A FRANK EXCHANGE OF VIEWS
THE UK might have left the EU, but we still love all our European chums from ‘the Continent’. Especially the legendary racers who’ve come from Italy down the years. Valentino Rossi is top of the Euro-pops of course, but guys like Giacomo Agostini, Giancarlo Falappa and the sadly missed Marco Simoncelli have all grabbed the imagination of Brit race fans.
Pierfrancesco ‘Frankie’ Chili is definitely another man on that Italian hit list. He first appeared on the world scene in the late 1980s, dabbling in the three GP classes – 125, 250 and 500 (the 80cc class ended in 1989). But it was later on in the mid-1990s that he found his spiritual home – production-based superbike racing. Chili had some fiery tussles with Brit legend Carl Fogarty on Ducati 916 racebikes, before switching to the four-cylinder Suzuki GSX-R750 at the end of the century, then jumping back on to a Ducati for the final years of his race career in WSB.
He stayed at the sharp end for much of the 2000s, and his never-say-die attitude in races, plus his genuine, amiable demeanour off track endeared him to fans worldwide. Those chiselled film star looks made him a big hit with lady fans too, we understand, especially when he stripped off, and threw his leathers into the crowd post-race. His saucy reputation was further cemented after a post-race scrap with Foggy at Assen in 1998, Chili clad only in a shorty bathrobe…. Factor in WSBK’s enormous appeal in the UK in the 1990s and 2000s – when Brands
