Di quella volta che, per caso, incontrai su un sentiero Emilio Ostorero

On a trail in the Val di Susa a Gramps accompanied me on an old Panda 4×4. Two bars on the bikes, he does his Vecchio. Scusi, but she is mica Ostorero?

There was a time in which his name was legendary. Motocross was in its infancy, stuff of pioneers, and he was the most incredibly talented. The specialty had already spread throughout Europe, but only in those years, at the end of the fifties, really he began to be followed and known to the public. Then was his name that usually was at the top of the list at the end of a race: Emilio Ostorero.

I was born long after, too late for Emilio Ostorero could be an idol of my era. However my passion for motorcycles and for its history took me several times to come across in his name on old books and old charts. One day I asked Umberto Borile if he had a motorcycle hero, and he answered without hesitation: Emilio Ostorero. (Leggi qui l’intervista) Then I gathered information and tried some more information of the few I owned as to who was the son of a boatman of Lake Avigliana, in Val Di Susa which in the sixties he had been able to win not one but 16 national titles. Classe 1934, He ran up to 1974 and ten years later, in 1984, for fun participated in the Rally of the Pharaohs. She had never done a rally in the desert before then, was fifty, He not competed for ten and presented himself at the start with a single-cylinder Honda. Nevertheless he closed sixth.

Last week, I followed a path in Val Di Susa, not far from Avigliana and the Sacra di San Michele. Various anfrattate car in the woods declare that it is a good day to go for mushrooms. Probably also what, davanti a me, up this dust with its Panda is here in hopes of taking home some nice boletus. I note from the mirror, and approaches to let me pass – which is rare in Italy – I greet him and reciprocates smiling. That's weird, I think, usually motorcyclists send them to hell… A few kilometers after I stop and Elder comes with Panda. He stops, I decided to have a chat. I discover who is fond of motorcycles and his face, despite a few wrinkles, me back home. “But she, it's not by chance Emilio Ostorero?“

We go in the nearest bar for a coffee but mostly because I want to hear some anecdotes, opportunity missed. They are so busy that I forget to have a camera with me, just I do not care because I want to listen. Emilio, certainly, does not pray. Let's talk about motorcycle racing and off-road vehicles in general, how things have changed for the worse is it for the better. Look at my jacket with caps and think of when he ran with a wool sweater. He argues that in motion when we happen to be still, but now they run too: “they made me try one of the new KTM… ones there with 150 cavalli… Fffff… I could not resist, I pulled it down to Torino, but the stuff there are planes, i was doing 240!“

I laugh imagining the scene of road that stops an octogenarian for such a speeding. Hearing him say it's easy to see how it occurred to me to participate in fifty years played in the Rally of the Pharaohs and it is inevitable that you end up talking about that incredible sixth rookie. the anecdotes, and then, not the shortage of.

“I was a close friend of Gaston Rahier. He told me that I had to drive in the desert keep open so I did all the time. At one point a dune was harder than the others and I made a flight… Then I told him “Gaston felt, vai avanti te che io ti seguo“. It was the 1984, i rally erano all’apice della popolarità e Rahier con la sua R80 GS conquistava sia la Parigi-Dakar sia quel Faraoni. Nevertheless Emilio recalls how between pilots there was a spirit that today sometimes we do not remember, solidarity not only between competitors, but also in everyday life. He said that it was just before the end of the stage, perhaps 40 – 50 Kilometres, but it was the time of the last refueling. Emilio has virtually no more gas and stops immediately after Rahier.“

It was the last stop, He played the victory, Rahier but refused to leave until her they had not given me the petrol!”

While the BMW staff provides to its sample, Emilio Private has no one. His support team was unable to get to the meeting point and may have to give up the race a few kilometers from. With the audacity of those who have no alternative, It will appeal to the Germans and asks a few liters of petrol, also the latter are valuable in a rally. Responsible BMW steadfastly refuses unleashing the wrath of that Rahier, despite being the first in the standings and can compromise your victory, She refuses to leave until they have given fuel to his friend Ostorero.

So it was that Emilio not only managed to finish his first and only rally in fifty years, but even he placed sixth.

Lo saluto e prometto che ripasserò da quel sentiero, magari sarò fortunato ancora una volta e potrò ascoltare un altro dei suoi aneddoti. Ho scoperto che Emilio ha fatto anche un libro, lo trovi qui: www.emilioostorero.com. Ci trovi anche alcuni preziosi filmati d’epoca dagli archivi Rai, chicche da non perdere per rivivere un’epoca in cui il motociclismo era del tutto genuino e casereccio, quando c’era l’umiltà di ascoltare e imparare e chi andava in moto lo faceva con uno spirito di sacrificio e una passione grande come una casa, una bella malattia che l’età non fa passare.