What makes Massimo Miki Biasion

04 Dec 12

What makes
Miki great?

Miki Biasion is probably the most underrated and discreet double world champion of all time: most people don't even know his real first name, which is Massimo.

But that’s only because he is one of the least flamboyant Italians ever to walk the earth; his quiet and cerebral approach had much more in common with that of Walter Rohrl, for example, than his long-time Lancia team-mate Markku Alen - who despite holding a Finnish passport, was far more Italian in temperament.
Yet there was a period throughout the late 1980s, post-Group B, when Biasion was virtually unstoppable: he won around three-quarters of the events that he contested in a Loeb-like display of domination.
There were various theories behind his success, but it was probably down to the fact that his analytical thought processes wrapped their way round the specific demands of the Group A cars quicker than anyone else.
These cars needed to be coaxed rather brutalized, in complete contrast to what had come before. And they were fragile; at least in the beginning. Biasion got that instantly, and he also had the ability to mould a team around him in the way that few other people could.
But it’s not just his 17 rally wins and two titles (he was only the second person in the sport’s history ever to successfully defend a championship) that make Miki great. Instead, it’s the fact that in his understated way he is willing to try absolutely anything.
Beneath the placid exterior - now the successful owner of a Lancia dealership near Milan - beats the heart of a true, fever-filled petrol junkie. Recently, for example, he’s driven Lancia’s 600-horsepower, twin-turbo ECV on demonstration runs: the mooted successor to the Group B Delta S4, which was designed in 1986 before the category was banned.
There’s his latest outing in New Zealand planned while at the moment he’s preparing for Dakar, which he’ll contest once more in an Iveco truck. But bigger isn’t necessarily better. We salute Miki most of all for his brave attempt on the sands of Africa in the Pandakar: a very cute but ultimately flawed interpretation of the Fiat Panda designed to take on arguably the world’s toughest rally. You may as well go pole-vaulting with a toothpick.
“No way,” said Alen, when they asked him to drive it in 2007. “But I’m sure Miki will do it.” And that’s why we love him.

Ref:wrc

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