distant Singapore to New York: he liked life. And, lets face it, when a man rides like Giancarlo did early in his career, he may as well live like every day may be his last. Before the Brainerd races, he limped around the paddock in his white Bimota jacket, smoking constantly and “talking” to every available local girl he happened upon. Did I mention he spoke essentially no English? Still, each morning of the race weekend different Minnesota girls dropped him off at the Bimota garage, Giancarlo in the same clothes he’d worn the day before. On the grid, Giancarlo had a pre-race stare that would melt men and machines. The only other fellow who could match him in that department was Eddie Lawson; put them together andthey could probably change the tides.

Longtime fans probably remember Giancarlo wining World Superbike races after when he’d made the swap to Ducati in 1990, but, actually, Falappa won races in 1989, when he was still on the Bimota. In fact, he won at horsepower-hungry Mosport, the race that preceded Brainerd. The Ducati 851 Superbike was still very much hit and miss in those days. Sure future WSBK champion Raymond Roche could ride off and be passed by six riders and still occasionally come back and win if he had things right in some races, but many times the then very technically advanced Italian Twin was not in the same ballpark as the Yamaha and the Honda. The Yamaha-powered Bimota was about in the same league as the Ducati