The 53rd edition of the Raid Pavia-Venezia
Eighth career seal for Antonio Petrobelli in the Raid Pavia-Venezia, now in its 50th edition, which, due to the shallow water conditions in the first stretch of the Ticino and Po rivers, for the first time in history does not start from Pavia or the Ponte della Becca, but from Cremona.
This fact, however, does not distort the charm of the road race and does not take anything away from the value of the feat of the champion from Padua who, with the route shortened to 240 km and the finish line set at Voltagrimana, took an exceptional time of 1h 17' 30" at a fantastic average speed of 198.968 km/h. Behind the red "El Biso V°", (this is the name of Petrobelli's three-point Celli-BPM 8000 cc), was placed, less than two minutes behind, by Fabio Buzzi who, bringing into the race a three-point of his own construction powered by a Seatek diesel, reached the finish line at a significant average speed of 195.145 km/h. Buzzi, with this performance, finally believes he has managed to achieve that much desired and never obtained absolute victory that, for the commitment and quality of the vehicles he has brought into the race over the years, he deserves.
Unfortunately, for the umpteenth time, he has to bow to the overwhelming power of Petrobelli which, with this success in the Raid, establishes a record that is difficult to beat and therefore destined to last over time. To complete the good result of the inboard boats in the 1990 edition of the Raid we also have the third place overall of the Viadana native Mauro Danini (R.Molinari-Lamborghini) and the notable performance of Giuseppe Casanova who on board his racer (Clerici-Alfa Romeno R2000N) occupies the fifth position overall preceded by the Lucini-Mercury Formula 3000 catamaran of the Pavia native Maurizio Caramelli, a former inboarder who has switched to outboard.
It should not be forgotten that Petrobelli combines the victory of the Raid with the eighth Coppa d'Oro Theo Rossi di Montelera for the remarkable speed (192.907 km/h) recorded in the Revere-Pontelagoscuro sector.


Other cross-country races
From the Raid it is obligatory to move on to the Giro del Lario which sees the return to victory of Tullio Abbate (the last victory dates back to 1972). It is a result tenaciously achieved with a very respectable average speed (167.740 Km/h), even if lower than that established in 1988 by Eugenio Molinari. Abbate has a new inboard catamaran of the R°° class of his own construction with a BPM engine with which he also returns to make the Centomiglia del Lario his own by achieving the fastest average speed in the history of the competition (164.840 Km/h). But that is not all: on the wings of this performance Abbate also repeats himself in the 1991 edition of the Centomiglia improving with 165.300 Km/h.

In circuit racing Adriano Muggiati does the double in the difficult and beautiful Italian Championship of the R2000N class where he brings back to success the catamaran Lucini-Alfa Romeo masterfully prepared by his expert mechanic Carlo Papetti.
In the championship the most fearsome opponents are still the various Lambri, Leidi, Brigada, Zantelli, Bernasconi who arrive in this order, at the helm of their catamarans, in the final classification where there is only one racer: Casanova.

The other national championship, the R1500N class, was disappointing, after the fair consensus obtained the previous year, but it was depleted of competitors (only 4) and saw Natale Lucini win on a catamaran built by his father Giampiero, ahead of Walter and Giuseppe Cabrini and Eugenio Maini, the latter two making their debut in the category. All the competitors lined up on catamaran hulls and Alfa Romeo engines.
At the end of the season, the R1500N class, no longer included in the Federation's future plans, was eliminated from the national calendar. From 1991 onwards, only the R2000N would remain the title holder.

Unfortunately, in 1990 another loss struck Italian motorboating: the former Parma inboard racer Alcide Ballotta, who had recently returned to competition, died in a racing accident. Ballotta used an old Molinari catamaran in the race, which he had already used in the past with good results in the Inboard Race R3 2000 cc class. However, this vessel was too dated to be modified from inboard to outboard to remain competitive among the competitors of the new Formula 3000.
Ironic fate struck him right on the home waters of the Po, in the Stagno di Roccabianca (PR), during a test of the endurance championship.
The hull dramatically capsized and, despite rapid rescue in the water and prompt transport by helicopter to the nearby hospital in Parma, there was nothing more to be done for the unfortunate champion.