Italy's Giacomo Agostini wins the 1976 500cc Class German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring Circuit in Nurburg, Germany. The race would be his 122nd and final Grand Prix win.
Giacomo Agostini is considered by many to be perhaps the greatest Grand Prix rider of all time. In a career that spanned seventeen years, the peerless Agostini won fifteen World Champion Grand Prix titles (eight in 500cc Class and seven in 350cc Class), twelve Isle of Man TT crowns and took the checkered flag in a jaw-dropping 122 Grand Prix races. Along the way he became motorcycling's first rock star.
Agostini made his American racing debut in the Daytona 200 in March of 1974. That year the race was jam-packed with bevy of talent, including Kenny Roberts and Barry Sheene. Agostini jumped out to an early lead, but then had to battle Sheene, Roberts and Gary Nixon. For half the race, the quartet staged some of the most exciting laps ever turned in the 200. Eventually, the other three riders fell by the wayside due to bike problems or crashes and Agostini rode to victory in his first Daytona. Winning the 200 not only added immensely to Giacomo’s popularity in America (17th most popular baby name in '74), but it also helped solidify the Daytona 200’s standing as a world-class motorcycle race.
Did you know, Nurburgring was completed in spring of 1927, and the first motorcycle race took place on June 18, 1927. The race was won by Germany's Toni Ulmen on an English-built 350cc Velocette.
Today in motorcycle history proudly supports the National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD). www.nabd.org.uk
