GIACOMO AGOSTINI

15 World titles, 122 GP wins, 159 podium finishes and 10 TT victories. One word – Legend.

I was 18 when I started racing.

In my time in Italy you could not race before this age, although I had ridden motorcycles. Small bikes, Moto Guzzis and things like that, but only on the road.

My father didnt want me to race.

It is true, he was against it but I bought a Moto Morini bike and paid for it on finance. I think I paid something like two pounds a month for it. I entered hill climbs and then road races. I finished second in my first ever race on a standard road bike, not a special race bike.

Winning races came very easily.

I was lucky, after two or three races I started to win and then I got a factory ride. Mr Morini was at a race and offered me a contract as I had beaten his factory riders! At that point I thought this is my job, I will be a motorcycle racer. I was being paid to race motorcycles, I couldnt believe it!

Winning a world championship is never easy.

World championships are won over a whole season, not just a single race. Sometimes I would have a very hard race, sometimes an easier one. It all depended on the situation. To win a world championship you have to make the most of the hard races as well as the easy ones, otherwise you wont win.

Racing two classes in one day was really not that hard.

I raced 350cc and 500cc in the same day. It is down to attitude. Everyone in my time would race two classes, 125 and 250 or 350 and 500. It was normal, of course it was to ride two races, but the only problem was getting between the bikes.

Often we didnt have time to change.

As soon as we finished a race we would have to run and get on the other bike. Sometimes I wouldnt have time to change. When it rained I would finish one race with wet leathers and wet boots and have to start again after 20 minutes in wet clothing on the other bike.

Racing is fun.

I raced because I loved riding, I loved racing a motorcycle.

It was hard leaving MV Agusta for Yamaha in 1974.

I raced for so many years with MV that they were like my second family, I won 13 world championships with them. To leave and join Yamaha was a very, very hard decision to make – but I had to leave. I thought about my future and saw the four – stroke engine going down and the two – stroke coming up. As MV didnt have a two – stroke and Yamaha did I decided it was time to leave.

It broke my heart to leave MV.

But I knew for my professional future I had to join Yamaha. However, it turned out fantastically because I met another family. I had a fantastic three years with Yamaha and won two world championships. I was the first rider to win a 500cc Championship for them.

So now I have three families, my own, Yamaha and MV Agusta.

When I retired from motorcycle racing I drove for a British Fl team.

I liked car racing, but I started at the end of my career. I raced Formula 2 for one year but wasnt so good so I changed to Formula 1.1 drove for Aurora who were a British team and I was better and had some good results. I never won but I finished second once and had a lot of top five results. Not so bad, especially as I had to spend the first year learning the tracks and the car.

A mini – skirt finished my four – wheel career.

In my second year in Fl the regulations changed. The cars started to use the miniskirt design that increased down – force. We had already spent a lot of money buying two cars from Williams and didnt have enough left to get the new model. Marlboro were sponsoring us but they wouldnt pay any more

to change the car after just one season. I was a better driver in my second season, but the car was a second slower than the mini – skirt cars, and in racing one second is everything.

I would beat Valentino Rossi.

If I raced against Valentino I would win, in my era or his. Although if you asked Valentino the same question I am certain he would also say he would win!

My helmet, its a replica.

I wear an AGV Ago replica crash helmet, not an original!