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TO HELL AND BACK
Words & Pics: Terry Stevenson.



Franco Uncini’s 1983 crash at Assen almost killed him and nearly ended Wayne Gardner’s career, yet the 1982 world 500cc champion survived and made a return to racing. Terry Stevenson talks to the likeable Italian about his darkest hour.

In half a heartbeat, the world dramatically changed for the defending 500cc world champion when he was kicked out of his seat and thrown high into the air. When Franco Uncini picked himself up off the Assen tarmac that fateful day in 1982 he headed for the grass on his hands and knees – directly into the path of another rider. His life almost ended there and then. Uncini’s helmet was struck by Wayne Gardner’s front fork which sent the Italian champion’s helmet flying in pieces, while Uncini was spun around like a rag doll in a chilling moment for all the world to see. On live TV, it looked like he’d never, ever recover, let alone race again.

Racing a factory Suzuki RG500 Gamma for Team Gallina, Uncini recounts that near-fatal incident during the 1983 Dutch TT, “I remember what happened, for sure, I know perfectly from the others but, not in my memory. The fact was I saw many mentions of the incident. I saw movie of the incident because the camera was in that place, a lot of times!”

Gardner had been closely following Kenny Roberts and Jack Middleburg exiting a corner on the second lap but, by the time they had moved to avoid Uncini, it was too late, he took to the grass to avoid the world champion but Uncini went straight into Gardner’s Honda RS500.

It was Gardner’s first ever 500cc Grand Prix and he, too, recalls that near-fatal moment. “I couldn’t avoid him. I ended up in hospital, and I visited him in hospital and he was in a coma and, mate, it was the greatest shock I’ve ever had! I was ready to retire at that point in time! I cried my whole way back to the UK from Assen, but fortunately Franco came out of his coma and got better,” Gardner says.
Uncini took the Team Gallina seat vacated by 1981 world 500cc champ Marco Lucchinelli, who left to join Freddie Spencer on Honda’s new V3 triple.

Back In The Saddle
A former law student, Uncini recovered enough from his crash to continue his racing activities the following season. But for years after the big crash, fans across the globe have wondered why Uncini never rode as well as his 1982 title year. Put quite simply, from his 1983 defending year onwards the bikes Uncini was handed were not up to title winning standard.

Now 54, Uncini explains, “The first part of the season of 1984 I got some good results, but I did not feel very good. But then after the second half of the season in 1984 I feel good, and in 1985 I feel good riding, but I did not feel good for the bike, for the team, fighting for sixth, seventh or eighth position.”

Because of the serious nature of the incident no-one expected Uncini to repeat that 1982 500cc world title, where New Zealander Graeme Crosby placed second - ahead of Freddie Spencer, Kenny Roberts and Barry Sheene. But Uncini never got the chance to fight for the lead again, as a result of the mistaken perception of teams and sponsors, by season’s end, that his career was truly over.

“The only reason why I stopped racing was because my bike was not good enough. And at the time I had no manager to let me change from Suzuki, from (Roberto) Gallina to another company. So I was waiting for a call from them, I did not receive so ‘OK, it’s time to retire’.”

World champ and no manager! Uncini’s best 1983 results before his crash was a fourth in the Italian GP on his HB Suzuki, although he still closed the season with enough points for equal eighth overall. 1984 was worse with only three finishes, for a best of fifth, again on home soil, followed by a single finish in ’85, also at the Mugello track.
“That year I had to stop, but when I start in 1984, the first part of the 1984 year was not good. Except the results, because the results were not so very bad, we got good results. But not very good because the bike was horrible, in 1984! It was horrible in 1983 and 1984, and also in 1985.”

Good Vintage
Suzuki awarded Uncini his title winning RG500, which is now kept in a museum in his hometown of Recanati, Italy. Not surprisingly he liked racing the 1982 bike, “The bike was really good, but I cannot say it was the best because I never rode the Honda or the Yamaha, or the others, but I was satisfied about my combination with Suzuki and Michelin. It was a fantastic bike, it was enjoyable!”

1982 was a very interesting year with Honda introducing their first two-stoke NS500 V3 after giving up on their oval-piston NR500, with fast Freddie Spencer at the helm. Kork Ballington raced the Kawasaki square four with an unusual monocoque chassis, and Kenny Roberts raced Yamaha’s first V4 - with Graeme Crosby as team-mate.
But was Freddie Spencer really that good? “Freddie was really fantastic! The first part of the race was incredibly fast. I don’t know if Michelin already start to make a test with the warmer [softer] tyre, but it was very fast. The real difference with the others was the first laps, then he was always fast and away. A part of this was anyway a very fast rider. Gosh, I mean, he was world champion in 250, 500!”

Franco Uncini was a good rider too! “Ah, for sure! I have no doubt about this - I became world champion, so it is written in the books!”

That year his picture graced the cover of Motocourse, where he was also voted in first position in the top ten of the world’s best riders. In his foreword at the time Uncini included, “I did not consider that I was lucky this year, but I was not unlucky.”

Indeed, his 1982 500cc championship-winning season was a good year! “It was a great year. A lot of fast bikes with many, many good riders. I can tell you some names like Lucchinelli, the former world champion, Barry Sheene, Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Kork Ballington, Boet van Dulmen, Jack Middleburg, many many many. It was a very good year and it was a fantastic season. I had a very good season because my bike was an excellent bike, as many others, because also Randy Mamola had my bike, Virginio Ferrari had a similar bike. But I had a very good feeling with my bike and my team so it was fantastic that I won the championship before the end of the season!”

Racing against that sort of talent and winning a total of five Grand Prix was difficult enough! “To win is always difficult because in my time, ten years before, ten years after, now, always very difficult to win the championship. So it was a good fight with good riders.”

Legendary Opponents
Understandably there were three hard men he had to beat in order to win. “At that time it was Kenny Roberts and Barry Sheene, but also Freddie Spencer. When he was on the circuit I had a big fight with him. Two races I won and he was second. It was very close.”

But you can’t expect to beat these guys every race. The best race he didn’t win was at Spa-Francorchamps. “I was leading the first part of the race with Freddie Spencer second, Barry Sheene third, and in fourth Kenny Roberts. And I got big vibration on the front wheel, starting with a small vibration, then more and more. I finished the race in third position and the reason for this vibration was that the tyre had a kind of ball on the side, and it was touching this ball on the brake, opening also the brake pads! I finish third, insisting, insisting to keep going with the front wheel wrong, but not enough to win.”

One memorable race took place at Assen in 1982, in the rain. “It was difficult to remain on the bike in the first part, with a slick tyre and a lot of water it was really difficult. So it was my hardest and also the most fun because the start of the race was a push start, and I always start as last one, always! And that race, I start as first, so for me it was something very strange. When I switched on the engine, I opened my eyes and I see nobody in front of me, I was so surprised - impossible!”

Proud Heritage
Uncini started racing in 1974 and entered his first GP two years later, riding in the 250 and 350 classes. In 1977 he raced with the Aermacchi Harley-Davidson team, with Walter Villa. “In ’78 I was racing with Yamaha Venemoto, but that was a quite bad season, it was difficult for me because I was racing with the Venezuelan team. No good relationship with my mechanic and, in ’79, I decided to move to 500. So I raced from ’79 to ’85 in 500, so lots of Italians were in the highest class!”

The popular Italian raced against Graziano Rossi, Valentino’s father. “Graziano was good. Everybody wants to know if he was as good as Valentino. I have to say ‘No’. I am sorry but Graziano, I had a good relationship with Graziano, but Valentino is different, nothing to do with Graziano.”

Strangely, the fast Italian wore a shirt and tie under his leathers, just to look good on the podium! He was promoted heavily as a playboy at the time by his sponsors, Playmen, at times pulling a lot of media attention. “When I won, yes, because when you win for sure all the media attention is to you, also during the season it was like that.” But he says it is was nothing like today’s media frenzy, “Less, because now it is different. The management of the championship now is done by Dorna, they create big interest, and now there are more journalists and more television.”

Uncini says four-stroke bikes are much easier to race because of their smooth power delivery. “The two-stroke bike in my time were with an engine which was much less horsepower but it was similar to a turbo engine, so nothing on the bottom and at a certain moment a lot of power! And it was really difficult to control, also the tyres had good grip but, at a certain moment, no grip - slide. It was difficult to control. So it was a kind of a compromise, difficult to reach.”

Since 1993 Uncini came back into Grand Prix for Dorna, which evolved into his current role as rider safety officer on the Safety Commission.

“I was to improve for television, for media, for many other things they need an ambassador, but no-one to care about the safety of the riders because at the time the federation was just starting to think to make the circuits safer. Now I can say they very care about the safety of the rider and we improve a lot together. In the beginning it was different riders but an example now, it is Valentino Rossi, Loris Capirossi, Chris Vermeulen, Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, and Claude Dennison from the federation, myself, on behalf of all the other riders, and Carmelo Ezpeleta, and since 2003 together we improve a lot of the circuits.”

“New Zealand - we miss a race track in New Zealand. We were once at Manfield in 1992, I ran the World Superbike team for Ducati, with Doug Polen and [Carlo] Fallapa. So, we miss a race in New Zealand - you need to have a race track in New Zealand! Try to improve that circuit and we will come!”

Check out YouTube for that famous crash and today, Uncini rides a Honda Hornet 600 on the roads of his hometown in Italy.


From BRM #60