Greatest Motogp Champions
Greatest Motogp Champions – Motorcycle racing legend, Giacomo Agostini, aboard MV Agusta (early 1970s), taking him to 13 World Championships between 1966 and 1973. He remains the most successful motorcycle racer of all time.
Whether he’s commentating for Sky Sport TV, endorsing brands like Dainese or building houses with his property development company, ‘Ago’ refuses to slow down.
Greatest Motogp Champions
The Italian icon turned 80 in the summer, prompting the release of the 15-crowned King, which represents his illustrious career on the racetrack.
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Sports History Weekly tapped the New York-based two-wheeled legend to promote his coffee table book, packed with photos, fact sheets and anecdotes from more than 500 races between 1961 and 1977.
At Dainese, a premium motorcycle gear store in Manhattan, the silver-haired veteran sat cheerfully as admirers patiently waited in line to sign autographs and take pictures.
His book sold out faster than when he won the first Isle of Man Tourist Trophy (TT) race in 1966 (2:17:53).
At 80, Ago has a lot to be thankful for. In a profession that plays with death at every turn, the former speedster has not appeared in a single part of his 17-year racing career, leaving behind an unrivaled record.
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“I’m very lucky to have won 15 world championships… 18 Italian championships for Italy… 10 Isle of Man and 122 Grands Prix,” he says, his English breaking.
68 of them were in the 500cc class and 54 in the 350cc class. With 122 GP titles, he is 7 places ahead of the recently retired Valentino Rossi, who had a parallel career with 115 GP wins and 9 World Championships.
Growing up near Bergamo in northern Italy, Ago took up racing against his father’s wishes, taking up asphalt hill climbing events. The winding roads around Lake Iseo near his home became a natural for him when he set out to conquer the TT.
He won his first race at the Bologna-San Luca hill in 1962 on a Moto Morini Settebello 175cc. The 20-year-old’s dream came true, and the day stands out as one of his most cherished memories.
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“I won my first race on my own motorcycle, and my mechanic was a baker,” he recalls with a laugh.
Morini hired him and made his Grand Prix debut at Monza the following year, racing against the world’s best on a 250cc Bialbero single cylinder. His car broke down, but that was enough to convince Morini that a new talent was on the rise.
In 1964, Ago replaced Tarquino Provini, who left Morini after 4 GP wins on the 250cc. It was a tough task, but the young prodigy finished 4th in 2 calendar events – Germany (Nürburgring) and Italy (Monza).
MV Agusta noticed this and brought him on as an assistant to 4-time 500cc World Champion Mike Halewood.
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It was his new season and on April 25, 1965 he won his first Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, riding the company’s new 350cc 3-cylinder, smaller and lighter bike. In the early 1960s.
Behind team-mate Halewood (500cc) and Honda’s Jim Redman (350cc), Ago narrowly missed out on the world title in both classes.
But it didn’t take long for him to be on the podium. In 1966 he took the checkered flag in Belgium, Finland and Italy, winning the 500cc crown and finishing second in the 350cc.
The final race on the calendar (Monza) was particularly sweet as the final standings were decided at home.
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“One of my best memories is winning at Monza, my first World Championship with MV Agusta… there were 140,000 people there, it was amazing.”
This was just the beginning of his reign with MV, which would lead him to epic road battles and 6 consecutive world titles in the 500cc and 6,350cc.
In 1974, he left Agusta for Yamaha after the company’s top rider – friend and rival Jarno Saarinen – died in a tragic pile-up at the Italian GP. The previous year, Saarinen became the first European to win the Daytona 200.
When the Ago went from a 4-stroke to a 2-stroke with the Japanese manufacturer, few held out much hope. At Daytona in 1974, the American champion Kenny Roberts also commented to the press: “The world is not Europe, but America.”
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At Daytona, in his first visit to the USA and his first ever Yamaha 350cc 2-stroke race, the Italian took victory over a talented field that included Roberts, Barry Sheen and Gary Nixon.
“I never forgot that race. When I got off the plane home in Italy, 50 journalists were waiting… They said: “He looks like Christopher Columbus, he discovered America!” they said.
The incredible feat across the ocean boosted Yamaha’s image and cemented the Daytona 200’s reputation as one of the most prestigious motorcycle races in the world. “Ago is not human,” Roberts said after the event.
Considering his prolific career, Ago has experienced a surprising number of spills. As he watched his peers meet their deaths on the highway, he never thought about his profession.
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“When you’re young, you don’t think about security. You love sports very much. You go with your heart, not with your mind.’
But Ago didn’t hold back after his close friend Gilberto Parlotti was killed on a foggy, rainy stretch of the 1972 TT Mountain Course.
“I went to the FIM [racing governing body] and I said to the president…I think the Isle of Man is the best circuit, the most fun, but the safety is very poor. We will continue to race the TT but withdraw it from the World Championship.”
After 1976, the TT was dropped as a mandatory event on the points calendar. “A lot of riders appreciated it because it gave them the freedom to decide whether they wanted to [participate] or not.”
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Asked if he thinks his protests against TT have saved future lives, he says, “Yeah, I think so.”
Regarding safety standards, he explains: “Safety today is incredible. In my day a leather suit weighed 1kg, today it’s 8 or 9kg… the helmets are also integrated… and the circuit is a lot better because if you fall off there’s space around the track.”
But in cars it is partial to the old days. “You depend on too much technology today. Until now, everything was decided by the rider, mechanic and engineer.
Ago had his last year of competition in 1977 and won his last Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in 1976. That’s right, it was aboard an MV Agusta and 11 years ago it was on the track where he celebrated his first GP win. Marc Marquez has joined former rivals Lorenzo and Rossi in the move to the Bologna factory, but how did it go for the greats?
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It’s something we’ve seen happen several times before: multiple ™ World Champions making the jump from the Japanese manufacturer to Ducati.
Eight-time world champion Marc Marquez is currently moving from Repsol Honda to Gresini Racing™. And the two passed in front of the Spaniard. And two of his biggest rivals in the form of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi.
At the end of the 2010 season, after moving from Yamaha to the Italian marque, all eyes were on Rossi, who made his debut on Ducati’s Desmosedici at the Valencia test. It was hard to say that the next two years were short.
Unlike the 2023, the Ducati ™ bike did not boast a winning formula. Rossi’s only podium of 2011 came at the French GP as the nine-time World Champion finished P7 in the overall standings – 211 points clear of title winner Casey Stoner.
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The following campaign brought Rossi two podiums. The #46 would again stand on the podium at Le Mans, this time it was P2, before he finished P2 at the San Marino GP and brought home something credible. Ultimately, Rossi did not win during his two-year stint with Ducati before returning to Yamaha in 2013.
With the addition of Spaniard Andrea Dovizioso in factory red for the 2017 season, it’s time for Lorenzo to swap Yamaha for Ducati.
The #99 had a slow start to life as a non-Yamaha rider, but scored three podiums in his debut season in Ducati’s ever-improving pack. P7 in the World Championship was not where Lorenzo was used to.
In 2018, Lorenzo’s season once again failed to get off to a flyer, with a best of P11 coming in the opening four GPs. However, once Lorenzo got on well with his Ducati, he looked like a world beater again. Back-to-back wins in Italy and Barcelona were backed up by P2 at the Czech GP and another win in Austria. Even at this stage, Ducati has already decided to partner Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone.
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