Gianluca Nannelli: “I went into a coma during the first race...”
Gianluca Nannelli: “I went into a coma during the first race...”
When I was six years old, I looked into the window of a Ducati dealership and my heart burst.‘ Gianluca Nannelli, 52, recounts the beginning of a visceral love for motorcycles that would accompany him throughout his life. But his family was terrified: ’I never had the chance to own a motorcycle. I only got my A licence in 2009."
His adolescence was a struggle: ‘I would go to the field where the boys rode their mini motocross bikes. I would stand there smelling the castor oil, but I couldn't do it.’ At 17, while working as a lifeguard, he bought a Cagiva VMX motocross bike: "I would go to the campsite, riding part of the way through the mountains and part on asphalt, without a licence. That's where I learned to drift and give payback with the tyre.‘
As a fan, he cried when his idols won: ’I felt like crying, the emotion was so strong. My dream was to become a Superbike World Championship rider with Ducati. Not to win the world championship, just to be one of them."
The turning point came late, but Nannelli made up for it with fierce determination. He raced with a broken collarbone in Valencia, finishing fourth: ‘Dr Corbacio made me a sling out of American tape. I could feel everything moving, but then you get used to it. In the last three laps, I was behind Jonathan Rea.’ At Assen, he raced without a left footrest in the rain: "I rested my foot on the swingarm, and the chain was eating into my boot. I made a crazy comeback.‘
In 2003, he won the CIV Supersport with the Yamaha R6. Then the World Supersport, Superbike and Moto2 Junior. In 2012, at the age of 39, he raced in the CIV Superbike with Michelin official: ’Track record at Mugello.‘ But something changed: ’At Vallelunga, I slept all night. I never slept before races. I was losing those tenths of a second on the flying lap. I realised that the tension was easing.‘
On Sunday morning, he decided: ’On the grid, I said, “This is the last race”. I finished fourth. I didn't want a slow decline.‘ Today, he has the Nannelli Academy for children: ’I do what I missed out on myself."
