Thomas Lüthi

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Thomas Lüthi
No free image
Nationality	Swiss
Date of birth	September 16, 1986 (1986-09-16) (age 21)[1]
Place of birth	Oberdiessbach, Switzerland
Website	thomasluethi.ch
250cc World Championship Record
Current team	Emmi - Caffè Latte
Bike number	12
World Championships	125cc - 2005
Race starts	20
Race Wins	0
Podium finishes	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
2007 Championship position	8th (133pts)

Career Statistics 250cc World Championship Active years 2007-Present Manufacturers Aprilia Championships 0 Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. Laps Points 20 0 1 0 0 0 125cc World championship Active years 2002-2006 Manufacturers Honda Championships 1. 2005 Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. Laps Points 67 5 10 5 1 0

Thomas Lüthi (born 6 September 1986 in Oberdiessbach, Kanton Bern, Switzerland) is a professional motorcycle road racer currently competing in the 250cc Grand Prix World Championship for the Czech Emmi - Caffè Latte Aprilia run by Swiss Daniel Epp.

Contents 1 Early life 2 125cc 3 250cc 4 Career Statistics 5 Grand Prix career statistics [2] 5.1 By season 5.2 Races by year 6 References 7 External links 8 External links

[edit] Early life

Growing up amongst the lime trees in Emmental, Thomas Luthi’s name first appeared in the motorcycle world as a 9 year old, starting his career on pocket bike. he won a couple of championships in the pocket bikes in 1999 and 2000.

He also competed in the 125cc German Championship in 2002 and finished 3rd overall, same year, he participated in the 125cc European championship but it was a better one that he finished runner-up.

[edit] 125cc

Luthi made his first 125cc World Championship appearance at the 2002 German GP which he finished in 26th place. Later he was given a regular ride for the rest of the season on a Honda.

Thomas Luthi is the ideal weight for a 125cc bike, which means that he does not have to ride with lead weights on the motorcycle in order to compete with the minimum all-up weight of the motorcycle at 136 Kilos.

At 2003, Luthi was invited by Daniel Epp to ride for his team, known as the "Elit Grand Prix Team" and Epp became his manager. He scored his first podium at Catalunya with a second place. 2004 was a year to forget for him. He retired four races in a row, got some injuries that took him out of 4 races and he score only 14 points.

Andy Ibbott of California Superbike School fame started training Thomas during the 2005 season. He scored his first 125 cc class Grand Prix win in 2005 at Le Mans followed by three more victories that season, including a heroic one at his team's home race at Brno, Czech Republic. On November 6, 2005, Lüthi secured his first world championship in the 125 cc class, the sixth-youngest champion ever at Valencia, Luthi won the MotoGP world championship title in the 125cc Class by 5 points ahead of rival Mika Kallio despite he only use a standard Honda RS125R kit. He thereby became the sixth-youngest world champion of all time. As a great achievement, he was selected to be Swiss sportsman of the year 2005 and by the choice of the Swiss people, also won the annual "Swiss Award" in the category of sport.

After winning the 2005 125cc World Championship. There were rumours surrounding him that he may move to 250cc class in 2006. But he stayed in the 125cc class. He was partnered by Sandro Cortese of Germany and the team name was changed to "Elit - Caffè Latte". He have a disappointing season, seeing scoring his only win and only podium of the season at the 2006 French Grand Prix, had some injuries, and later he lost his title to Álvaro Bautista.

[edit] 250cc

After leaving a disappointing 2006. Luthi had moved on by switching to 250cc. This change was huge for him. The team switch their name to "Emmi - Caffè Latte", and defected to Aprilia. Despite these changes. Nothing had really change for him when it comes to pace, he also enjoyed adjusting on his official factory Aprilia RSA 250, this was a shock that he was never factory supported in 125cc by Honda but he was factory supported in 250cc by Aprilia. He scored high points regularly and have only two retirements. Despite he finishes always in the top 10 with big championship points, he never manage to get to the podium, although he had some attempts to get on the podium.

For 2008, he will be continuing with the Aprilia RSA 250, his bid is to get to the podium, especially race wins. He is partnered by Lukáš Pešek who will use an Aprilia LE, and with a different banner, known as the Auto Kelly - CP also operated by Daniel Epp. But both Luthi and Pesek with work as a team. His podium attempts were a failure until at the 2008 Italian GP where he finally finished at the podium with a valuable 3rd place.

[edit] Career Statistics

[edit] Grand Prix career statistics ^[2]

[edit] By season

Season	Class	Motorcycle	Type	Races	Wins	Podiums	Poles	FLaps	Pts	Plcd
2002	125cc	Honda	Honda RS125R	7	0	0	0	0	7	27th
2003	125cc	Honda	Honda RS125R	15	0	1	0	0	68	15th
2004	125cc	Honda	Honda RS125R	13	0	0	0	0	14	25th
2005	125cc	Honda	Honda RS125R	16	4	8	5	1	242	1st
2006	125cc	Honda	Honda RS125R	16	1	1	0	0	113	8th
2007	250cc	Aprilia	Aprilia RSA 250	17	0	0	0	0	133	8th
2008	250cc	Aprilia	Aprilia RSA 250	6	0	1	0	0	35	* 11th
Total				90	5	11	4	1	612

• * In Progress

[edit] Races by year

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

Yr	Class	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Final Pos	Pts
2002	125cc	Honda	JPN	SAF	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GBR	GER 26	CZE 19	POR 9	BRA 24	PAC	MAL 21	AUS Ret	VAL 24		27th	7
2003	125cc	Honda	JPN 9	SAF 17	SPA 12	FRA 9	ITA 15	CAT 2	NED 7	GBR 22	GER Ret	CZE Ret	POR Ret	BRA 15	PAC 10	MAL 4	AUS 16	VAL DNS		15th	68
2004	125cc	Honda	SAF Ret	SPA Ret	FRA Ret	ITA Ret	CAT INJ	NED	BRA	GER 18	GBR 18	CZE 18	POR 16	JPN 12	QAT 13	MAL 11	AUS 19	VAL 14		25th	14
2005	125cc	Honda	SPA Ret	POR 3	CHN 4	FRA 1	ITA 2	CAT 7	NED 10	GBR 6	GER 2	CZE 1	JPN 2	MAL 1	QAT 6	AUS 1	TUR 5	VAL 9		1st	242
2006	125cc	Honda	SPA Ret	QAT 8	TUR 12	CHN Ret	FRA 1	ITA 9	CAT 6	NED 8	GBR 8	GER 6	CZE 5	MAL 13	AUS 4	JPN Ret	POR Ret	VAL 10		8th	113
2007	250cc	Aprilia	QAT 4	SPA Ret	TUR 5	CHN 8	FRA Ret	ITA 5	CAT 4	GBR Ret	NED Ret	GER 9	CZE 7	SMR 4	POR 4	JPN 10	AUS 5	MAL 5	VAL 9	8th	133
2008	250cc	Aprilia	QAT 15	SPA Ret	POR 4	CHN Ret	FRA 11	ITA 3	CAT -	GBR -	NED -	GER -	CZE -	SMR -	IND -	JPN -	AUS -	MAL -	VAL -	*11th	35

• * Season In Progress

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• (German) Homepage von Thomas Lüthi
• (German) Schweizer Fanpage
• (German) Die Homepage des deutschen Fanclubs
• (German) Tom Lüthi ist der «Star des Jahres» von www.startalk.ch
• (German) Radio Basilisk-Interview nach dem 1. Sieg in Le Mans (wma, schweizerdeutsch)

Awards
Preceded by Roger Federer	Swiss Sportsman of the Year 2005	Succeeded by Roger Federer
Sporting positions
Preceded by Andrea Dovizioso	125cc Motorcycle World Champion 2005	Succeeded by Álvaro Bautista

[edit] External links

• thomasluethi.ch Official website

v • d • e 125 cc Motorcycle World Champions     1949 - N. Pagani 1950 - B. Ruffo 1951 - C. Ubbiali 1952 - C. Sandford 1953 - W. Haas 1954 - R. Hollaus 1955 - C. Ubbiali 1956 - C. Ubbiali 1957 - T. Provini 1958 - C. Ubbiali 1959 - C. Ubbiali 1960 - C. Ubbiali 1961 - T. Phillis 1962 - L. Taveri 1963 - H. Anderson 1964 - L. Taveri 1965 - H. Anderson 1966 - L. Taveri 1967 - B. Ivy 1968 - P. Read 1969 - D. Simmonds 1970 - D. Braun 1971 - Á. Nieto 1972 - Á. Nieto 1973 - K. Andersson 1974 - K. Andersson 1975 - P. Pileri 1976 - P. Bianchi 1977 - P. Bianchi 1978 - E. Lazzarini 1979 - Á. Nieto 1980 - P. Bianchi 1981 - Á. Nieto 1982 - Á. Nieto 1983 - Á. Nieto 1984 - Á. Nieto 1985 - F. Gresini 1986 - L. Cadalora 1987 - F. Gresini 1988 - J. Martínez 1989 - À. Crivillé 1990 - L. Capirossi 1991 - L. Capirossi 1992 - A. Gramigni 1993 - D. Raudies 1994 - K. Sakata 1995 - H. Aoki 1996 - H. Aoki 1997 - V. Rossi 1998 - K. Sakata 1999 - E. Alzamora 2000 - R. Locatelli 2001 - M. Poggiali 2002 - A. Vincent 2003 - D. Pedrosa 2004 - A. Dovizioso 2005 - T. Lüthi 2006 - Á. Bautista 2007 - G. Talmácsi