Same stare, different bike. Falappa was one of Carl Fogaty's first Ducati team-mates in WSC.

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 Giancarlo 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 Brainerd's corners 10 mph faster than conventional wisdom, and his fellow riders, would say prudent. I think he wildly rode off the course on five or six consecutive corners on one lap, trying to go as fast as humanly possible, using that as the limit, and then backing off from there. It was an interesting technique.

"Who is that guy?" I asked his teammate, American Mike Baldwin, early in the '89 Brainerd weekend. Baldwin looked in the direction I was peering, then smiled like he was seeing a mental repeat of a favorite sit-com in his mind. "That's Falappa. You've got to see this guy," he answered.

Giancarlo Falappa on the YB4 Bimota in 1989. He rode it like a slick-shod motocross bike.
Raymond Roche, at one time Giancarlo's rival, then his team-mate, then team manager.
An Italian on an Italian bike. In Italy it does not get any better than this.

And, he was amazing. Aside from the sliding and near high-sides, Falappa did something we Brainerd club racers had never seen anyone do. He yanked gigantic wheelies out of (the then) new turn nine, stood 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.

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 WSC 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 then, even though Bimota's Davide Tardozzi almost won the first WSC title in 1988. It was occasionally a very decent racing motorcycle, and at other times it was not.

Meanwhile off the bike, he was like a randy sailor traveling from distant Singapore to New York: he liked life. And, lets face it, when a man rides like Giancarlo did, he may as well live like every day may be his last.

It wasn't until his second WSBK season that Giancarlo really began his descent/ascent into riding within known human limits, which brought more race wins and occasional consistency to his riding. By this time he'd switched to the Cagiva/Ducati team, spearheaded by coolly adversarial rider Raymond Roche. Roche seemed clearly threatened by having Falappa in the team, but Falappa acted and rode like he didn't even know Roche was alive.

Like many overly-aggressive young riders, Giancarlo's inevitable crashing gradually taught him to slow down, and with that came more race wins. There were injuries over the course of the next few seasons, all of which seriously damaged his championship hopes. He crashed at Mosport and broke his wrist, and then crashed in a big way in Austria of that year, breaking both femurs, a shoulder and re-breaking his wrist. It was a long climb back from that crash.

In time, things came around. In 1992, he doubled at Austria the scene of his big fall, won race two at Assen (Doug Polen won race one) and left his competitors with a strong memory at the end of the season by winning the final race of the year at New Zealand. He was back, calmer than before and faster. The new Falappa.

Giancarlo matured over time and his wild man days were slowly left in his dust trail. It all came together in 1993 when he won both rounds at Brands Hatch and topped everyone in the first race at Hockenhiem. He doubled yet again at Misano that year, won the second race in Austria and also the second race at Monza. He led the world championship that season and finished the season in fifth place.

1994 looked to be the season that Falappa could put together both the race wins and the consistency. Early in the season, he won race two at Misano and was second in the world championship to our Scott Russell. Giancarlo's then team-mate, Carl Fogarty, was fourth. After Misano came Albacete in Spain, and that's when it all came apart for Ducati's Giancarlo Falappa.