectations of a red carpet tour were very high, and it proved in the event to be most informative.

My companion for the trip was fellow Ducati enthusiast James Thompson AKA Agrostini, the nickname earned as the result of an uproarious confrontation with an indifferent waitress during the ‘98 WDW trip (see WDW ‘99 report). The term enthusiast probably does James an injustice, fanatic would perhaps fit the bill more closely.

We travelled from Manchester airport on the morning of 27th May, due to the early start time we decided to drive up the night before and stay in a hotel near the airport, our journey North coincided with Manchester United’s FA cup final match, we soon realised the outcome as hoards of elated fans crowded the footpaths outside the pubs as we neared our destination.

On Thursday morning we met up with Iwan Salim, Marketing manager of Shell Advance Motorcycle Oils and his colleague Roger Gollicker, along with other fellow travellers to the event. We flew down to Heathrow and caught a flight out to Bologna.

Not all of our party shared James’ and my enthusiasm for Ducati's, so having the afternoon free the two of us decided to visit the distributor of Ducati Performance parts. Our taxi driver took us to the site which had no facilities for dealing with purchases by members of the public, Agrostini was determined to buy some particularly obscure parts, the staff helpfully checked with local retail outlets only to find that they were all out of stock. At this they agreed to sell him the parts, as we explained that our stay in the area was only short term. As we left Agro explained that he would be returning to Italy later in the year, a shudder went down the sales lady's spine and she suggested that he might not visit her again.

We returned to our hotel and made arrangements to travel into town for an evening meal with Iwan and his rather pregnant wife, Agro returned to some well known haunts where we took in the local ambience (red wine) and indulged ourselves in some local cuisine. Our return to the hotel was uncharacteristically early but it had been a fairly event packed day.

Friday was our day for the factory trip, we were not due to be there until 2.30p.m. so Agro and I went on a scavenging mission around the Ducati dealers in Bologna, I was looking for a single seat unit but our efforts were in vain, many of the smaller dealers seem to have been swallowed up by the main dealer in Bologna.

Our factory trip was far more revealing than the 98 WDW version, production was in full swing and we were allowed to photograph some interesting activities and question staff via our guide on various aspects of production. Of particular interest was close observation of the fitting and tensioning process for cam belts on a 4 valve engine. Recent catastrophic cam belt failures among some of our club members bikes has left the rest of us in a state of cam belt snapaphobia, viewing the tensioning sequence was very interesting. After looking round the factory we had a tour of the museum and watched a short film showing a mixture of images from Ducati's racing heritage, as we left we were each presented with a cap, T shirt, scale model 996 and various product literature. Altogether a most enjoyable day.

Saturday saw us leaving for Milan in the morning, we travelled by coach and had a chance to look at the countryside as we travelled North. Our arrival in Milan left us with time to go on to Monza to watch the Saturday qualifying, The rest of the party went shopping....Agro and myself took a taxi to Monza to observe Foggy doing a less than perfect qualifying session. We also toured the paddock area as we felt duty bound to make full use of our complimentary passes, my own interest in three wheeled machines led me to seek out some of the sidecar teams, we saw Steve Webster and David James preparing for their qualifying session which I later watched from the pit wall.

The day had been hot and we were very happy to accept an invitation to drink cold beer from the guy fitting sidecar tyres, we struck up a very interesting conversation with him which led to the drinking of most of his beer between the three of us and several mechanics who had brought wheels for attention.

Another long day behind us we wended our way back towards Milan, walking for miles from the circuit to a place on a main road where we could catch a bus back to the centre of the City. By the time we had returned to Milan we had little choice of food available, eventually settling for a grot burger at a fast food outlet, this, as expected annoyed me as the last place in the world that I want to eat "convenience" foods is Italy !!. My waist line bears testament to enjoyment of food and wine.

Race day, Sunday the 30th dawned bright and hot and we headed off in our coach to Monza with high hopes of some good racing, as it turned out we were not to be disappointed !!.

Due to the inevitable traffic congestion we arrived just in time to see the first round of the Superbikes which was hotly contested and eventually won, to the hearty applause of the crowd, by our Foggy. During the interval between races we had passes to the Ducati hospitality suite where the riders go to relax and eat, we dived in and took advantage of the food which, was excellent washed down with nicely chilled beer. Our viewing point for race 2 was chosen and we decided to position ourselves in the stand well in advance of the start. The stand was packed forcing us to sit at the front, keeping our heads down to avoid obscuring the view of those behind us. Before the race started there was a commotion on the steps to the stand when Giancarlo Fallapa climbed up to be met by a standing ovation, the damage he has sustained over his racing career has left him somewhat unstable on his feet but he was helped by all in his way towards his target of a rather attractive young lady, sitting on the very top row of the stand. Having reached his destination he proceeded to engage the lady in what must have been, by her reaction, amusing conversation and then to a simultaneous gasp from the onlookers vaulted up to sit on a horizontal scaffold pole at the back of the stand. He continued his conversation from his new perch and shortly afterwards retreated from the stand, signing crash helmets, shirts and baseball caps on the way.

Race 2 was again hotly contested throughout, Edwards Fogarty and Chilli all being in contention at some point, Edwards led the last lap as he passed us, closely followed by Foggy who seemed to be even more popular than Chilli, who was racing on his home circuit. We could just about understand the commentator, who spoke Italian at high speed over the PA system, it appeared that Edwards had taken the win on the line to groans of disappointment from the crowds. Seconds later the excitable voice confirmed that Foggy had in fact "done the double", to a roar of applause and cheesy grins all round. I must give the Italians their due, they know how to enjoy their sport and they know who they want to win!. The results rounded off a great day and it was a happy, if tired group who set off back to Milan in the coach.

Several of our party had commented on the lack of road accidents involving young scooter and moped riders, these can be seen in proliferation in any Italian town, when you watch these kids ride you can see where the likes of Rossi and Biaggi could have come from. During our bus ride home we witnessed a pile of scooters in the middle of the road, surrounded by an arm waving, belligerent bunch of youths, disputing the responsibility for their predicament. A policeman lazed against a tree on the opposite side of the road, determined not to see what had happened, until one of the group took a swing at another and things started to get out of hand. The policeman reluctantly wandered across the road and suggested that they move the debris and go away, one hothead started to talk in an aggressive manner to the officer who said something in reply that quickly shut the youth up. They pulled their bikes apart and onto the pavement and we continued on our way. A few miles further on we were overtaken by a buzzing swarm of scooter riders, guess who?!..

Monday was the day of return to England, our flight from Malpensa due to leave at 5.30 p.m. local time. This gave us a free morning which we spent in Milan sight seeing and visiting a manufacturer of carbon fibre Ducati goodies. The coach departed at 2.30 p.m from the hotel as it is a fair trip from Milan to Malpensa, we had to make a tortuous cross country detour as a result of a large scale motorway pile up and arrived at the airport with little time to spare. We needn’t have been concerned as there was an industrial dispute involving airport staff underway, leading to delays of at least 2 hours on all flights.

We eventually boarded our plane several hours late, as we walked up the steps an ominous trail of liquid could be seen dripping out from the fuselage and running across the concrete. Everybody boarding the plane must have seen the same thing, we all obviously assumed that it was so apparent that a member of the ground crew must have been aware of the situation. Our flight was further delayed on the ground as we waited for a take off slot, at long last we set off on our short journey home. Our flight made good time and we began our descent into Manchester airport, all on board were pleased to see an end to the protracted return journey when on final approach the aircraft abruptly pulled up and the landing was aborted. Passengers looked at each other in a mixture of surprise and disbelief, surely not another delay. "Bing Bong" "This is your captain speaking, we have aborted the landing as a warning light on the instrument panel suggests that the flaps have failed". The lady sitting to my immediate left, with whom I had shared an interesting conversation during the flight, asked what he meant. Knowing that the flaps are instrumental in allowing the aircraft to fly at lower speed without stalling I suggested that it would just mean a faster than usual approach to the runway on the next landing attempt. Shortly afterwards the captain confirmed that anyone used to air travel would notice the difference in approach speed, at this the lady looked relieved. Our approach was significantly faster than anything I have ever experienced and the braking effect of combined reverse thrust and the brakes themselves shot us forward in our seats !. As the aircraft slowed the tension subsided and a round of applause rippled through the aircraft, could the leaking liquid have been hydraulic fluid, rather than fuel as originally suspected ?. We disembarked and made our farewells, headed for the car park with our event packed extended weekend behind us and drove home.

Top marks and a vote of thanks to the guys from Shell Advance for their organisation and hospitality. Let’s hope that their continued relationship with the Ducati racing team leads to Fogarty winning yet another championship.

Paul James

MONZA WSB 1999 IMAGES