The first edition of the international event reserved for vintage motorcycles had its inaugural ceremony on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 20th, when from the evocative stage in front of the Port of Portoferraio, the riders from 15 different Nations who will animate the next three days of competition were presented. They were welcomed by the Mayor Angelo Zini, who was very enthusiastic to host an event of global significance like this in his hometown of Isola d’Elba.
The ceremony was brilliantly conducted by Lorenzo Graziotti and Martina Riboni. The host of the event Daniele Anichini, President of the Moto Club Isola d'Elba then came to the stage to present the organizational machine behind this event with the collaboration of the Tuscany FMI Regional Committee chaired by Alessandro Roscelli and various Moto Clubs, all together contributing to the success of this event.
Subsequent speeches by FMI track inspector Maurizio Micheluz and FMI track inspector Stefano Passeri underlined the online briefing that will be disclosed at the end of the inaugural ceremony; Heinrich Schmidt and Pedro Mariano of the FMI and the race director, Paolo Buratti, were also called on stage to welcome the 400 riders who will participate in this first edition of the FMI Enduro Vintage Trophy.
Raffaele Bigioni intervened on behalf of the Italian Motorcycle Federation, while the national team coach, Cristian Rossi, focused on the amazing success scored by Italy at the 2021 ISDE in Rivanazzano Terme, where the boys of the Blue Jersey, Andrea Verona, Thomas Oldrati, Davide Guarnieri and Matteo Cavallo won the World Trophy, while Manolo Morettini, Lorenzo Macoritto and Matteo Pavoni won the Junior Trophy, bringing home the overall championship.
Among other guests present at the opening ceremony, were also the main sponsors of the event: Franco Acerbis of the homonymous company in Albino (Bergamo), Alessandro Merlo of Blackbird and Claudio Monni of Ferrini Costruzioni.
Welcomed by the thunderous applause of the public who came for the much anticipated occasion, the protagonists of the 1981 Six Days took to the stage. At that time, Italy was captained by Augusto Taiocchi who, for the third consecutive year, was at the top of the World Enduro (known as “Regolarity”) classification grid together with his team with Angelo Signorelli, Cesare Bernardi and Giampiero Findanno for the Silver Vase; and Gualtiero Brissoni, Alessandro Gritti and Luigi Medardo for the World Trophy.
With the same enthusiasm, the audience welcomed the four Italian champions who won the Silver Vase at the 1975 Six Days of the Isle of Man, the well known “Silver Boys”: Pierluigi Rottigni, Gualtiero Brissoni, Pietro Gagni and Attilio Petrogalli who will honor that victory by returning this year riding their SWM bikes, the motorcycle manufacturer with which they raced 46 years ago, winning that coveted international title.
The ceremony continued with the parade of all participating riders representing a total of 15 different nations:
Silvio Salvatore Marceca (United States)
Marco Bernasconi (Sweden)
David Donald and Ellan Syme (Great Britain)
Ryszard Augustyn, Piotr Wieckowski and Robert Wieckowski (Poland)
Laszlo Kalicsak, Patrik Linniger and Gyula Radanyi Zoltan (Hungary)
Franck Albert, Dominique Albert and Rudy Finet (Belgium)
Michael Hirschmugl, Peter Pernusch and Anton Reisenhofer (Austria)
Luuk Dolfing, Lenselink Lubert, Martin Schalkwijk, Andre Cornet, Freddy Dikkeboer, Wijlen Peter Van and Pahlte Whilem (Netherlands)
Harri Leppalaakso (team manager Finland)
Marcello Grigorov (team manager Switzerland)
Baldiri Olive Vives (team manager Spain)
Thierry Lacombe and Michel Marcoux (Canada)
Jean-Marc Bonnay (team manager France)
Weber Uwe (team manager Germany)
Francesco Mazzoleni (Italy team manager)
Eight are the teams who will compete for the victory of the prestigious Trophy that was brought up to the stage by Stefano Passeri (another of those prominent riders who won the Trophy back in 2019 in Portugal together with Mario Rinaldi and Giovanni Sala):
Poland represented by the riders Ryszard Augustyn, Piotr Wieckowski and Robert Wieckowski
Austria, with riders Michael Hirschmugl, Peter Pernusch and Anton Reisenhofer
Finland, with riders Harri Leppalaakso, Veli-Matti Makinen and Jukka Tapani Poulivali
Switzerland, with riders Roland Huguelet, Philippe Rast and Dany Wirz
Spain, with the riders Olive Vives Baldiri, Xavier Castey and Jordi Riera
France, with riders Laurent Charbonnel, Stephane Peterhansel and Thierry Viardot
Germany, with the pilots Johannes Steinel, Von Ziteviz Bert and Uwe Weber
And Italy, with riders Giorgio Grasso, Tullio Pellegrinelli and Enrico Tortoli, who were all welcomed on stage by a real standing ovation from the home crowd.
After the opening ceremony, the competitive spirit of the FIM Enduro Vintage Trophy continues with the first day of the competition, tomorrow Thursday, October 21st.
FIM Enduro Vintage Trophy