Returning this year to Misano, in the heart of this truly historic region for motorcycling, we will of course visit again at the scene of Nicky Hayden's accident to see if the minimalist memorial has begun to give way to the mentioned park.
We will also not be able to fail to see the various monuments bearing the effigy of Marco Simoncelli nor to go to Tavullia for the VR 46 evening.
But, staying every year in Riccione, in the continuity of Misano Adriatico, we cannot forget that Angelo Bergamonti lost his life there on April 4, 1971., in a race against Giacomo Agostini made dantesque by heavy rain.
"Hey guys, don't you have anything better to do than spend hours on a subject like this?" »
Sorry dear reader, we won't repeat ourselves: when we go to Valencia, we visit the abandoned circuit of Sitges, when we go to Barcelona, we visit theabandoned Derbi factory, and by dint of wandering the streets of Riccione, we want to know where the circuit was precisely, which obviously no one knows anymore, even in Italy, and what really happened there.
This last point is undoubtedly the least difficult to elucidate.
As described in our previous topic, events were organized from the post-war period all along the Adriatic coast, a region which combines both an almost infinite seaside as well as an abundant and passionate population.
The first race takes place in Tortoreto but the following ones are grouped in Emilia-Romagna, in Cervia (Milano Marittima), Lugo, Cesenatico, Rimini, Riccione and Cattolica, even Pesaro. We will group them under the generic name of Mototemporada Romagnola.
The “circuits” are urban and, given the seafront, are most often limited to a few bales of straw scattered around the right-angle turns that connect a handful of straight streets.
The races were gradually officially grouped into the Italian championship in 1962, but 1960 already marked a major change with the opening of the Mototemporada Romagnola to foreign riders.
Therefore, as the races take place at the start of the season, many international riders come to “train” by receiving a bonus, and to fine-tune their motorcycles, official or not, in these local races.
Among them, nothing less than names like Hailwood, Read, Duff, Herrero, Redman, Ivy, Simmonds, Findlay, Carruthers or Andersson, came to mingle with the Italians, the most famous of whom were Agostini, Pasolini, Provini, Pagani, Bergamonti, Spaggiari, Parlotti, Grassetti, Villa or Buscherini : in short, beautiful people!
Jim Redman, Honda 250cc, Riccione March 31, 1963 – Mototemporada Romagnola.
In 1971, former Morini, Paton, Benelli and Aermacchi driver, Angelo Bergamonti is official MV Agusta, next to Giacomo Agostini. The 2 men race on 3 cylinders, in 350cc and 500cc. The new darling of the Italians, Bergamonti, won the 350cc race in Modena and, for the first time, beat his illustrious teammate in 500cc in Rimini before arriving in Riccione for a Mototemporada race scheduled for March 28 on the street circuit called “Pearl Green” (the green pearl).
Unfortunately, a strong wind and heavy rain were present, and Amedo Ronci, patron and president of the Moto Club of Riccione, wisely decided to postpone the international race until the following week, which had never happened before.
After a few sunny days, the pilots are gathered again on the seafront, but the weather is even worse than the previous week. The rain increased at the start of the 350 cc race during which Giacomo Agostini took the lead. The asphalt is truly flooded, with, as the video shows, huge stagnant puddles conducive to aquaplaning.
Angelo Bergamonti leaves cautiously on the handlebars of his MV Agusta #6, then launches into a frenzied chase. In the seventh round, Gussola's man found Ago still far away but in his line of sight. The one that the Tifosi nickname “Berga” accelerates again but a puddle betrays him on the straight. After his fall, some will say that his motorcycle hit him, others that it was the sidewalk. Never mind. The unfortunate 32-year-old pilot died in the evening at the Bellaria hospital in Bologna where he had been transferred from that of Riccione in view of his desperate condition.
However, the race was not even stopped (the 500cc race was canceled) and triggered a real witch hunt, with investigations and accusations of all kinds, prosecutions of the organizers, etc., which will culminate through an interministerial commission to stop racing on urban circuits in Italy, thus repealing the circular from the Ministry of Tourism of June 30, 1962.
An era was now over, when the competition was in the streets, with its screaming motorcycles and its riders dressed in black leather that you could almost touch as they passed behind the straw bales...
The Misano circuit that we know today, however, did not wait for this tragedy to be planned since it was designed in 1969 and started work from 1970, under the name "Santa Monica International Circuit» (named thus until 2006). It was inaugurated on August 4, 1972 in Misano-Adriatico, and had a route then very similar to what we still find today.
The Riccione circuit:
In this region also strongly marked by Mussolini's holiday camps, there is almost no information on the route of the Riccione circuit, except that it was located directly on the seafront, between San Martino square and the canal, passing through Roma Square.
The two straight lines ran alongside each other over a large part of the route, simply separated by a central reservation, whereas today this area has been redeveloped into a promenade for pedestrians.
However, by studying it carefully, the video is very useful to us since it allows us to identify certain hotels still present today.
Thus, we recognize the Abner hotel in the foreground on the straight…
…and the Nuovo Fiore ice cream parlor.
Some camera shots also show that we were making a big chicane on Roma Square (formerly Sea Square) before continuing towards the canal.
An S also suggests that we went around the block before returning to the main straight line via the Fiore glacier. We see it in this photo from the 1970 edition.
Despite all our efforts, we found nothing at the other end of the circuit, San Martino Square, which will undoubtedly give an additional purpose to our trip to Misano...
So here is our current hypothesis.
sources: Massimo Falcioni, YouTube, Riccione Sparita, Pinterest, Google Street View, Via Michelin, etc.
