The Ricardo Tormo circuit in Cheste, 20 kilometers from Valencia, has become the de facto event closing the MotoGP Grand Prix seasons. It has not always been the case…
The history of this essential place dates back very indirectly to the year 1952, when Ricardo Tormo blaya was born on September 7 near Xàtiva, in the province of Valencia. At the time, urban motorcycle races were frequently organized in the streets, as in the surrounding towns of Cullera, Alcira, Guadassuar and Gandia.
The young man quickly caught the virus, left school as soon as he could to work in his uncle's workshop, cut his teeth on a Ducson 50cc in the streets of Canals and, not yet being 21 years old , forged his parents' signature to obtain the national license that allowed him to race as a rider for the Moto Club of Xàtiva. In 1970, he secretly registered for a race at Cullera (the benchmark event) with a 75cc 5-speed Derbi purchased for 15 pesetas. He finished second there, but his father heard this on the radio and his first experience ended there, his license torn up.
Two years later, this time an adult and with the agreement of his father, he really began competing by winning a few local urban events, still in the province of Valencia, with the Derb 75cc but also an Ossa 250cc. Certainly, the routes are rudimentary, often made up of right-angled streets barely protected by a few bales of straw, but drivers as famous asAngel Nieto ou Benjamin Grau come and collect the departure bonuses...
These local successes allow Ricardo Tormo to participate in the Spanish championship in 1973, which he finished in 4th position, then to register with the support of Salvador Carsí senior, from Escudería Ferrys, for the Grand Prix in Jarama which then closed the Grand Prix season . He finished 10th after one lap on a Derbi 50cc and scored his first point, in a race where the third conceded more than a minute to the official Kreidler drivers,
Jan De Vries et Bruno Kneubühler
!
Anecdotally, the latter finished 2nd on the same day in 50cc, 250cc and 500cc: Other times, other customs!
But let's go back to Ricardo Tormo : His career was not yet launched and he participated in the 50cc national championship in 1974 with a private Derbi, a Bultaco and Kreidler in 1975, the year when a first accident immobilized him for 6 months...
…before becoming an official “Bultaco” pilot in 1976 with the help of the Spanish federation which financed the Piovaticci ofEugenio Lazarini (creation of technicians Jan Thiel and Martin Mijwaarts, now humorously known as Piovataco ou Bultacuicci). But the young Spaniard, not yet fully recovered from his injuries, preferred to resign, before later participating in the Spanish Grand Prix with his old Kreidler, in which he scored 5 points.
He returned to Bultaco in 1977, alongside Angel Nieto, and obtained 3rd place in the general classification of the world championship.
Unbeatable in the rain, the Valencian obtained his first title in 1978 by winning five of the seven races. Hey no, the 50cc are not on the program for all the Grands Prix…
In 1979, Bultaco experienced commercial difficulties and stopped production. The race service also stops and Ricardo Tormo concludes the championship in 17th position.
The following year, the RFME (Spanish Federation) rented the Kreidler van Veen for Ricardo Tormo in 1980. He won a race and finished 4th in the championship.
In 1981, he brought out his “old” factory Bultacos with his former mechanic Ángel Carmona, and with the sponsorship of Motul and always with the support of the Spanish Federation, achieved the impossible and won a new 50cc world title!
Note, completely to the right in the photo, a certain Jorge Martinez known as “Aspar” who was only a mechanic at the time…
From there, things will get a little complicated. The Bultaco was overtaken in 1982 and the Valencian only obtained one podium in 50cc. He is also an official Sanvenero rider in 125cc and finished 5th in the championship.
In 1983, “Ricardet” uses a 50cc Garelli (and a 125cc MBA) and won the last “coffee cup” Grand Prix at Imola, the category increasing to 80cc the following year.
1984 must be the year of renewal, as an official Derbi driver alongside Aspar.
Alas, Ricardo Tormo seriously injures his right leg while training in the industrial zone of Martorelles (near Barcelona, given that at the time there were only two permanent circuits, Jarama and Calafat), which brought his racing career to an abrupt end and resulted in 27 operations.
From then on, the man who became team manager of the official Derbi team will continue to work for the construction of the permanent circuit in his region, in Valencia, where Jorge Martínez “Aspar” supported by the grandfather of Adrian Campos, the former Formula 1 driver, as well as the local Motorcycling Federation are already very favorable to the idea of having a speed circuit in the Valencian Community, considering the past rather folkloric of the region in this matter. The idea actually dates from 1973…
Three municipalities offer free land: Guadasuar, Sagunto and Cullera, the latter being very motivated, due to the presence of the essential president of the Moto Club of Cullera, Salvador Gascón, who is at the same time president of the company that promotes said project.
In addition, Cullera organizes at least one Spanish championship event every year and generates popular enthusiasm that can be difficult to understand today.
Here are some tasty examples, distilled by one of our Spanish correspondents, the former pilot Josep Mª Mallol, which is not totally unrelated to the young person's forged signature Ricardo Tormo...
The first is this photo revealing a whole atmosphere: Ángel Nieto in Cullera, standing on the first step of a podium of the Trofeo Bahía de los Naranjos made up of four crates of oranges turned over and considering with disbelief the size of the cup...
One of the straight lines of the Cullera circuit ended at the entrance to the cemetery. On the day of the race, the door of the latter was left open as an escape route in the event of a failed braking. The other anecdote concerns a chicken breeder located near the circuit. He raised his chickens and sold his eggs, by the thousands. After the first race, the hens stopped laying eggs for two weeks. Today, this would probably be the subject of a complaint, but instead of protesting, the good farmer put on music for his chickens to get them used to hearing something, and there was never again problems in the following years.
Cullera has even studied an ambitious layout for its permanent circuit, with a bridge like at Suzuka…
But after many debates and negotiations, it was finally Cheste, less touristy and in the immediate vicinity of Valencia and its airport as well as the Valencia-Madrid axis, which was chosen in the years 88-89 to host the circuit, in an area of rich irrigated land for agriculture called “Cambrillas”, consisting of a farm of approximately 300 ha belonging to the Generalitat. This will nevertheless provoke a demonstration by farmers on the day of the project's exhibition at the Casa de la Cultura de Cheste, the latter fearing negative repercussions for their activities.
Ricaro Tormo is then appointed technical advisor to the project. We see him on the left in this photo, with “Aspar”, the real linchpin of the project.
The first stone was laid on October 18, 1989 in the presence of Jorge Martínez “Aspar”, Julián Miralles and Javier Debón, 125cc European champion… And that’s almost all!
The work is making almost no progress, on the one hand due to the economic crisis which does not make it possible to pay all the expropriations and puts the construction of the circuit on the back burner, but also due to the discovery of two Roman villas on the land. on which the speed circuit was to be built.
One of them was excavated and its remains, including a tombstone, found their destination at the headquarters of the Institute of Regional Studies of Buñol, while the other, very damaged, was left as is at the place where she was. Today it is marked by an olive tree, next to a bend.
The years pass and construction stagnates. Local bikers meet every Sunday to demonstrate and demand the resumption of work, but it was not until the arrival of the new government in 1996 that all the land was finally expropriated in a financially suitable manner.
Jorge Martínez “Aspar” gets impatient: “We cannot understand that a community like Valencia which has had drivers at the forefront of the World Championship for 25 years does not have a circuit. You know what ? Five years ago, 60% of the drivers on the starting grids of national circuits were Valencian. Today, there are barely five. The current government of the Generalitat, controlled by the Popular Party, has understood this and is leading a circuit that will, through its design and structure, be the envy of the world. »
But the construction of the circuit continued to be slow until 1998, 10 years after the decision to build, when things came to life in an almost frenzied manner, both to put pressure on a Catalonia-Barcelona circuit in the crosshairs of Dorna because of its lack of spectators, but above all because the political majority has changed sides...
The Valencian Community circuit will in fact be finally built in a period of less than a year, day and night by 400 workers, from late 1998 to 1999 !
Sadly, suffering from leukemia, Ricardo Tormo will never see “his” circuit completed. He died on December 27, 1998 at the age of 46.
It was at this time that we considered naming it Circuito Ricardo Tormo, at the instigation of Jorge Martínez Aspar et Angel Nieto, his personal friends.
In May 1999, the first IRTA tests took place, dominated by Alex Criville in 1'37.375 on his 500 Honda, compared to the current record of 1'29.401 held by Jorge Lorenzo for 2016 ...
Alex Criville says: “Although it lacks a bit of grip because the track is still dirty, what I liked the most is that the grandstand is close and the fans will be able to follow the race very closely” while Sete Gibernau notice that “For the displacement of 500 cc, the circuit is a little too small for us.”
The Ricardo Tormo circuit was inaugurated on September 19, 1999 by the king Juan Carlos I during the first Grand Prix. Those who saw him run said that Ricardo Tormo was a great driver in the dry but was invincible in the wet.
That day, after a sunny week, it started to rain. It was said that “these were the tears of Ricardo who had not been able to attend the first Grand Prix on a circuit for which he had fought so hard”.
Regis Laconi won the 500cc race, the last Frenchman to have won the premier category before a certain fabio quartararo...
Today, the statue of Ricardo Tormo dominates those of other Spanish champions, such Jorge Martínez “Aspar”, Ángel Nieto, Bernat Martínez, Manuel “Champi” Herreros, Adrián Campos or Nico Terol.
Photo credits: Soymotor.com, El Mundo Deportivo, La Vanguardia, Motociclismo, pilotos-muertos.com and others.
