In Italy, they still call him “Il Leone” (the Lion). His exit from World Superbike was as quick as it was painful, but Giancarlo Falappa left an unforgettable mark on World Superbike racing.

America saw Falappa for the first time at the first World Superbike races at Brainerd in 1989. Falappa, although he would play no real role in the races that weekend, was still the belle of the ball, the talk of the paddock that weekend so long ago. Riding then for (Yamaha-powered) Bimota, Falappa—a former motocrosser from the Italian town of Jesi on Italy’s Adriatic coast—rode like a mad-man at Brainerd. Early in practice it seemed as if he was intentionally taking all of the Brainerd corners 10 mph faster than conventional wisdom, and his fellow riders,on the Bimota’s pegs when he went under the pedestrian bridge and as he passed under the cement, he’d brush his helmet against the cement girders of the bridge, lightly. Standing by the side of the track, to us it looked like the Italian bike and rider were twenty feet tall and taunting God to kill him. It was insane.

The World Superbike series itself was a little rough back then, really only Fred Merkel was the polished PR gem in the grand scheme of World Superbike (sponsored in that era by Diesel Jeans, which now, a more than a decade later, are finally in style). Giancarlo fit right in. His riding was completely over the top, meanwhile off the bike, he was like a randy sailor traveling from