MULTI-COLOURED MARVEL!

Even by the standards of Italy’s array of little-known marques that have contested Grand Prix racing down the years, Sanvenero’s meteoric rise to success exactly 40 years ago in 1981, and his equally sudden burnout into bankruptcy the following year, takes some beating…

For in that short space of time, the company, based on Italy’s Adriatic coast in Pesaro – one of the hotbeds of Italian motorcycling down the ages as the home of Benelli, Morbidelli, MBA, RTM, Ringhini, TM and others – succeeded in registering three GP victories: one of them in the prestigious 500cc class, another a 125cc 1-2 team finish, and placing two riders in the top five of the end-of-season World Championship points table. Not so shabby!

The team’s founder was construction magnate Emilio Sanvenero, who hailed from Ceparana – the same village outside La Spezia where 1981 500cc world champion Marco Lucchinelli grew up. His company, Sanvenero Costruzioni, was based further south in Follonica, on Italy’s west coast, hence this name on his bikes’ tank badge. Though scarcely a diehard motorcycle fan, Sanvenero was recruited as the main sponsor for Pier Paolo Bianchi’s 1980 world-title winning 125cc factory MBA. But having his name on the fairing wasn't enough for Emilio; he wanted to emulate MBA’s founder, Giancarlo Morbidelli, by winning races with a bike of his own making, and with his name all over it.

TEAM BUILDING

So, on September 1, 1980 – even before Bianchi had clinched his third world title – this wealthy sponsor formed his own no-expenses -spared team, taking with him to do so many of the MBA factory’s personnel, led by engine expert Giancarlo Cecchini – a former Benelli race mechanic who’d helped Aussie Kel Carruthers in winning the 1969 250cc world title before switching to two-strokes with some success. Bianchi and Paolo Pileri had both won world championships on Cecchinituned MBAs, and years later he was Andrea Dovizioso’s race engineer in his 2004 125cc world title-winning year with Honda.

Since his team all lived there, Pesaro was a natural choice for the spacious new factory Sanvenero built to house his race operation, complete with a well-equipped workshop, drawing office and a then rare engine dyno – a marked contrast to the cramped and often primitive conditions in which so many Italian teams operated.

Emilio’s first choice for team rider was Angel Nieto, but he couldn’t be lured away from Minarelli, so next up was Bianchi – but despite crumbling finances which saw them shut down their race operation