Agostini - MV Agusta
MV-AGUSTA - WPR
MV-AGUSTA-F3
MV-AGUSTA

Race History

MV Agusta racing history

MV AGUSTA 350cc_1970 - © Jarmo HäyrynenMV Agusta was founded on 12 February 1945 near Milan in Cascina Costa, Italy. The company began as an offshoot of the Agusta aviation company founded by Count Giovanni Agusta in 1923. The Count died in 1927, leaving the company in the hands of his wife and sons, Domenico, Vincenzo, Mario and Corrado. Count Vincenzo Agusta together with his brother Domenico formed MV Agusta at the end of the Second World War as a means to save the jobs of employees of the Agusta firm and also to fill the post-war need for cheap, efficient transportation. The initials MV stood for Meccanica (Mechanics) and Verghera, the city in Italy where the first MV Agusta were made. Count Domenico Agusta died in 1971; MV Agusta won their last Grand Prix in 1976 and in 1980 stopped racing. Between 1948 and 1976 MV Agusta motorcycles had won over 3000 races and 63 World Championships.

The legendary brand of MV Agusta is synonymous with motorcycle racing and it all started in 1948 when Franco Bertoni won the Italian Grand Prix but motorcycle rcing history was made when, in 1956, MV Agusta won the 125cc, 250cc and 500cc classes in 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1960. MV Agusta won 270 Grand Prix motorcycle races with famous riders including, among others, Giacomo Agostini, Mike Hailwood, Phil Read and John Surtees.

MV Agusta won races in the Tourist Trophy on the Isle of Man TT circuit. Giacomo Agostini made his Tourist Trophy debut in 1965 in the Junior class on an MV Agusta 350cc three-cylinder and finish third. He participated in 16 TT races, all on MV Agusta, he won the race 10 times, retired 3 times and was on the podium in the other races. He completed a Senior/Junior double in 1968, 1969, 1970 and 1972. Mike Hailwood won the Tourist Trophy on a MV Agusta 4 times, 3 in the ‘Senior TT’. John Surtees also rode an MV Agusta in 1956 to win the ‘Senior TT’. In 1958, 1959 and 1960 Surtees won the Junior and Senior. MV Agusta won the Tourist Trophy 34 times. More recently, in 2008, MV Agusta competed in the Italian Superbike Championship with Luca Scassa winning the Italian Superbike Championship on a MV Agusta factory-backed machine from the racing department in Schiranna, Varese Italy.

Now, in 2012, World Performance Racing are preparing to bring the MV Agusta F3 675 back to the tracks working in close collaboration with MV Agusta.