page 18 2013 Tommi Ahvala Feature Interview
This shows the clever side of Agrati. We were at a trial and we were on the 2nd lap and the time was very limited and we had 5 more sections to go. I was 3rd in the line and there was another Fantic rider getting ready to enter the section. Bruno Cammozi was 2nd, I was 3rd and Diego was behind me. Fantic wanted to change the local Fantic rider’s position with Diego and Bruno got so mad. He was mad as Diego would get the need for it from this. Agrati argued back saying well nothing changes for you, you are second in the line now, you will be second in the line after ha ha ha ha. I started laughing. It upset me a little bit but I didn’t care as much. What care you do, he actually had a point there ha ha ha.
Did Fantic have connections on a little island in the Mediterranean ?
He probably did, but the factory, I don’t think so. Nothing ta I know of. Pretty much the only connection I had with the mafia in Italy was with Aprilia when I rode the Italian Championships. We went to ride the Italian Championship round in the south of Italy near Sicily. After the race the local Aprilia dealer had some connections there and we went to act all together in this packed restaurant. There was this family that had just got their dinner at the table. When we walked in it was full and they just talked something to the owner of the restaurant and the owner went to that table and told them their time was up. You don’t normally do that. There was something going on ha ha ha. They told me that they had connections with the mafia and everybody knew it. They didn’t say anything. They just left their plates and left ha ha ha. I prefer a sandwich ha ha ha ha. I knew something was going on. As a matter of fact I wasn’t hungry at all ha ha ha ha.
This is all I know about this.
Did Fantic have connections on a little island in the Mediterranean ?
He probably did, but the factory, I don’t think so. Nothing ta I know of. Pretty much the only connection I had with the mafia in Italy was with Aprilia when I rode the Italian Championships. We went to ride the Italian Championship round in the south of Italy near Sicily. After the race the local Aprilia dealer had some connections there and we went to act all together in this packed restaurant. There was this family that had just got their dinner at the table. When we walked in it was full and they just talked something to the owner of the restaurant and the owner went to that table and told them their time was up. You don’t normally do that. There was something going on ha ha ha. They told me that they had connections with the mafia and everybody knew it. They didn’t say anything. They just left their plates and left ha ha ha. I prefer a sandwich ha ha ha ha. I knew something was going on. As a matter of fact I wasn’t hungry at all ha ha ha ha.
This is all I know about this.
Tommi Ahvala on the 1995 Fantic Section - We will shortly be going to Tommi's family home to see this and other bikes.
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM Thank you to Phototrial.it for this photo
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2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM Thank you to Phototrial.it for this photo
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Tommi Ahvala onboard the 1996 Fantic Section
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1996 - Spain
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM Thank you to Manolo Torralbo for this photo
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1996 - Czech
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM Thank you to Phototrial.it for this photo
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Scrutineering
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
1996 - USA
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM Thank you to Phototrial.it for this photo
Canada 1994
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1996 - Canada
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM Thank you to Phototrial.it for this photo
1996 - Italy
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM Thank you to Phototrial.it for this photo
Girona indoor 1994
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM Thank you to Manolo Torralbo for this photo
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2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM Thank you to Phototrial.it for this photo
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM Thank you to Phototrial.it for this photo
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2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM Thank you to Manolo Torralbo for this photo
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Italy teaches you to be really cautious and careful. What’s really nice was having that Italian van with Italian plates. It had a prefix that gave the impression it came from the south of Italy from the mafia country so everybody left us alone as they thought we were one of them ha ha ha ha. We never got stopped by police and we got funny looks in gas stations ha ha ha.
I had heard that your van ever broken into in Italy?
No, but only once in all these years in Southern France near Nice. We stopped there and we always pulled the curtains but there was the first time we didn’t cover the bikes with towels. We only stopped there for 3 hours but we got broken into.
I had heard that your van ever broken into in Italy?
No, but only once in all these years in Southern France near Nice. We stopped there and we always pulled the curtains but there was the first time we didn’t cover the bikes with towels. We only stopped there for 3 hours but we got broken into.
Tommi Ahvala's fantic motor home
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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Did you ever base yourself in Italy?
I never had a house there but when I worked for Fantic and Aprilia and I stayed there for extended periods of time living there are the factory in my motorhome and trailer, so in that sense I did stage myself there. Spain was more of a home base. The weather was always better and the atmosphere for riding was always better in Spain so anytime we could get away we would mainly go to Barcelona area to practise. We used to practise in France as well. I remember we went to Pascal Coutiers house there to practise. Many people think that they are very far away from home. We always thought that Finland was very far away from races so we never thought that we had to go back to Finland. It was just too complicated and too far. We just tried to adapt to a central European lifestyle instead of travelling back all of the time.
Were both Fantic and Aprilia racing departments based in the factory or at other places?
They were in the factory.
You had the wonderful chrome “Tommi” bars on the front. What was the idea behind that?
I never had a house there but when I worked for Fantic and Aprilia and I stayed there for extended periods of time living there are the factory in my motorhome and trailer, so in that sense I did stage myself there. Spain was more of a home base. The weather was always better and the atmosphere for riding was always better in Spain so anytime we could get away we would mainly go to Barcelona area to practise. We used to practise in France as well. I remember we went to Pascal Coutiers house there to practise. Many people think that they are very far away from home. We always thought that Finland was very far away from races so we never thought that we had to go back to Finland. It was just too complicated and too far. We just tried to adapt to a central European lifestyle instead of travelling back all of the time.
Were both Fantic and Aprilia racing departments based in the factory or at other places?
They were in the factory.
You had the wonderful chrome “Tommi” bars on the front. What was the idea behind that?
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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Well a friend of mine that’s how he made his living, he worked with stainless steel making truck fuel tanks and train bars and stuff. At the time it was kind of cool and we got approached and we thought it would stick out a little bit. It was protection as you can hit the moose here pretty easy so as least it would destroy the whole front end of the truck. A bit of protection.
Were there any other characters out there on the trials scene?
I remember this happened at the World Trial. Berlatier was a big guy physically and he would just push and push people in the que and go to the front as he was bigger than them.
Were there any other characters out there on the trials scene?
I remember this happened at the World Trial. Berlatier was a big guy physically and he would just push and push people in the que and go to the front as he was bigger than them.
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It was 1990 at the Italian World Trial, that Jommi would deliver to Phillipe Berlatier what they had promised
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
Would you mess with this guy ?
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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You can just about make out the big grin on Phillipe's face as he rides of the rental car at the USA World Trial.
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My brother and me, well he actually warned him. He says “if you go before Tommi, I’ll make sure you get a 5 on this section”. He kept pushing his way through and just ignored my brother. It was a really easy section as well, just a couple of turns on a creek, that was it. Anyway Berlatier ignored my brother and pushed past me and went into the section ahead of me. You have to understand that this had happened a lot and it was time to stop him as it wasn’t fair on the rest of us. Jommi was with the audience at the side of the section and he threw a stick between his spokes and his front wheel locked ha ha ha ha ha.
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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If you let him get away with it they will keep thinking you are an easy push over.
I rode over Philippe’s bike in the French World Round too. Same thing. What he would do is, if he got a wrong call, he would bring the bike back to the section and lay it down in the section so he would kind of stop every one and he would then pressure the observer. The riders would be saying get him out get him out and so the observer would just give him what he wanted to get him out. But this time the observer just said “next rider” and I was the next one in line and I saw his bike was lying in front of a rock and it didn’t really bother me. So intentionally I jumped right on top of his bike and the crowd kind of liked that ha ha ha ha.
Do you remember that famous incident in Germany where he got knocked out twice by that big German guy. I was the next guy to enter in the section. I was shaking an saying to him “whatever you want to give me, give me “ha ha ha ha ha. He got the sh*t kicked out of him pretty good. It was funny though. He got hit twice. He ran once and the guy observer took him and threw him down and he started charging again and second time bam! ha ha ha ha ha.
I rode over Philippe’s bike in the French World Round too. Same thing. What he would do is, if he got a wrong call, he would bring the bike back to the section and lay it down in the section so he would kind of stop every one and he would then pressure the observer. The riders would be saying get him out get him out and so the observer would just give him what he wanted to get him out. But this time the observer just said “next rider” and I was the next one in line and I saw his bike was lying in front of a rock and it didn’t really bother me. So intentionally I jumped right on top of his bike and the crowd kind of liked that ha ha ha ha.
Do you remember that famous incident in Germany where he got knocked out twice by that big German guy. I was the next guy to enter in the section. I was shaking an saying to him “whatever you want to give me, give me “ha ha ha ha ha. He got the sh*t kicked out of him pretty good. It was funny though. He got hit twice. He ran once and the guy observer took him and threw him down and he started charging again and second time bam! ha ha ha ha ha.
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Phillipe gets his rear wheel caught on the section tape and snaps it
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
Phillipe helps the observer down the rock, so they can talk over a cup of tea
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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He goes to thank the observer for his impeccable marking
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
Phillipe is being so charming he lets the observer sit on him, as if he were a stool
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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Philippe was totally different outside of the race, you know we talked and went to the bar together and all that no problem but during the race he was completely different and totally focused. It wasn’t just Philippe. I remember I
threw one guy in the ditch as well. What happened was I think Poland or
Germany. There were a lot of riders and of course you have the local riders and
they want to see these top guys rider so now we are waiting here for an hour
and half at this first section. There were 60 riders there with most just
riding this local event. We come there and we look the section. Then one of the
top guys gets through the section. Then everyone rushes to the section. Then we
have 70 riders and we are trying to get there as we are running late too. Already
and then you have all of these hobby riders that it doesn’t matter if they take
5. We know they are going to 5 the first rock anyway so there is not point of
him even lining up there. Now they have been waiting three hours and they are
starting to push for the first section so I had this one guy. It was really
steep and muddy bank with a 10 foot drop to the creek and he was trying to
creep next to me you know. I told him, don’t try to pass me cos I’m in front, but
he kept pushing. His back wheel was right next to my foot so every time he
would look away I would push it a little. Once then he was right on the edge,
he didn’t notice that. He was looking at something a little kick and he went
tumbling down ha ha ha ha ha. He thought he had slipped cos it was really muddy,
but I actually helped him along the way. I got away with that. Even my minder
said “what happened?” I told him after the race what happened ha ha ha.