WORDS
ROGER MORONEY
JARNO SAARINEN AT ASSEN IN 1972,
THE YEAR BEFORE HIS TRAGIC DEATH
still strongly remember the morning back
in May of 1973 when news came in that
two riders had been killed in a terrible
crash at the Monza GP in Italy.
Finnish ace Jarno Saarinen and well seasoned
Italian rider Renzo Pasolini.
I was stunned, as I was a huge fan of
Saarinen’s because he was just so spectacularly
and almost unnervingly great at the art of
motorcycle racing.
It didn’t seem real, and this was the first
occasion I had encountered a spot of distant
grief, because I just figured he was invincible.
I was 18 and didn’t go to work that day
because I was just too rattled. When the news
came out in print, and in more detail, it clearly
appeared that this was a double tragedy which
could have, and should have, been prevented.
And today, 46 years later, I sit back and shake
my head in wonderment that the management
of Monza at that time felt safe and sound in
staging a GP there. Because the very fastest
sections of the very fast track, including that full
throttle opening sweeper the crash erupted on,
were lined with steel guardrails which were on
the very edge of the track.
No run-offs. Nowhere for a sliding bike or
its pilot to surge across should something go
wrong. Several riders that day complained
72 KIWI RIDER
to the track officialdom and a couple were
advised to button their lips or the police would
be called.
Steel guardrails lined the circuit and that was
that. But it reflected that era. An era which also
included staging a GP on a street circuit which
included railway lines at one section. On that
opening lap of the 250 race Renzo Pasolini’s
bike was seen to slide and drop. It cannoned
into the guardrails, as did Pasolini who was
killed instantly. The bike then rebounded back
onto the circuit and it struck the following
Saarinen. The impact tore the helmet from his
head and he too was killed.
About a dozen following riders also went down
as wreckage was scattered across the track,
and several of them received serious injuries.
I still shake my head at the way it all transpired
because it was clearly preventable. Had there
been an expansive run-off then Pasolini and
his bike would have tumbled across it, and
the following riders would not have been put
at risk. And Jarno would have later been able
to take to the grid again aboard the startlingly
fast Yamaha 500… the bike which had the
dominant, MV Agusta factory looking very
worried. For Jarno had already scored a couple
of 500 GP wins aboard it and was leading the
championship.