From Varese to the conquest of motocross, the Paris Dakar and the 500 class of the World Championship: this is the history of Cagiva, acronym of Castiglioni Giovanni Varese, a brand that one of its founders mourns today, that is Gianfranco Castiglioni, who died at the age of 80 following a long illness. Gianfranco together with his brother Claudio in 1978 took over the Amf-Harley Davidson in liquidation and shortly thereafter was able to build small and medium displacement motorcycles. Under the leadership of the Castiglioni brothers, Cagiva grew to the point of buying and relaunching some historic brands such as Ducati (together with Moto Morini and Husqvarna), acquired in the mid-1980s. In 1987 in San Marino, then, the CRG, the Cagiva Research Center, was founded, where the bikes capable of establishing themselves in the Paris Dakar and in the 500 class of the World Championship were born.
In 1990 Edi Orioli the first won Paris-Dakar riding a Cagiva Elefant, repeating itself in 1994. In the 500 class, however, Eddie Lawson won in Hungary in 1992 (the year in which Cagiva also took over and relaunched the MV Agusta brand) riding the C592 the first grand prix in the premier class of the Cagiva, which collected two more successes in 1993 with John Kocinski in Laguna Seca and in 1994 again with the American in Australia, a season in which Kocinski finished third in the standings behind world champion Mick Doohan (Honda rider) and two points behind Luca Cadalora, second with Yamaha. 1994 was the last season in the 500 class for Cagiva, which ended with 3 victories, 12 podiums, 6 pole positions and 3 fastest laps in the race.
The adventure in the motocross, with two world titles won in the 125 class with the Finnish Pekka Vehkonen and the Dutch David Strijbos in 1985 and 1986. After MV Agusta there have been years of sales and reacquisitions of the relaunched brands, including the Schiranna brand, which in the meantime only one year old, it will first be sold to Harley Davidson and then handed over to the Castiglioni brothers. After motorcycling Gianfranco Castiglioni devoted himself to another great passion of his, basketball, holding the position of president of Varese basketball from 2001 to 2017 within a period of time in which he was patron of the company from 2000 to 2010. The FormulaPassion.it editorial team joins the grief and pain of his wife Santa and children Claudio and Davide.
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