Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128326
o pularity is a fleeting thing for many in the fickle world of motorcycle racing. Hero on the podium , forgotten man once the leathers are hung up P for good. And it's not as ifcontemporary success in itself is any gauge of popularity either. The things that made the likes of Carl Fogarty and Mick Doohan so successful and worshipped by their countrymen were a steely gaze and a distain for the world outside their own focus of winning - an attitude that frequently made them unpopular or at least misunderstood outside their own countries. Respected? Of course. Liked? Loved? Engendering warmth and affection with every snarl and glare? Hmmmm ... not always. There are "people's champions" and "people's champions," but when it comes to a global audience, from South Africa to San Francisco, Adelaide to Abruzzo , there are none who can touch Pier-Francesco Chili , a man who will be knocking on 40 just as you're about to read this. Still winning, leading the World Superbike Championship after an astonishingly emotional and unlikely recent win at Misano (just down the road from his Bologna residence), Chili was propelled back into global focus in amazing fashion. We asked the man himself why the wo rld loves him - other than for his wondrously tortured eloquence when speaking in English, of course. After a good old humble laugh, he replied: " I think because always I say the truth. I never lied to make some advantage to get a factory bike. Always I say the truth , and sometimes the truth is not political. I am not PRo Also, when I ride, on any type of motorcycle, I try to ride at more than 100 percent. Any time I meet anyone in the paddock, I can keep my face up - I don't have anything to feel ashamed about ." Here are I0 reasons why we all love Frankie so much. Pier-Francesco Chili has so me of th e most di ehard fans in world. -- Chili postvictory celebrotions often turn into a striptease - they provide some lucky an w ith the ultimate memorabilia, his leathers. 2. Emotion: No stranger to his lachrymal gland, Chili could keep a decent-sized Kleenex factory working overtime. As one of his American rivalsonce said, Chili "just lives on emotion, is a walking definition of emotion." You can see his point, as Chili - racetrack Chili, at least - is never far from a wicked and completely genuine grin, or a pout ing, wrinkled bottom lip, or a flood of heartfelt tears - or even an incandescent blaze of sheer rage, fueled by his low to lerance of any transgress ion of his own sharp view of right and wrong . Look closely and you can see a heart beating away on Chili's sleeve. 3. Looks: I can't say the man does it for me - wrong gender, I guess - but the average woman undeniably feels a skipping of the heart and a stirri ng of the hormones when film sta r Frankie graces her with a winning smile. Even the constant presence of his lovely and loving wife, Romina, and his obvious status as serious family man, do little to dissuade his adoring female fans from making their des ires clear. Move over, George Clooney. vity: Few people have a lo ng career as Pi r n the same way that ydu ding at Donington's in 1984, caught in a 1976 Barry Sh ime warp as Bazza nogged his off-the-pace ~uzuki around midpack, you can still see fans at the back of Chili's pit with out landish 7s (Frankie's number) bolted to the tops uildingsite safety hats. This sight is revalent in Italy but Frankie fans , be seen everywhere on t e World Superbike trail. "I have kept going this tivation," long because I still have the said Chili, "and that is impo When Foggy [Carl Fogarty) retired, that he didn't have any more Maybe he dreamed once more won the race in Misano!?" Everybqdy lovesscm Who tries, and thus Chili h C0lIeeted fans for 20 years. 4. Unde rdog: Chili always seems to start each season as a favorite for wins, but not for the overall biggest prize. Seldom on the receiving end of competitive factory rides, Chili's wins always seem to come, if not exactly in adversity, then with a little spark of something extra that Chili can conjure on occasions - but does not have just a click of the fingers away every weekend. "When I was with Suzuki, you could say it was a factory www.cyclenEWs.com CYCLE N EWS • JUNE 2, 2004 33