Laverda 70th Anniversary Year and Beyond

Laverda's 70th Anniversary Year

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.

Land Speed Record

2019 was also a grand year 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 an extraordinary 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 shows 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.

It had been well reported by Redax Laverda in newsletters, facebook and the Laverda Forum that the two race bikes mentioned had suffered catastrophic engine failures during that 4 year period. The claim by Gary (Red) Cawte, was untruthful hyperbole from Redax Laverda attempting to contradict and discredit DAM Classic Racing on a public forum.

When a question was raised by Greg Parish (Graduate Certificate III Motorcycle Engine Technology) concerning the veracity of the post, the inveterately untruthful owner of Redax Laverda 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 susequently locked to prevent further vulgar posts from the NSW and Queensland (Australia) members. 

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 by removing all mention of DAM Classic Racing from Canale's newsletter. 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 leader 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, fondly regarded by his friends as being mildly on the spectrum and a savant, had borrowed many tens of thousands of dollars to fund his business interests and was financially indebted to members of Laverda Owners Victoria social group at that time. Canale abided by the conditions imposed by the law but exploited Drysdale, exerting his influence to bear heavily on him. At 11.51 on New Years Eve December 2020 Drysdale sent a message to the personal email address of Parish terminating the 6 year lease arrangement with DAM Classic Racing .

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. To do nothing is safe, but to stand up for what is right takes courage"

Cartoon: "In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." (Martin Luther King 1929–1968)

Rumours and hearsay of the incident divided the Laverda community worldwide and subscribers to Laverda Owners Victoria social group who knew the details of events cowered and remained silent.

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. Redax followed up the spiteful texts with unsolicited libelous emails to the customer. DAM Classic Racing had endorsed the quality of Cox Exhausts and emailed the customer with its own 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 with Cox Engineering UK. Cox emailed DAM Classic Racing 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 the texts sent by Redax Laverda was emailed to Cox. The screenshots of the texts showed Gary (Red) Cawte explicitly implicating and naming Malcolm Cox as having asked him to send the text on his behalf. Cox never replied and subsequently blocked social media contacts. A few days later Paul Casson posted a derogatory comment on the Laverda Riders Worldwide Facebook Group in response to a suggestion that Angus Parish was going to manage DAM Classic Racing when Greg retired. Casson alleged in the post that Angus, an internationally recognised film sound recordist and engineering machinist, was about to be released after serving time in prison. The offensive post was deleted within 24 hours. Cox being the Administrator of Laverda Riders Worldwide facebook page then blocked DAM Classic Racing from viewing the Private Group. 

Parish acknowledged that it was only a small group of people who, when their lack of honesty and integrity was revealed, had became intensely abusive. This insecure group held positions of influence in the English speaking Laverda Forum and Facebook Pages.
DAM Classic Racing made the decision to distance itself from the group's puerile behaviour and disengaged from Laverda-specific online social media, forums and the social group Laverda Owners Victoria. The business maximised the expansion of stock Laverda spare parts to supply its worldwide customers. DAM® became an international registered Trade Mark and turned its engineering expertise to produce many parts required by owners that had become unavailable.

Regrettably since 2002 there has been no registered Laverda Club in the State of Victoria Australia, but the spirit and joy of Laverda lives on with those original members who continue to ride regularly.