Description
Author: Mick Walker, ISBN: 9781859839546, 189 pages, Paperback, Published in 2011
Fifteen world titles - eight at 500cc and twelve Isle of Man TT victories in an extraordinary 17-year career make Giacomo Agostini the most successful racing motorcyclist in the history of the sport. His precocious talent and the courage and flair he demonstarted as a rider throughout his long career marked him out from all his comtemporaries. Yet until now no full-length study of his spectacular career has been published in English.
Mick Walker's expert account recalls the extraordinary era, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, when Agostini was without doubt, the man to beat at the top level of motorcycle sport Agostini's great races and his fierce rivalry with riders like Mike Hailwood, Jarno Saarinen and Phil Read are vividly recreated, and his world-beating motorcycles are analyzed in detail, including the legendary MV Agustas.
In this fully illustrated and in-depth new study Mick Walker reassesses Agostini's remarkable record and explores the personal and technical background to his achievement. He writes of Agostini's birth in Northern Italy, his success as a teenager in hilldimbs and other local events and his sudden appearance on the world stage as Mike Hailwood's teammate at MV in 1965. No one could have predicted the matchless run of success that followed - no less than 122 Grand Prix wins.
Agostini turned briefly to motor racing after he retired from motor cycles, then went into motorcycle team management with Yamaha and Cagiva, and was closely involved in the design of the MV Agusta F4 superbike.
Mick Walker covers this less-known side of Agostini's career, but he concentrates on the racing years and on the motorcycles themselves. There is a technical analysis of the bikes Agostini rode and developed, in particular the 350cc and 500cc MVs he used at his peak. There is also a full race-by-race record of his achievements.
About the Author:
Mick Walker is acknowledged as one of the world's leading motorcycle authorities. In a career which has spanned half a century, he has written over 120 books and curated several exhibitions. He has also been a successful racer, tuner, team manager and talent scout. In 1998 he was involved in The Art of the Motorcycle exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. He has been involved in virtually every aspect of the motorcycle industry — even acting as the British importer
for several Italian marques, including Ducati, Moto Guzzi and Cagiva. During the 1980s he was editor of Motorcycle Enthusiast magazine, and in 1999 Ducati Er) presented him with a lifetime achievement award, the first of its kind ever made. In 2010 Mick was made president of the Italian Motorcycle Owners -a Club.
