WHEN MAN MEETS MACHINE
It’s hard to believe that 62-year-old Italian entrepreneur and diehard biker Genesio Bevilacqua’s story is for real – but please be assured, it is. The record books say that his privately owned Team Althea racing equipe completed an unlikely double-up dominance in 2011 of both the Superbike World Championship and the FIM’s World Superstock 1000 series, thanks to Spanish former MotoGP star Carlos Checa and young local rider Davide Giugliano respectively, both aboard Ducati 1098R desmo V-twins.
The fact the teams – named after his state-of-the-art Ceramica Althea ceramics factory located an hour north of Rome – scored two world titles in the same season in quite separate categories, running against all four Japanese manufacturers in each, as well as the colossal BMW and Aprilia factory teams, is hugely impressive. But the fact that Checa’s title was achieved very much against the odds aboard the supposedly obsolescent 1098R, and indeed marking the very last time a twin-cylinder motorcycle would ever win the WorldSBK crown, makes it incredibly so.
It gets better. It was also the last time a WorldSBK championship was won by a private team, with Bevilacqua himself very much a hands-on team manager responsible for guiding both his riders to their titles, rather than just a wealthy sponsor signing the cheques. But there was a downside.
“Being fully committed to world Superbike that season meant I had to give up classic racing for a year on my ex-Paolo Pileri 500 desmo Ducati single,” says Genesio with a grimace. “And I only managed two trackdays all year long at my local Vallelunga circuit – both during the summer break, when it was too hot to really enjoy riding.
“But winning
