THE AUSSIES ARRIVE
After Chili, in 1999 Ducati decided to have only one team and they decided that Tardozzi would run it, with Bruno working for him, with Troy Corser as the rider. Fogarty won the championship in ’99, and then was hurt in 2000. Corser was soon to leave Ducati. Bayliss was next to arrive on the scene in the wake of career ending injuries to Carl Fogarty. Leoni takes up the story: “Bayliss, his first race at Sugo, he start the first race, in the first corner a Japanese rider crashed and Troy crashed big. First race weekend – zero, zero. “After this was Donington Park and we had Cadalora. He had a lot of experience, but he stopped in practice for a cigarette and coffee. All the guys were looking at each other. Bayliss came back at Monza, in the first corner at the brake point he passed three riders, I remember this. Incredible situation.” Davide reflects: “We had Cadalora, who was a good friend of mine. He got an offer to replace Fogarty but he was not convinced about doing this and at Donington it did not go well, so for the following race we asked for Bayliss to come back at Monza. Bruno was his chief mechanic, and that was the beginning of his story with Troy.” Bruno says Troy was his favourite rider, something Tardozzi confirms: “Yes, I am sure that is true. Listen, I have seen things that I cannot believe; no way in this world. With Troy, people who want to beat him are not able to hate him. Troy was able to get respect from the other competitors.” After much success in WSBK, Ducati decided to challenge at the pinnacle of motorcycle racing, Motogp. Bruno Leoni and Troy Bayliss moved over to the GP side of Ducati Corse and success was immediate, as Loris Capirossi remembers: “I knew Bruno before because always I follow Superbike and knew he was working for them for a long time. “In the beginning everything was easy, it was the first time for Ducati in Motogp, the team was smaller and we were working really closely together to try to develop the bike. I was working with Bracco, and Bruno was the chief mechanic for Troy.” Vittoriano Guareschi was a team-mate to Valentino Rossi on the Cagiva factory bike in the Italian 125cc National Championships before a long successful career in racing, testing, and team management. He takes up the story: “I knew Bruno from 1988 when he was doing the Superbike with Bimota and Tardozzi and I was doing the 125 Italian Championship on a production bike. “From 2001 I started with Ducati, and did the one season in Supersport before going to the Motogp project in 2002 with Bayliss and Loris Capirossi. For eight years I was the Ducati test rider for Motogp. The Motogp project was new and we made a lot of secret tests, we brought the whole crew with Bruno from World Super Bike as we were very strong in World Super Bike. The beginning was very tough, but immediately we were in the top of the class, finished the first race with Capirossi in third position, and Troy Bayliss in fifth. This was a dream for me as I was watching in Bologna with the test team.” Finishing on the podium in Ducati’s first Motogp race was a stunning result. Loris Capirossi: Yeah, for sure, because nobody expected it, we had a lot more electronics than anybody as Ducati is quite strong on that side. The chassis was quite soft, with the bike moving and shaking a lot; the bike was moving, I was fighting always with the bike; the tyres are always spinning. The relationship with Troy Bayliss was great. The 2003 bike, I have inside of my house.” Bruno was playing a major role in Ducati’s success. Loris Capirossi continues: “Bruno won a lot of championships, World Super Bike with Troy, then Motogp with Casey, and with Marc Marquez. For sure he is a good guy. I really like him as he was born really close to where I was born. Many times we talk in our dialect, not Italian. It’s good working with people who have the same mentality and that love motorcycles.” In 2006, Gibernau arrived to race the Ducati in place of Bayliss. It did not go well, but when Bayliss won the World Super Bike Championship it earned him another race in Motogp and he won. Bruno reflects: “Ducati as a present for him said ‘okay, you win World Championship in Super Bike, you ride the Ducati at the Motogp race.’” The first year of the 800cc Motogp brought great success as Bruno started his relationship with Casey Stoner. Casey rode an incredible season with a difficult bike which no one else could ride. Bruno remembers with fondness: “In the beginning it was really fast. And Casey Stoner is my second favourite guy right behind Bayliss. A very different character, as Bayliss is every time it’s a team. The team is your family. Casey was more with his wife, not so much with the team.” Bruno moved with Casey over to Honda, and yet another World Championship. For his debut season in Motogp, Marc Marquez inherited Bruno Leoni from the retired Casey Stoner. Bruno assesses his rider: “Marc Marquez is just phenomenal, in the first year to win, incredible. The way he rides the bike is fearless.” Bruno Leoni now works with yet another Motogp World Champion, Nicky Hayden. Davide Tardozzi perhaps sums up Bruno best: “For me Bruno is still a friend like he was when we were younger. A friend who shared a hobby, a passion, and for me he is still a guy like that. Somebody I’ve known since we were very young, together since the start through the bad times.”