Antonio Cairoli had promised it when he participated in the presentation of Borgo Panigale’s cross project: his return to racing was only a matter of time and so it was. The Ducati Desmo 450MX was developed on the track in the tests of the Italian MX1 Championship, and had debuted with Alessandro Lupino in March, now the time has come for champion Patti who took part in the fourth stage scheduled today in Ponte a Egola (PI).
Rain and mud
The race was affected by heavy rain which made the surface of the track very muddy, to the limit of practicability. In fact, during the first heat there were several falls, but Tony Cairoli made his experience count and, with about a quarter of an hour left to go, he overtook his teammate Lupino, taking the lead of the race. The positions now seemed to have crystallized with Cairoli easily maintaining his pace, but, two minutes from the end, he also made a mistake and was passed by Lupino who thus had the path to victory paved. At the same time, however, the race direction displayed the red flag due to the track being impracticable, the heat was therefore suspended and, as per the regulations, the final classification was that of the lap preceding the suspension: therefore Cairoli first, Lupino second and a good one-two for Ducati.
