Marco Lucchinelli
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| Nationality |  Italian |
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Marco Lucchinelli (born 26 June 1954) is an Italian former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. In 1981 he won the FIM 500cc World Championship.[1]
Biography
Lucchinelli was born in Bolano.
He began his road racing career in 1975 on a Laverda in endurance racing. His riding impressed the Yamaha factory enough to earn him a sponsored bike in the Italian National Championship as well as a ride in the 1975 Nations Grand Prix in the 350 class.
In 1976 he rode a Suzuki in the 500cc World Championship earning fourth place in the championship with 2 second place finishes along with a third and a fourth place. He earned the nickname Crazy Horse for his wild riding style that attracted many fans. This fearless riding style also meant that he crashed quite often. In the 1977 season, he would drop to 11th place in the 500 World Championship on a Yamaha.
Lucchinelli returned to Suzuki for the 1978 season and in 1980, he won his first 500cc Grand Prix at the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. He would finish the season in third place behind Kenny Roberts and Randy Mamola.
Lucchinelli had his best year in 1981. He began the year with a victory over Kenny Roberts in the prestigious Imola 200 non-championship race in Italy.[2] He then took 5 Grand Prix victories aboard the Roberto Gallina backed Suzuki, battling Randy Mamola to the final race of the season before winning the 500cc World Championship. For 1982, Lucchinelli accepted a job offer from Honda to race their new three-cylinder NS500 alongside Freddie Spencer and Takazumi Katayama. He would have a lackluster season in which Franco Uncini would win the championship for the Roberto Gallina-Suzuki team for which Lucchinelli had won the title the previous year.
After another lackluster season with Honda in 1983, he joined the Cagiva team for the 1984 and 1985 seasons before he retired from Grand Prix racing. He tried his hand at auto racing, competing in the Italian round of the 1986 Formula 3000 season in a Lola-Ford. Lucchinelli raced a Ducati 851 to a popular win at the 1987 Daytona Battle of the Twins race. In 1988 he joined the Ducati in the Superbike World Championship where he won two races during the year before taking on the role of Ducati's team manager.[3]
On 6 December 1991 he was arrested for drug possession. He spent some time in jail, during which he successfully fought against drug addiction.[4] After retiring, Lucchinelli became a television commentator for the Eurosport network's motorcycle race coverage. He retired with 6 Grand Prix victories. However, he briefly returned from retirement in 1998, entering the 1000 km Monza, and the opening race of the International Sports Racing Series (ISRS), driving for Centenari; he didn't start the 1000 km Monza,[5] and finished sixth overall (second in the CN class) in the opening round of the ISRS.[6]
Grand Prix career statistics
Points system from 1968 to 1987
| Position | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Points | 15 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Class | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | Points | Rank | Wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | 350cc | Yamaha | FRA - |
ESP - |
AUT - |
GER - |
NAT 7 |
IOM - |
NED - |
FIN - |
CZE - |
YUG - |
4 | 32nd | 0 | |||
| 1976 | 500cc | Suzuki | FRA 3 |
AUT 2 |
NAT - |
IOM - |
NED - |
BEL - |
SWE 15 |
FIN 5 |
CZE - |
GER 2 |
40 | 4th | 0 | |||
| 1977 | 500cc | Yamaha | VEN 7 |
AUT - |
GER 7 |
NAT - |
FRA - |
NED 6 |
BEL - |
SWE - |
FIN 2 |
CZE - |
GBR - |
25 | 11th | 0 | ||
| 1978 | 350cc | Yamaha | VEN - |
AUT - |
FRA - |
NAT 6 |
NED - |
SWE - |
FIN - |
GBR - |
GER - |
CZE - |
YUG - |
5 | 18th | 0 | ||
| 500cc | Suzuki | VEN - |
ESP - |
AUT 4 |
FRA - |
NAT 3 |
NED - |
BEL 7 |
SWE - |
FIN - |
GBR 4 |
GER NC |
30 | 9th | 0 | |||
| 1979 | 500cc | Suzuki | VEN - |
AUT 9 |
GER NC |
NAT NC |
ESP 10 |
YUG NC |
NED NC |
BEL DNS |
SWE 7 |
FIN 9 |
GBR 9 |
FRA NC |
11 | 18th | 0 | |
| 1980 | 500cc | Suzuki | NAT NC |
ESP 2 |
FRA 3 |
NED NC |
BEL 2 |
FIN NC |
GBR 3 |
GER 1 |
59 | 3rd | 1 | |||||
| 1981 | 500cc | Suzuki | AUT NC |
GER 3 |
NAT 5 |
FRA 1 |
YUG 2 |
NED 1 |
BEL 1 |
RSM 1 |
GBR 19 |
FIN 1 |
SWE 9 |
105 | 1st | 5 | ||
| 1982 | 500cc | Honda | ARG 5 |
AUT NC |
FRA - |
ESP 5 |
NAT 5 |
NED - |
BEL 6 |
YUG 8 |
GBR - |
SWE 5 |
RSM 6 |
GER 5 |
43 | 8th | 0 | |
| 1983 | 500cc | Honda | RSA 9 |
FRA 2 |
NAT 10 |
GER 3 |
ESP NC |
AUT 7 |
YUG 9 |
NED NC |
BEL 7 |
GBR NC |
SWE 6 |
RSM 4 |
48 | 7th | 0 | |
| 1984 | 500cc | Cagiva | RSA NC |
NAT NC |
ESP NC |
AUT NC |
GER - |
FRA - |
YUG - |
NED NC |
BEL - |
GBR - |
SWE - |
RSM - |
0 | - | 0 | |
| 1985 | 500cc | Cagiva | RSA - |
ESP - |
GER - |
NAT - |
AUT - |
YUG NC |
NED NC |
BEL NC |
FRA - |
GBR - |
SWE - |
RSM NC |
0 | - | 0 | |
| 1986 | 500cc | Cagiva | ESP - |
NAT NC |
GER - |
AUT - |
YUG - |
NED - |
BEL - |
FRA - |
GBR - |
SWE - |
RSM - |
0 | - | 0 |
References
- ↑ Marco Lucchinelli career statistics at MotoGP.com
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Marco Lucchinelli career World Superbike statistics at worldsbk.com
- ↑ Lucchinelli, 5 anni per la " coca " : la cella mi ha aiutato
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
| Preceded by | 500cc Motorcycle World Champion 1981 |
Succeeded by Franco Uncini |
