Marco Lucchinelli

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 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]

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
1976	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
	350cc	Harley-Davidson							FIN Ret	GBR	GER	CZE	YUG		18th	5
	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
Year	Make	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	Pos.	Pts
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

References

↑ Marco Lucchinelli career statistics at MotoGP.com
↑ "Luchinelli wheels to win". Anchorage Daily News. 6 April 1981. p. 4. Retrieved 22 December 2010.
↑ Marco Lucchinelli career World Superbike statistics at worldsbk.com Archived 2009-04-10 at the Wayback Machine.
↑ Lucchinelli, 5 anni per la " coca " : la cella mi ha aiutato
↑ "Monza 1000 Kilometres 1998 - Race results". Racing Sports Cars. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
↑ "International Sports Racing Series Paul Ricard 1998 - Race results". Racing Sports Cars. Retrieved 21 July 2013.

External links

Lucchinelli article on the Ducati web page

Preceded by Kenny Roberts	500cc Motorcycle World Champion 1981	Succeeded by Franco Uncini

500cc/MotoGP Motorcycle World Champions

1949 – L. Graham

1950 – U. Masetti
1951 – G. Duke
1952 – U. Masetti
1953 – G. Duke
1954 – G. Duke
1955 – G. Duke
1956 – J. Surtees
1957 – L. Liberati
1958 – J. Surtees
1959 – J. Surtees

1960 – J. Surtees
1961 – G. Hocking
1962 – M. Hailwood
1963 – M. Hailwood
1964 – M. Hailwood
1965 – M. Hailwood
1966 – G. Agostini
1967 – G. Agostini
1968 – G. Agostini
1969 – G. Agostini

1970 – G. Agostini
1971 – G. Agostini
1972 – G. Agostini
1973 – P. Read
1974 – P. Read
1975 – G. Agostini
1976 – B. Sheene
1977 – B. Sheene
1978 – K. Roberts
1979 – K. Roberts

1980 – K. Roberts
1981 – M. Lucchinelli
1982 – F. Uncini
1983 – F. Spencer
1984 – E. Lawson
1985 – F. Spencer
1986 – E. Lawson
1987 – W. Gardner
1988 – E. Lawson
1989 – E. Lawson

1990 – W. Rainey
1991 – W. Rainey
1992 – W. Rainey
1993 – K. Schwantz
1994 – M. Doohan
1995 – M. Doohan
1996 – M. Doohan
1997 – M. Doohan
1998 – M. Doohan
1999 – À. Crivillé

2000 – K. Roberts, Jr.
2001 – V. Rossi
2002 – V. Rossi
2003 – V. Rossi
2004 – V. Rossi
2005 – V. Rossi
2006 – N. Hayden
2007 – C. Stoner
2008 – V. Rossi
2009 – V. Rossi

2010 – J. Lorenzo
2011 – C. Stoner
2012 – J. Lorenzo
2013 – M. Márquez
2014 – M. Márquez
2015 – J. Lorenzo
2016 – M. Márquez

Suzuki MotoGP
2017 riders Andrea Iannone (29) Álex Rins (42)
Grand Prix motorcycle Suzuki GSX-RR
500 cc/MotoGP World Champions Barry Sheene (1976, 1977), Marco Lucchinelli (1981), Franco Uncini (1982), Kevin Schwantz (1993), Kenny Roberts, Jr. (2000)

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