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I feel very
honoured to be putting words to this article but also
feel very apprehensive about it as well. Still trying to
process the tragedy myself but at the same time I wasn’t
sure if I am good enough to put into words some of the
things Michael ‘The Magic Man” Figliomeni did and people
he touched throughout his life. I spoke to Michaels
best mate and brother Stephen Figliomeni out at his
Osborne Park business recently and told him of my
apprehension. His words to me were “say what you feel
Michael would have said to you “Just do it”.
It was the 28th
of October and it was the opening of the season at the
Perth Motorplex, as usual I went around took a pic here
and said g’day there. There was all the fan fare and
buzz around the pits, from a lot of the teams. I saw
the black No 34 speedcar with the orange flames sitting
over in the Speedcar lane. No big fan fare no hype, it
was just the way Michael liked it, nice and relaxed
that’s when Figs as he was known did his best work.
Mrs. Figs was
overseeing what was going on. Frank, Michael’s dad was
standing at the front of the car with a huge smile on
his face and Stephen was there ready to do whatever
Michael wanted. The Figs family looked happy and I
along with a lot of other people, were glad they were
back where they belonged, in midgets.
I spoke to Michael
and said “ Like I told you the other night it’s in the
bag, you will cane them tonight you don’t return to
Speedcars full time with a favoutite old colour scheme
to run second mate, you are the man this year”. As
always Michael looked nearly embarrassed at the
compliment, that was just him, he replied with a very
slight grin “we will see how the car goes first race” in
his normal polite quiet and friendly manner.
Speedcar heat one
three laps later figs in the lead and the field didn’t
see which way he went. The “Magic Man” was back, I
stepped to the edge of the track gave him a thumbs up
and he just gave a quick nod of his head.
Heat two was even
better straight to the outside around the field and into
position one I took a number of photo’s in that race and
watched him win the race but little did I or anyone know
this was to be his last race. Michael died soon after
that race of a massive heart attack.
At Michael’s
funeral service, Speedway Chaplain Terry Dorrington said
“Celebrate Michaels life and remember all the great
things he did, could do and meant, to each and everyone
of us”.
I was fortunate to
have met Michael a number of years ago after being
introduced to him by my brother Jason. At the time he
was organizing things around the pit and his car. I
wanted to do a very short interview and told him I would
return later when he wasn’t as busy. With that he walked
me over to the ever popular Figliomeni Family Bus and we
talked for 25 minutes discussing a bit of speedway but
we just seemed to get onto so many other topics. The
Magic Man wasn’t like some of the other drivers in the
pits. He didn’t strut around he didn’t try and big note
himself in fact it was just the opposite a very quiet
private family orientated bloke, who did the talking on
the racetrack. I have seen some absolute ball tearer
races of Michaels over the years, it didn’t matter who
you were, and to him you were just another car to beat
on the track. He didn’t swear he didn’t bag other
drivers even after a crash that was clearly someone
else’s fault it wasn’t his style. He believed that if he
bagged others then others would bag him and people would
think less of him, which is not what he wanted.
I spoke with Tom
Watson (Snr) about Michael and my first question to him
was how would you describe Michael as a fellow
competitor “A true champion in every sense of the word,
no other way to say it. I remember when he bought his
first Speedcar it was the ex Geoff Pilgrim car running a
sigma engine, Geoff could never get the thing to run
properly always having issues with the engine and it
never really handled very well either. It was only a
matter of several meetings and Michael had that thing
running sweet as and handling great”.
Michael was just
so far ahead of his time with some of his ideas he had
this natural ability to setup a car to get the best out
of it. Watson recalls “in that same car Michael did a
country show I was looking around his car and saw that
his radius rods were all pointing upwards, the rest of
us had ours downwards we knew best of course. He went
extremely well that night won the feature I think, beat
us all”.
The strange part
about it, nearly twenty years later and as a general
rule, Speedcars run with the radius rods pointing
upwards.
Try getting
information from Michael about his car or on setups, “I
bloody tried so many times you couldn’t get a thing out
of him about his car I kept giving him beers one night
after the meeting hoping that would help but it didn’t”
said Watson.
As Kim Ledger a
close friend, long time sponsor, and contract employer
of Michael had put it at a recent tribute fundraiser for
Michael’s wife Valerie and young son Tyler. Michael was
an innovator a visionary even from a young age. A letter
was located that Michael had written at the age of
seven. Kim tells of the letter. “It was about his uncle
Ray (Geneve) and that Michael wanted to be like him and
race a car with No4 on it against Uncle Ray, and he was
then going to get his own car and win lots of races and
it would be called the “Magic Car”. The content of that
letter sent shivers down my spine as it did everyone at
that tribute night.
Michael was never
satisfied with just winning, there was always room for
improvement and Michael looked outside the square most
of the time to find it.
Even as a child
racing BMX he didn’t like his bikes handlebars so he
made his own that were more comfortable and may give him
an edge. It wasn’t long and all the competitors wanted
the same handlebars. He and his brothers won state and
national championships and were invited to the World
Championships in Europe where the championship trophies,
you guessed it came back home to the Figliomeni house.
“He could
visualize something, design it, build it with his bare
hands, build a motor if it needed it, tune it and then
race it and win” said Ledger.
As has been
documented over the years Michael was involved in a
massive crash at Claremont Speedway where the roll cage
was destroyed on his Murphy car. From that point onwards
Michael started building his own racecars called the
FIGhter. The cars have become some of the most sought
after chassis in Australia. Jim Fleming one of WA’s top
drivers is running a FIGhter for the first time this
year. “I wish I had one of these a long time ago they
are just so good to drive they respond so well and work
fantastic”. Said Fleming.
It’s only the cars
second outing and Jimmy has already won a feature race,
says something doesn’t it.
In the earlier
years to try and keep some of those innovative ideas to
themselves Michaels brothers (the crew) Andrew, Frankie
and Stephen had their relevant positions around the car
when people came snooping to try and block the view of
any new idea they were trying.
Stephen
(Figliomeni) recalls “I remember when Mike McDonald came
to crew with us, the first person to ever be let in to
the team other than the family, he was told straight
away that X marks the spot and make sure you protect
that area from prying eyes”.
This tactic seemed
to work well against Tom Watson “I spent so much time at
Michael’s car trying to see what they had. One of the
boys said to be one night do you want me to give you a
picture of the car as you seem to like it so much”.
I found a little
secret that most speedcar drivers past and present
probably don’t know until now. During the mid to late
90’s at Claremont Speedway, in my own mind I always
believed that Michael either had a bad crew or it was a
rule for the fastest car to be pushed out onto the track
last most times. This wasn’t the case at all, Michael
was running very well at the time and everyone was
trying to get a look at the rear end setup of the car.
Stephen starts to
laugh as he tells me. “We would put on old Repco Shocks
move the diff across and just change the rear end so
when drivers were looking during wheel packing or the
car was sitting static in the pits it gave the total
wrong impression of Michael’s setups. Only problem was
it didn’t leave us much time to put it back in race trim
before a race and we were constantly late getting down
the shoot”.
For Michael his
greatest racing achievement out of the huge amount of
racing that he did was winning the National Speedcar
title at Claremont Speedway.
After blowing the
engine late on Friday the first night of heats the
Michael & Stephen returned to the shop and stripped the
motor that night. In the morning Michael enlisted the
help of his fellow competitor and brother in law Ian
Watts and his crew together they all had jobs to do.
Which included chasing up pistons, conrods, rings, and
gaskets.
It was basically a
full engine re-build. The car rolled onto the track just
in time for Michael’s last heat, which he won. He
started in the top six and won the title convincingly.
As was the case with every feature race or title Michael
won he didn’t jump around run to the fence hang off of
it, if you were lucky you may have got a casual wave. He
wouldn’t let his brothers loose either, they knew the
score it was check the car & tyres first then when
things had settled a casual pat on the back with a well
done or what was it like. Michael might reply “Yeh it
was fun”.
Michael was asked
on numerous occasions to come race in America by sponsor
Joe Fontana, three weeks after the closing of Claremont
Speedway Michael was off to America with his self built
car the FIGhter as he knew he could make his car quicker
than Joes. Michael did a full season racing the East
Coast premier midget series and ran second for the
season which was a massive feat not only to run second
but also in your own chassis.
Eventually Michael
turned his hand to Sprintcars, as he wanted a new
challenge. He drove for a couple of teams but always
wanted to do his own thing. As with anything he drove it
wasn’t long and he had picked up a 360 State Title and
then continued eventually into open Sprintcars. Where he
won Krikke Boys Shootouts a number of features and the
premier AHG series. He was offered rides in several high
profile teams, which he turned down as he didn’t want to
owe anyone anything and didn’t want all the fan fare
that went with it.
By the end of last
season after running a partial speedcar program and full
Sprintcar season the fun factor had gone from the
Sprintcar and as a family, as they always did the
decision was made to sell the Sprintcar.
As Stephen
remembers “Michael said to me during the off season
let’s get back into Speedcars and start having some fun
like the old days paint the car like the old days black
with the orange flames. We will paint Kim’s (Ledger)
another I said, now your talking so we got into it. We
were already looking forward to the season ahead and I
said to him let’s get one more national title to beat
Ekins. In typical Michael style he replied we don’t race
for the stats or glory we race to have fun but OK then”.
Right up till
Michael’s death he was still looking for that bit extra
pushing the envelope to see what he could do to go
faster so I am not sure if the Kim Ledger owned concept
car that Michael built will ever be seen. The car has
been carefully built to suit one track and one engine
type only and was just about finished at the time of
Michael’s tragic death. The car was to be run at the
Motorplex this season. The intricate design and
technical know how that has gone into this car and of
course with the Magic Man behind the wheel it had the
potential to really shake things up but we will never
know.
Since working on
this article I have laughed and cried and met some of
the most fantastic people you could ever meet the
Figliomeni family. It has been and will always be such a
special part of my life being able to watch and meet one
of life’s most beautiful people “The magic Man” Michael
Figliomeni.
Kindest Regards
Darren Sutton
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