Giacomo Agostini quit road racing due to the rising death toll. But the biking legend has fond memories of it, he tells DECLAN QUIGLEY
FOR A MAN who did more than any other to consign the great motorcycle road racing circuits of the world to the margins of the sport, Giacomo Agostini might be expected to be, at best, a figure of ambivalence in Ireland.
However, while his refusal to ride the Isle of Man TT and the Ulster Grand Prix at Dundrod in the early 1970s ultimately led to their removal from the world championship calendar, only the most entrenched local road racing afficionado could dismiss a man with 12 TT wins on the island and seven victories at Dundrod to his name.
Like his contemporary Jackie Stewart in car racing, it took a rider of Agostini’s stature to win almost at will on the road before crying “enough” when the death toll rose to intolerable levels.
By turning his back on road racing, Agostini created a legacy that goes beyond his record of 122 Grand Prix wins and 15 world titles. He can take some credit for the shape of modern MotoGP racing, light years removed from the barnstorming days of the 1960s when “Ago” was in his pomp, racing wheel to wheel between Antrim hedges.
Indeed, rather than being called to account for his stance on road racing, the Italian is a regular guest at the Ulster GP where he is invariably received with warmth and reverence by the huge crowds that still flock to local road racing events.
He’ll be back in Ireland again this weekend for the Irish Motorbike and Scooter Show in the RDS and the crowds will, no doubt, be eager to spend some time with the greatest legend the sport has produced and one whose legacy is more than just a record number of wins and titles.
“If you could win in Belfast or the Isle of Man the victory was more important, I think, because you must be a very good rider to win there,” says the 69-year-old, reflecting this week.
“But after many years I saw many people, many friends die so I think we arrived at the moment to say, ‘stop, we must do something for safety’.
“From that time the circuits changed a lot and now I think we have very safe circuits and people are happier and the publicity from the riders is not like before. Today people watch the races, they see the crashes but people don’t die.”
Now the almost impossibly suave and sophisticated Brescia native divides his time between renovating his home and making appearances at bike events, including the Isle of Man, the Ulster GP and the Dutch TT.
He regularly swings his leg over classic Yamahas or his fabled six-cylinder 500cc MV Agusta to relive the sensations that made him one of the world’s most famous and glamorous sportsmen in the 1960s and 1970s.
His memories of Ireland are, he says, happy ones but when pressed for details, the old competitive spark ignites as he thinks back to 1967.
“It was fantastic because Ulster Grand Prix was a very difficult circuit. To win there was very important because it was not easy and I have very nice souvenirs from it.
“I remember one race, I don’t know which year, but I made a good time in practice and I wanted to win but at the start I burnt my clutch so I had to stop for two laps.
“Fortunately I won a lot (in my career), and maybe it’s easier to remember when we didn’t win,” he adds with a chuckle.
After hanging up his helmet, Agostini ran race teams for years so it is no surprise that he is still enthralled with modern racing rather than simply nostalgia.
“It’s different now, but with development every year the bikes are better but then everything is better; the engine, the frame, the tyres. The electronics have improved a lot but I think when you go 100 per cent (as a rider) it’s always difficult whether it’s now or in my time.
“The big difference now is the safety of the circuits, the leathers, the helmets, etc, and I think this is important because in our time we didn’t have a chance to crash because if we did it was very bad. Today at the Grand Prix we see many people crash, they stand up and go again and I think it’s good for our sport if you don’t have very bad accidents.”
For all that MotoGP is safer now, the relentless pursuit of lower laptimes has come at a cost and Agostini is no fan of the latest trend towards F1-style electronics which, he believes, have removed some of the riding challenge.
“Personally I don’t like the electronics because they take something from the rider. Before the rider did everything and now everybody’s very close because you have help from the electronic parts.”
Unsurprisingly Valentino Rossi is the first name to Agostini’s lips when the talk turns to the latest crop of biking heroes. However, the old master, can see a posse of young pretenders gunning for his fellow countryman’s Campionissimo status.
“Of course Valentino Rossi is a fantastic rider but now there are young riders coming like Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Stoner, Simoncelli, Dovizioso. There are four or five riders coming.”
Rossi’s switch to Ducati looks unlikely to bear fruit in the short term, if pre-season test times are an accurate gauge, and with his 2010 team mate Jorge Lorenzo – the reigning title holder – could it be time for Rossi to bring his bike career to a close?
“This is not my decision. It depends on his feeling, his condition and depending on whether he likes it or not.
“It depends what he thinks and what he does this year and what he does next year. I think it depends especially on the result. If you have the results then you’re happy to race, if you don’t have the results then you’re maybe not happy to race.”
When retirement does come for Rossi he’ll do well to enjoy himself as much as his hero who continues to make the most of a very active retirement.
“Some people just retire and don’t want to do anything again with motorbikes but I love motorcycling and I love the work. It was my sport, my profession for many years, so when I have the opportunity to do things with bikes I really like it.”
