At seventy years of age, just a few days ago, Marco Lucchinelli’s house was still a garage on a circuit. His suit, with the inevitable star on the back, hangs from his shoulders, a cigarette between his lips waiting to get back into the saddle. His white hair has perhaps brought a little more tranquility to the Crazy Horse of the world championship. “When I was racing I didn’t use my brain much and it remained as good as new,” he answers with his usual irony.
There are riders who have won more than him, but Lucky remains in the hearts of the fans. Sitting in the shade to escape the heat of Misano, many approach him for a photo or an autograph. “I have only won one World Championship – and that was many years ago – and I always wonder how the youngsters know me. Maybe their parents told them: don’t be like Lucchinelli, that’s how they know who I am,” he laughs.
Only one title, in 1981 with the Suzuki Gallina team, but at a time when motorcycling was a very dangerous sport.
“To pretend that motorcycling is completely safe is absurd,” Marco explains. “Because they now make bikes that go too fast, and not just for me, who is seventy years old. When you reach 580 kilometres per hour on a straight, you need flaps to brake, like in aeroplanes. The spectacle already existed ten years ago, when bikes were slower and came out of corners sideways, in the era of Stoner and Valentino. I would like to see those races, not that speed that you only see on the stopwatch.”
In fact, the 2-stroke 500s are considered relics by enthusiasts, surrounded by a mythical aura. Like John Kocinski’s 1993 Cagiva, which Lorenzo had ridden shortly before. Lucchinelli followed with a (modern) Paton.
“Jorge respected this bike that he didn’t know. He didn’t ride it like a show-off, as he might have done with a modern bike. He rode it safely, because that’s how you ride old bikes: you have to show off, go slowly, otherwise they become dangerous,” explains Marco.
Seeing the C593 up close makes you understand how much our sport has changed. The 70s and 80s seem like a pioneering era. “It was another world, but also the highest level there was at the time – explains Lucchinelli – The tracks were dangerous, we knew that, we weren’t stupid, but if Agostini and Read were racing there, we were racing too.”
Speaking of circuits, they were cheats. “I always gave the old Spa-Francorchamps circuit a ‘legal’ treatment, it was terrible. Then Salzburg, which I always try to put out of my head because it ruined my career. If I had won that race, I would have won the World Championship too. I was going strong, but I realised it too late. I think about it from time to time, but maybe even if I could go back in time I would make the same mistake.”
He had joined Honda from Suzuki.
“After winning the World Championship I overdid it because I broke my arms and legs straight away at Donington, in the last race of the year, the Winter Cup. Despite everything, I was going strong with Honda even in those conditions – he says – Why did I choose it? I had asked everyone what they would do, even in my family, and then I did the opposite. Because I wanted a two-year contract and I went to Honda. I hadn’t made a mistake, Salzburg could have made me say whatever I wanted.”
There has been a lot of talk about Bagnaia and Marquez being on the team together in recent months, but Marco also had some awkward teammates called Spencer and Katayama.
“Spencer wasn’t a human being, he was a Martian, and I mean real life: he left his girlfriend to sleep alone in a hotel and drank gallons and gallons of Dr Pepper, he had a lot of it – his portrait of the American. But there was one thing I never understood: when we finished the race, I didn’t even have a single fly on my suit or helmet, I was covered in all the insects.”
And the Japanese? “Takazumi was a very unusual guy who seemed normal. Honda spent millions to lighten the bike and put gold rods in it. There were some very peculiar people on my team.”
Nowadays, not only are the motorcycles different, but also the cyclists.
“I like Maquez as much as anyone else, if he does something stupid I criticise him. But I think winning a World Championship ahead of him is much more important than winning against Pinco or Pallino,” he says.
Now everyone is on holiday, but in a couple of weeks we will be back on track at Silverstone. Lucchinelli will be in front of the TV, but in his own world. “I tend to listen only to the noise of the bikes, without commentary,” is his little secret. Because Crazy Horse can’t watch MotoGP like everyone else does and that’s why he’s popular (too).
