Cycle News

P80 Interview F O R M E R DA K A R R A L LY R AC E R B E P P E G U A L I N I was ahead, 'Danger, Warning.' There were mines on the road. You have to follow the line be- cause [it] was near the border. The truck moved 10 meters off and explode. It's so hard, so risky. It's like going to Afghanistan. Could be you never come back." But there were other, happier stories Gualini keeps close to his heart regarding the world's most famous races, including when, on the Atlas Rally, he broke a pis- ton and was stuck in the middle of the Moroccan desert with a dead motorcycle. "I have the Cagiva in the sec- ond race, the Cagiva 125 two- stroke," Gualini says. "There was a big storm, so the air become less [dense]. When I closed the throttle, the piston, small like a finger, stopped the engine. No compression. I opened the engine, saw the piston, and said, 'f---. I have no possibility [to fix the engine]. "I have my jacket with all the engine on the ground. Then start to come some village people, chil- dren and old men, and say, 'what do you want to do?' I say, 'noth- ing.' I can do nothing. I can't weld. I can't weld a piston because it's aluminum. I need arc welding. "A young man said, 'soudage de l'arc village!' [There is an arc welder in the village]. So, take, I think, $100. I tear it in half. I said, 'keep it. I give you the piston. If you come back, you have the other [half].' It was a lot of money. "The guy start with a bicycle and disappear. Disappeared and soon it becomes night, and arrives the last car of the convoy with the doctor who said, 'what are you doing? You jump with us in the car?' I said, 'no.' "He told me I must sign [a release document]. "'If you refuse, after, is your problem,' he said. I have the worst night. "It was I think 11 p.m. or mid- night. If I sign [the release docu- ment], I am f---ed. But my feeling was I think the guy could arrive. At 1 a.m., I hear the bicycle. He arrive with the piston! I put in the piston, but we have a big problem be- cause the welding was too high. So I start to clean [the piston] on a stone. There was an old man watching who said, 'Stupid! This is the good stone,' so he give me the good stone to do [grind down the piston]. I spent I think half an hour to clean all the piston. I put inside the engine, try to start. No start. But, there were children because they stayed with me all the time. Children and the old man, and he said, 'Push! Push!' and the engine starts. I finished the rally and won the category. When I said that I got the piston welded in the desert, nobody believed me." With the madness of 65 African rallies now firmly in the rearview mirror, Gualini knows he's lived a special life many can only dream of. "For each Paris-Dakar, there are a thousand stories. When you start, and each night you arrive in the finish, you are like a family. "What is my satisfaction, I was not only in Italy but in all the world and all of Europe, I was the most famous because I was what a rider dreamed [of]. I was a private rider that with his energy, his founding sponsor, and race alone without mechanic. I was the first Italian rider to do an African rally. I am very thankful for my life. "I am a lucky man because I have the opportunity to live real adventures and I can tell these stories." CN Senegal, Dakar, 1987. Gualini rode three years with Suzuki, one on the DR600 and two with the legendary DR 700 Big.

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