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/830616
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE A man who helped revive Ducati, signed Randy Mamola to Cagiva when he was at his peak, helped turn Aprilia into a GP power- house, gave Valentino Rossi his first ride and later managed the likes of Max Biaggi, Loris Capirossi, Marco Simoncelli and now Andrea Iannone. You might call this man a mover and shaker in the racing world, or you could just call him Carlo Pernat. Pernat has been around the sport for de- cades. He can't walk more than a few steps in the paddock without someone stopping him to say hello. Pernat is also one of the key indi- viduals whose opinion those in power listen to. Yet perhaps even more importantly than being one of the major behind-the-scenes players in MotoGP, Pernat is happy for one reason—he followed his passions and as a result has lived a life being involved in the sport he loves. While he's been around racing all his life, in- cluding, as a kid of eight or nine, seeing firsthand many of the Italian racing greats like Renzo Pasolini and Giacomo Agostini, a good launching point to his story could be 1985. Pernat was on hand at a pivotal moment in Ducati history. At the time, he was with Cagiva, heading up the company's racing programs, including off-road, motocross and road racing. Pernat takes up the story from here: "In '85 Ducati was broken. They were barely producing any motorcycles, maybe 100 per year. The owner was the Italian government. I was there with Claudio and Franco (Castiglioni) when the Cagiva Group bought Ducati. They saved Ducati. They developed a new superbike and began racing and Ducati grew. If not for the Castiglionis, Ducati was dead. "It was a beautiful period. The Castiglioni broth- ers sent me to open Ducati in North America. It was in Los Angeles—Torrance. And we launched with the Ducati Paso, bravo! In red or blue and white, it was an unbelievable. We began to sell a lot of motorcycles. It went very well and after six months I returned to Italy." From there Pernat was assigned to help ad- vance Cagiva's GP racing team. Randy Mamola had just finished runner up to Wayne Gardener in the 1987 500cc Grand Prix World Championship, so it seemed rather ambitious for a less estab- lished team to go after him, but Pernat was unde- terred and managed to sign Mamola to race the new Cagiva GP500 alongside Raymond Roche. "It was a beautiful start," Pernat recalls. "We made the first podium in Francorchamps (Bel- gium) in the wet. It was unbelievable for Cagiva to earn a podium in the first year of the motorcycle." In 1990 Pernat accepted a lucrative offer to go to head up Aprilia's racing efforts. It was the start of perhaps Pernat's most successful period. Aprilia not only won numerous world champion- ships in the 125 and 250cc categories, Pernat also began a period of giving opportunities to rid- MOTOGP MOVER AND SHAKER P132 Carlo Pernat at COTA this year clowning around with Kenny Roberts. PHOTOGRAPHY BY LARRY LAWRENCE