Laverda 70th Anniversary Year and Beyond

Laverda's 70th Anniversary Year

Land Speed Record

2019, being the 70th Anniversary of Laverda Motorcycles, was a grand occasion for Angus Parish to set a Land Speed Record on March 5th (his 30th birthday) for Production Classic 500cc Class Motorcycles piloting a 1977 Laverda 500 (*1652) Alpina on the Salt at Lake Gairdner.

This was the first time in the world that a Laverda had attempted a Land Speed Record on a Dry Salt Lake.  Complete with indicators and standard lights as per Laverda production it created a lot of interest to see just what a motorcycle blue-printed to Laverda specification could achieve.

A commentary of this record is published in the book MOTOS LAVERDA LES MOTOS MYTHIQUES DE BREGANZE (The Mythical Motorcycles of Breganze 1949-2019) by Jean-Louis Olive. It was the fastest speed attained by a production Laverda 500 in history.

 Laverda Forum

25 days later on March 30, 2019 another record claim was posted on the Laverda Forum website by Gary (Red) Cawte, a prominent Laverda personality from Queensland Australia.   In responding to observations by DAM Classic Racing concerning engine damage caused by poor or no air filtration of motorcycle engines, the owner of Redax Laverda Gary Cawte claimed to have achieved 0% Engine Leak Down for his Laverda powered race bikes after racing for 4 years without air filters. A simple Google search found that educated engine technicians and tuners, even in MotoGP, accept that the laws of physics make it impossible to have 0% leakage in an internal compbustion engine. Redax Laverda had been shown to be untruthful on the Laverda Forum.

It had been well reported by Redax Laverda in newsletters, facebook and the Laverda Forum that the two the race bikes mentioned had suffered catastrophic engine failure during that 4 year period.

When questions were raised by Greg Parish concerning the veracity of the post Gary (Red) Cawte chose not to substantiate how he achieved his claim of achieving zero leakdown but instead was taciturn, coordinating his supporters to mount an attack on Parish while he remained silent in the background. Parish was bullied, aggressively harassed and maligned online and off.  The foulest of language and offensive comments posted  online by Paul Casson from Queensland were immediately removed from the Laverda Forum by the Moderator. The thread was eventually locked to prevent further vulgar posts. 

The leaders of Laverda Owners Victoria social group, Sergio Canale and David Doyle, adulated Redax in their newsletter and actively strived to compromise the impartiality of their social group. During the following year 2020, acts of defamation, verbal abuse and threats of physical violence made by Sergio Canale against Parish at his place of work resulted in legal action being taken against the founder of Laverda Owners Victoria social group for breach of Work Safety legislation and to protect the safety of DAM Classic Racing  employees at the Springvale workshop leased from Ian Drysdale. Drysdale had borrowed many tens of thousands of dollars to fund his business interests and was financially indebted to family and members of Laverda Owners Victoria. Canale had abided by the conditions imposed by the law but exerted his influence over Drysdale to bear heavily on him to terminate the lease at Springvale. At 11.51 on New Years Eve December 2020 Drysdale sent an email to DAM Classic Racing terminating the 6 year lease arrangement.

An international Political Media Cartoonist drew a satirical cartoon lampooning those involved in the abusive campaign commenting that, "When you correct a wise man he thanks you, but when you correct a fool he hates you."

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing, Edmund Bourke 1729- 1797.

Rumours and hearsay of the incident divided the Laverda community worldwide.

It was a bizarre turn of events 6 years later in 2025 when Malcom Cox of Cox Engineering UK, although never having been involved with the abusive campaign that had begun in 2019, encouraged Redax Laverda to send defamatory texts to a customer of DAM Classic Racing who had engaged Parish to fit Cox Engineering exhausts to their motorcycle. DAM Classic Racing had endorsed the Cox Exhausts and emailed him their studio photographs of both the Cox Black Chrome and Chrome systems. The customer was appalled by the unconscionable behaviour of Redax Laverda and Cox Engineering and cancelled his order. Cox emailed Parish pleading his honesty and integrity, saying, "You have known me a long time, you know I am honest and straight....At No stage did I involve Red...Can you make any sense of this please? I feel I have been stitched up."  Photographic evidence of one of the texts sent by Redax Laverda was emailed to Cox. The screenshot of the text showed Gary (Red) Cawte explicitly implicating and naming Cox as asking him to send the text on his behalf.  Cox never responded to the email. A few days later Paul Casson posted a defaming comment about DAM Classic Racing on a Laverda Facebook Group suggesting Angus Parish was about to be released released from prison. The post was deleted within 24 hours. Cox then blocked Parish without notification or reason from viewing the Laverda Facebook Group that Cox admininstered.

Celebrations in Italy

At home in Victoria in July 2019 a number of former Laverda Club Victoria members and some riders from Laverda Owners Victoria social group travelled to Italy for the official rally and International 70th Anniversary Celebrations of Laverda held in its hometown of Breganze Italy. This was a major event for the marque and Australia was well represented. Some had shipped their bikes to Europe, some via England, to tour the European continent to Italy and take their bikes to visit their machines' place of birth. During the rally Piero Laverda announced to great acclaim the release of a new  Laverda book La Diva, Laverda 750. The rally was said to be the largest gathering of Laverda enthusiasts in the history of the small Italian village.

Rides and Races

Throughout the 70th Anniversary year local weekday country rides became more frequent and racing continued with riders again entering their Laverda into the Geelong Speed Trials, the BEARS races at Phillip Island and in conjunction with the Australian Road Race Championships at Broadford Raceway of which DAM Classic Racing was the regular Race-Name Sponsor.

Groups of Laverda club members from every State in Eastern Australia travelled to Broadford to watch the final round of the combined BEARS Championship race series and interclub event on November 9th and 10th 2019. It was a major event and an opportunity for members to see Laverdas from QLD, NSW and Victoria racing on the track at the same time and to celebrate a Laverda winning another Championship for the history books. Reserved accommodation was made available at the circuit and the contingent of Laverda motorcycles rolling into the carpark created quite a spectacle. Old friendships were once again rekindled under the banner of shared experiences of Laverda ownership.