Marco Lucchinelli

Marco Lucchinelli
Marco Lucchinelli in Assen became the 1981 500cc world champion
Nationality	Italian
Born	(1954-06-26) June 26, 1954 Bolano, Italy
Motorcycle racing career statistics Grand Prix motorcycle racing Active years 1975 - 1986 First race 1975 350cc Nations Grand Prix Last race 1986 500cc Nations Grand Prix First win 1980 500cc German Grand Prix Last win 1981 500cc Finnish Grand Prix Team(s) Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Cagiva Championships 500cc - 1981 Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 75 6 19 9 9

Marco Lucchinelli (born 26 June 1954) is an Italian former professional motorcycle racer and television sports presenter. He competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing between 1975 and 1986. He was 1981 FIM Road Racing World Champion as a member of the Gallina-Suzuki racing team. In 2017, Lucchinelli was inducted into the MotoGP Legends Hall of Fame by FIM.

Career

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 two 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 (n.11) ahead of Kenny Roberts at the 1978 Nations GP at the Mugello circuit

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. 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. In 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.

On 6 December 1991, he was arrested for drug possession. He spent some time in jail, during which he successfully fought against drug addiction. 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, and finished sixth overall (second in the CN class) in the opening round of the ISRS.

Career statistics

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos.	Pts
1975	350cc	Yamaha	FRA	SPA	AUT	GER	NAT 7	IOM	NED	FIN	CZE	YUG			32nd	4
1976	350cc	Yamaha	FRA Ret	AUT	NAT	YUG	IOM	NED	FIN	CZE	GER	SPA			NC	0
	500cc	Suzuki	FRA 3	AUT 2	NAT DNS	IOM	NED	BEL	SWE 15	FIN 5	CZE Ret	GER 2			4th	40
1977	500cc	Suzuki	VEN 7	AUT DNS	GER 7	NAT Ret	FRA Ret	NED 6	BEL Ret	SWE Ret	FIN 2	CZE Ret	GBR		11th	25
1978	350cc	Yamaha	VEN	AUT	FRA	NAT 6	NED	SWE							18th	5
		Harley-Davidson							FIN Ret	GBR	GER	CZE	YUG
	500cc	Suzuki	VEN	SPA Ret	AUT 4	FRA Ret	NAT 3	NED Ret	BEL 7	SWE Ret	FIN Ret	GBR 4	GER Ret		9th	30
1979	500cc	Suzuki	VEN	AUT 9	GER Ret	NAT Ret	SPA 10	YUG Ret	NED Ret	BEL DNS	SWE 7	FIN 9	GBR 9	FRA Ret	18th	11
1980	500cc	Suzuki	NAT Ret	SPA 2	FRA 3	NED Ret	BEL 2	FIN Ret	GBR 3	GER 1					3rd	59
1981	500cc	Suzuki	AUT Ret	GER 3	NAT 5	FRA 1	YUG 2	NED 1	BEL 1	RSM 1	GBR 19	FIN 1	SWE 9		1st	105
1982	500cc	Honda	ARG 5	AUT Ret	FRA DNS	SPA 5	NAT 5	NED Ret	BEL 6	YUG 8	GBR 17	SWE 5	RSM 6	GER 5	8th	43
1983	500cc	Honda	RSA 9	FRA 2	NAT 10	GER 3	SPA Ret	AUT 7	YUG 9	NED Ret	BEL 7	GBR Ret	SWE 6	RSM 4	7th	48
1984	500cc	Cagiva	RSA Ret	NAT Ret	SPA Ret	AUT Ret	GER	FRA DNS	YUG	NED Ret	BEL	GBR	SWE	RSM	NC	0
1985	500cc	Cagiva	RSA	SPA	GER	NAT	AUT	YUG 15	NED Ret	BEL Ret	FRA	GBR	SWE	RSM Ret	NC	0
1986	500cc	Cagiva	SPA	NAT Ret	GER	AUT	YUG	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR	SWE	RSM		NC	0

Superbike World Championship

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Make	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Pos.	Pts
		R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2
1988	Ducati	GBR 2	GBR 1	HUN 9	HUN Ret	GER 6	GER 11	AUT 1	AUT Ret	JPN 12	JPN Ret	FRA 10	FRA C	POR 3	POR 4	AUS	AUS	NZL	NZL					5th	63
1989	Ducati	GBR	GBR	HUN	HUN	CAN	CAN	USA	USA	AUT	AUT	FRA	FRA	JPN DNS	JPN DNS	GER Ret	GER 10	ITA 9	ITA DNS	AUS	AUS	NZL	NZL	42nd	13

External links

• Lucchinelli article on the Ducati web page