Racing season 1959
The continental championship
Also in 1959 the highlight of the annual motorboat event in Messina once again included the assignment of the continental title for the big KD 800 kg racers. This challenge, from a qualitative point of view, always offered highly spectacular content: also this time, however, it lost importance due to the total defection of the foreigners, despite the indisputable value of the individual Italian pilots and their vehicles.
At the start of the three heats we find six participants: the reigning champion Liborio Guidotti, with his sons Giorgio and Flavio, all racing with Timossi-Maseratis; the team of Lino Spagnoli who, in addition to his own Celli-Maserati, prepared another hull from the same shipyard, with a Chevrolet engine, which was entrusted to Franco Garatti. In addition to these sure protagonists, we find Paolo Petrobelli, a true gentleman of our motorboating, aboard a S.Marco-BPM.
By winning the first two heats, Liborio Guidotti mortgages the conquest of the title: the Milanese driver, in fact, acquires a good advantage of seconds on the direct antagonist, Lino Spagnoli, and on Franco Garatti, who finished in that order. In the last fraction Guidotti limits himself to managing his margin, without particular worries, finishing in third place behind Spagnoli and Garatti, thus confirming himself as continental champion.
Great credit also goes to the "debutant" Spagnoli for the great temperament he demonstrated. Also notable is the performance of Franco Garatti, defined in the environment as the "recruit" of the KD: his value had already been noticed the previous year when, practically on his debut, he had come close to victory. In fact, even in the continental competition of 1959 he managed to maintain the lead of the race during the second heat in the first three laps, only to then give it to Guidotti.
If dad Liborio has more than one reason to rejoice, Giorgio and Flavio have difficulties due to some mechanical problems. Giorgio finishes twice in fourth place, in the first and third heats, and fifth in the second. Flavio, on the other hand, after retiring in the first heat and obtaining fourth place in the following one, never returns to the water. Paolo Petrobelli's performance was disappointing: for him, in fact, a sixth place in the second heat and two retirements.
The world title
After the 1958 parenthesis, on the waters of Ceresio, in Campione d'Italia, MILA returns to organize the competition for the world title of the KD 800 kg class racers, scheduled, as always, in the dispute of three heats in a single day. The exciting challenge for the assignment of the maximum world laurel is limited, in the 1959 edition, to the Italian-American comparison only: these are, in fact, the only federations to present a total of ten drivers in the race, of which seven are Italian. Our national team is more aggressive and competitive than ever with the presence of three standard-bearers of the team: Liborio Guidotti (already two-time European champion) with his sons Flavio and Giorgio aboard their beautiful Timossi-Maserati. Also competing are Lino Spagnoli with the Celli-Maserati and Franco Garatti with his Celli-Chevrolet. The line-up is completed by the returning Nando Dell'Orto with his more tested and dated Timossi-Ferrari, as well as the constructor driver Oscar Scarpa, with one of his S.Marco-BPM.
For the American representation we have three drivers in the race: Stu Gray aboard a Lauterbach, Jimmy Fyle and Don Donnington with the International, beautiful three-point hulls, all made in the USA, powered by Chevrolet engines.
These drivers of star-spangled inboard racing arrive in Campione accompanied by a large staff of collaborators, directed by Joe Mascari. The American team, in fact, shows no small amount of bravado towards our drivers, in the belief that they are bringing very fast vehicles to the race. We will see, however, that this is not exactly the case: indeed, for certain aspects concerning especially the preparation operations of the hulls carried out on land, some of them are even amateurs at random. We can take, for example, the episode that happened to the pilot Stu Gray who, due to the failure to screw on the drain plugs of the water of his boots, risks the sinking of his boat a few minutes before the start of the first heat. It is Stu Gray himself who, struggling with his hands in the water (the Americans do not usually equip themselves on board with a boat hook) manages to reach the shore, to raise the hull and free it from the water on board. Once everything is restored, poor Stu Gray is struck by yet another piece of bad luck: in the attempt to start the engine, in fact, he also suffers irreparable damage to the starter motor and puts an end to the Italian trip.
This was, however, a strange world championship, with continuous twists and turns: numerous, in fact, the retirements and misadventures suffered by the competitors. Even the Italian drivers, much more organized and prepared, were subjected to a severe selection right from the first heat.
Flavio Guidotti, during the warm-up laps carried out in the five minutes preceding the start, was knocked out by a mechanical problem that affected his Maserati: thus, also for this sure protagonist, the world championship ended before it even began. Franco Garatti also had little luck, after starting with a lap delay, he was forced, after a few laps, to give up due to a mechanical failure. Garatti could at least console himself, having recorded the fastest lap of the entire world championship. The same fate as Garatti also befell the American Jimmy Fyle, who was knocked out due to a broken valve on his Chevrolet, with subsequent damage to a piston and a twisted camshaft. The situation is better for Don Dunnington who, despite some ignition problems, still manages to start in the first heat, even if late, remaining the only one of the three American drivers in the race.
Returning to the Italian drivers, bad luck also haunts Nando Dell'Orto who, after the aggressive start of his powerful Timossi-Ferrari, sees two holes open up on the bottom of the hull, one towards the stern and the other right under the driver's seat. After being overtaken by Liborio Guidotti, Dell'Orto returns to the slipways ending up beaching the hull right in front of the Taroni shipyard: reason why, also Dell'Orto is forced to surrender early.
Incredibly, the sequence of emotions is far from over: Liborio Guidotti wins the first race, taking advantage of Dell'Orto's withdrawal and leaving Spagnoli, Dunnington, Scarpa and Giorgio Guidotti 35" behind. During the lap of honor, however, at a certain point the driver is seen agitated with strange gestures that make one think that, once he returns to the slipways, his Timossi-Maserati could have recovered quickly. It is therefore assumed that a hole had opened up in the hull: his son Giorgio, promptly, as soon as he gets off his racer with his helmet and life jacket, does not hesitate to dive in and, swimming with rapid strokes, reaches his father's stationary hull and helps push it towards the shore. In the end, however, nothing serious: the great alarmism shown by Guidotti senior only concerns the loosening of a stuffing box. But the troubles for this driver are not over: only at the end of the championship, in fact, does the buoy judge find a infringement by reporting a touch of the same during a turn of Guidotti's hull. His initial success, therefore, is contested and taken away. The success of the opening heat goes, therefore, to Lino Spagnoli. This episode is discussed, and leaves much bitterness in the pilot Liborio Guidotti. It is perplexing that the infringement was verified only at the end of the entire event and only at that moment were the consequent decisions taken. In this way, in fact, Guidotti was allowed to run the other tests normally, exposing him to all the risks involved. Since this is a championship awarded with the sum of the times obtained in the three heats, it is clear that, if the fact had been contested immediately, at the end of the first heat, useless controversies would have been avoided.
In the second race, in which Liborio Guidotti was still unaware of the disqualification, the victory was won by Spagnoli who, in addition to dominating all twelve laps of the heat, not only recovered the 35" gap, but also gained other precious seconds. Liborio Guidotti, in difficulty with the hull, occupied the third position preceded by the surprising Dunnington: the latter, the only survivor of the American team, was also forced to leave the scene due to a mechanical problem, giving the Italian second place. The pilots Scarpa and Giorgio Guidotti, finally, closed the carousel. At the end of the second heat, a crack was found on one of the blades of Spagnoli's propeller: fortunately the regulation allowed it to be replaced. A crack was also noted on the edge of a boot of Liborio Guidotti's racer: this inconvenience, however, did not prevent him from competing in the last heat. In the last portion of the race, only four boats were competing, all driven by Italian pilots: this last act of the championship reserves an electrifying duel between Spagnoli and Liborio Guidotti. Guidotti, in turn, started slightly behind, tries vehemently to recover and once he reaches Spagnoli he tries to overtake him, even ending up on top of his hull. The incorrect maneuver is punished, but the pilot, after having taken the lead, manages to win the heat. Guidotti is disqualified, Spagnoli wins the heat and the world title. For the pilot from Perugia, who has been in the "important" motorboating scene for just over a year, this success is still no small thing. Despite the lack of world victory, for Liborio Guidotti the '59 season is to be considered more than positive given that, after the continental title, he also obtains success in the Italian KD championship, preceding Spagnoli and his son Flavio in the final classification.
In his long career in motorboat racing, the time has come for Carlo Casalini to add his name to the roll of honor of the 2500 cc inboard race. The Milanese driver, at the helm of a S.Marco-BPM hull, wins the national title after competing against caliber opponents such as Maderna, Crivelli, Gianfranco Castiglioni, Marchisio, Libanori and Petrobelli. The latter makes his debut with the 2500 cc racers, showing off, right from the first races, for his aggressive and reckless driving style, the result of an innate class.
In 1959, with the serious intention of bringing more and more pilots into the inboard racing sector, a new class was established: the LV 1300 cc. This was a category of small racers powered by the Alfa Romeo Guilietta Sprint Veloce, the same engines derived from the glorious production car. The FIM, considering that the number of participants in the race for the assignment of the tricolor was lower than the minimum required (only 9 competitors), consequently decided not to award the prize. In place of the Italian championship, the winner, Franco Caimi, was awarded an FIM trophy.
It is worth remembering that, already in its first year of racing, the LV 1300 class gathered some prestigious names: in addition to Franco Caimi, in fact, we find the pilots Bernocchi, Sergio Perziano, Scarpa, Ghignatti, Villa, Vallini and, finally, Carlo Toselli, who deserves credit for being the most ardent supporter and advocate of the category. In the space of a couple of seasons, the LV racers had an increase in attendance, demonstrating to the most skeptical that this new formula was more than a success: its success, in fact, lasted until the early '70s, together with that of the larger 2500 cc class.
The nineteenth Raid
If a world cross-country championship could be established, Augusto Cometti would surely have already entered his name in this hypothetical and imaginative roll of honor. The driver from Verona wins, for the fourth time, the Raid Pavia-Venezia, now in its nineteenth edition. The driver, on board his Pelaochi Timossi-BPM Super Atlantic of 6200 cc for about 300 HP, recorded a record-breaking average of 161.851 km/h, with a time of 2h29'46".
The new race regulation, which came into force from this edition, no longer requires a co-driver: thanks also to this situation, Cometti recorded an astonishing average of 174.344 km/h in the timed section Pontelagoscuro-Voltagrimana which earned him the award of the Coppa d'Oro Montelera. Behind the winner, but considerably behind, were the revelation of the year Antonio Petrobelli in the race with the co-driver mechanic Antonio Pacchioni, and the pair Franco Gilberti-Oscar Scarpa, with their hulls S.Marco-BPM
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Racing season 1960
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