Giacomo Agostini (; born 16 June 1942) is an Italian former professional motorcycle road racer and racing team manager. He competed in the FIM Grand Prix motorcycle racing World Championships from 1963 to 1977, most prominently as a member of the MV Agusta factory racing team. Agostini was the preeminent motorcycle racer of the late 1960s and early 1970s, amassing 122 Grand Prix victories and 15 World Championships, the most by any competitor in the history of Grand Prix motorcycle racing. He won seven consecutive 500cc World Championships with MV Agusta between 1966 and 1972, with an eighth in 1975, plus seven consecutive 350cc world championships between 1968 and 1974. Agostini was also a ten-time winner of the Isle of Man TT.
Agostini's rivalry with Mike Hailwood early in his career dominated Grand Prix motorcycle racing in the 1960s and culminated in their dramatic duel for the World Championship. Although critics claimed that Agostini raced for much of his career aboard the dominant MV Agusta against fields composed of privateer racers, he had to race during an era when rider deaths were commonplace. He competed on racetracks lined with deadly metal barriers or on street circuits that featured railroad crossings and hay bales wrapped around telephone poles. When Agostini boycotted of the Isle of Man TT race in 1972, the most prestigious race of the year at the time, his influential status as the reigning champion led to the removal of the event from the World Championships and marked the beginning of an era of increased safety for riders.
After his motorcycle racing career, Agostini briefly attempted to race automobiles, but at the age of 35, perhaps waited too long to make the switch, and he was not able to replicate the success that he had experienced on motorcycles. He then turned to the role of racing team manager for the Yamaha and Cagiva factory teams during the 1980s and 1990s. With handsome features and a charming demeanor, Agostini was popular with motorsports enthusiasts and became a film star in his native Italy. In 1999, Agostini was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame. In 2000, he was inducted into the MotoGP Hall of Fame, and in 2010, he was named an FIM Legend for his motorcycling achievements.
Motorsports career Early life Agostini was born in Brescia, Lombardy, and grew up in Lovere, where his father was the owner of a Bergamo transport company that operated ferries on Lake Iseo. The oldest of four brothers, Agostini initially had to steal away to compete, first in hill climb events and then in road racing, as his father did not approve of his son's motorcycle racing career and did everything he could to persuade him not to race.
Eventually, his father came to terms with his racing, and at the age of 21, Agostini won the 1963 Italian 175cc championship, riding a Moto Morini. He got his break when Morini factory rider Tarquinio Provini left the team to ride for Benelli. Count Alfonso Morini hired the young Agostini to ride for him. In 1964, Agostini won the Italian 350cc title and scored his first World Championship points with a fourth place at the West German Grand Prix. He followed this result with another fourth place in the Nations Grand Prix at Monza.50 Years Of Moto Grand Prix. (1999)(1st Ed). Hazelton Publishing Ltd.
MV Agusta team These results caught the eye of Count Domenico Agusta, who signed Agostini in 1965 to ride for the MV Agusta factory racing team as Mike Hailwood's teammate. In his first race for the MV Agusta team, he beat Hailwood to win the 350cc West German Grand Prix held at the daunting, Nürburgring circuit. Agostini then fought a season-long battle with Honda's Jim Redman for the 350cc world championship. He led the final round in Japan at Suzuka and appeared poised to win the title when a mechanical failure forced him to withdraw from the race, handing the title to Redman. In the 500 class, Hailwood dominated the season to win his fourth consecutive World Championship for the MV Agusta team, while Agostini finished the season in second place.
Hailwood had grown weary of working for the mercurial Count Agusta and left to join Redman on the Honda factory racing team for the 1966 season, leaving Agostini as MV Agusta's top rider. Honda increased their racing activities in by competing in all five displacement classes, including new Honda RC181 motorcycles for Redman and Hailwood to compete in the premier 500cc class. Although the Honda motorcycles were powerful, they lacked the road-handling capabilities of the MV Agusta motorcycles. The MV Agusta team countered the increasing strength of the Honda team by manufacturing the new MV Agusta 500 Triple for Agostini.
Hailwood rivalry The 1966 season began with Redman winning the first two races in West Germany and Holland but he then suffered a broken wrist at the 500cc Belgian Grand Prix, which forced him to miss the remainder of the season. Agostini and Hailwood then competed for the championship points lead until the final race of the season in Monza. Hailwood was leading the final race when his motorcycle had a mechanical failure, which allowed Agostini to win the race and become the first Italian 500cc World Champion since Libero Liberati (Gilera) in . His 1966 World Championship marked the first of seven consecutive 500cc World Championships with the MV Agusta team. In the 350 class, he once again finished the season in second place behind Hailwood riding the six-cylinder Honda RC174. 1966 marked the first of Agostini's ten victories at the Isle of Man when he won the Junior TT and also set his first TT lap record. Agostini won the prestigious, non-championship 1966 Mallory Park Race of the Year invitational when Hailwood suffered a mechanical failure while leading the race on his six-cylinder Honda.
Agostini and Hailwood engaged in a fierce competition for the 500cc World Championship, including a dramatic duel at the 1967 Isle of Man TT where the two competitors were in a dead heat on the final lap of the race when a broken roller chain on Agostini's motorcycle forced him to withdraw from the event. By the penultimate round in Italy, both competitors had won four races apiece. In the 500cc Nations Grand Prix, Hailwood had built a 17-second lead over Agostini, but four laps from the finish, he was forced to slow down with gearbox trouble which allowed Agostini to overtake him and win the race.
The championship was not decided until the final race of the year at the Mosport Circuit in Canada, where Hailwood won to tie Agostini on points. Each rider had five Grand Prix victories, so the tiebreaker came down to second places — Agostini taking the title with three seconds to Hailwood's two. For the third consecutive season, he finished the 350 championship in second place as Hailwood and the Honda RC174 dominated the season with six victories. Hailwood also defeated Agostini at the non-championship 1967 Mallory Park Race of the Year.
The FIM implemented new rules for the 1968 season, limiting all gearboxes to six-speeds, 125cc and 250cc motorcycles to no more than two cylinders, and 350cc and 500cc motorcycles to four cylinders. The new rules favored two-stroke engines over four-stroke engines in the smaller displacement classes, and since the Honda factory had a company policy to race only four-stroke motorcycles, they decided to withdraw from motorcycle racing to concentrate on Formula 1 racing.
Hailwood would also retire from motorcycle racing to pursue a career in Formula 1 racing. Although Hailwood was Agostini's greatest rival, the two men remained friends and held mutual respect for one another. Agostini considered Hailwood to be the best rider he ever raced against. After Hailwood died from injuries sustained in a traffic accident in 1981, Agostini served as a pallbearer at his funeral.
MV Agusta domination In the wake of Honda's withdrawal, the MV Agusta team faced little opposition in the larger displacement classes from any major manufacturers, competing against privateer racers using ageing machinery. Agostini swept the 350 and 500 class championships in to claim his first double World Championship. From 1968 to 1970, Agostini and MV Agusta were so dominant that Agostini won every single race he contested in the 350cc and 500cc classes. He was briefly challenged in by former 125 World Champion Bill Ivy riding a 350cc Jawa two-stroke, V-four engined motorcycle. Ivy led Agostini at the 1969 350cc Dutch TT before finishing in second place. Two weeks later, Ivy was killed in an accident during practice at the Sachsenring. Hailwood was lured out of retirement to compete in the 1969 Mallory Park Race of the Year riding a 500cc Seeley motorcycle, but it proved uncompetitive and Agostini was able to win his second Race of the Year crown.
In a harbinger of the future, Ginger Molloy rode a two-stroke Kawasaki H1R to finish second to Agostini in the 500 class, as Japanese manufacturers continued to improve two-stroke technology. After the death of Count Agusta in February 1971, MV Agusta's focus turned to the aviation industry. The Count's passion for motorcycle racing had been the driving force behind the MV Agusta team, and without his presence, the racing team's importance within the company began to wither.
Agostini's record setting winning streak ended at the 1971 Isle of Man TT when his MV Agusta broke down on the first lap of the Junior TT. By that point, he had won 58 consecutive races, including 26 in the 350cc class and 32 in the 500cc class. In 1971, he won his tenth World Championship to surpass the previous record of nine set by Carlo Ubbiali and Mike Hailwood.
At the 1971 Mallory Park Race of the Year, Agostini faced a field of top-ranked competitors including Phil Read, Rod Gould, Gary Nixon, Jarno Saarinen, Paul Smart and a teenage Barry Sheene. As the reigning World Champion, he was favored to win the race, but was upset by John Cooper riding a BSA Rocket 3. The two competitors engaged in a dramatic race-long battle for the lead before Cooper crossed the finish line just three-fifths of a second ahead of Agostini.
Isle of Man TT boycott When Agostini's close friend Gilberto Parlotti died in an accident while competing in the 1972 TT, he announced he would never again compete in the event, as he considered the 37.73-mile circuit unsafe for world championship competition. At the time, the Isle of Man TT was the most prestigious race on the international motorcycle racing calendar, and his stature as the reigning World Champion gave the announcement an immense impact on the sport.
Agostini's decision to boycott the event had far-reaching consequences for the TT and would lead to a walk-out of the top Grand Prix stars, many of whom resorted to severe criticism of the organisation and safety at the event, with people such as Phil Read in the vanguard of the critics. In response, the FIM decided that the Isle of Man TT would be withdrawn from the World Championship calendar after the 1976 races. Agostini maintained that he did not object to the event itself, but that he only opposed riders being contractually required to enter such a dangerous race as part of a World Championship campaign.
Saarinen's arrival and the two-stroke threat