Luigi Taveri - racing legend on two wheels (obituary)
03/03/2018
After Claude Haldi and Ruedi Eggenberger, Switzerland lost a third top-class figure in international motorsport last Thursday. The extremely likeable motorcycling legend Luigi Taveri died a few days later at the age of 88 after suffering a stroke on February 17, 2018. As his name suggests, Taveri had Italian roots. His father Giovanni, the son of a farming family, emigrated to Switzerland from Rovato, a town near Brescia, at the age of 17 without any means and settled in Horgen on Lake Zurich.
Luigi Taveri (September 19, 1929 - March 1, 2018) is and remains probably the most successful Swiss motorcycle racer of all time. Not only did he win three world championship titles (1962, 1964 and 1966), six runner-up titles and six third places in the final rankings, he also competed in world championship races as Hans Haldemann's co-driver in the sidecar, where he also scored a 6th place and world championship points.
He also won the Tourist Trophy on the Isle of Man three times (1962, 1964 and 1965). When you look at these successes, it becomes clear that he can no longer be beaten by any other motorcycle rider.
In 1947, he began competing in sidecar races as a passenger with his brother Hans. The Italo-Zurich native began his great solo career in Grand Prix racing in 1954 with a Moto Guzzi (250cc) and a Norton (500cc), scoring three points each time. From 1955 to 1966, Taveri raced in all classes between 50 and 350cc.
From 1962, the great liaison with Honda began, which brought the Swiss and the Japanese all the successes already mentioned. In 143 starts in the World Motorcycle Championship, Taveri achieved 30 victories, 89 podium finishes and 28 fastest race laps. When he announced his retirement from top-level sport in 1967, even the brand founder Soichiro Honda was unable to change his mind. Taveri remained Honda's brand ambassador for the rest of his life.
The riding skills of the short and wiry athlete Luigi Taveri (he weighed 58 kg and was 162 cm tall when he was active) could still be admired a few times in recent years on the open cycling track in Oerlikon.
When he started his legendary, "mordio" screaming five-cylinder four-stroke Honda, nothing else could be heard for several kilometers around.
Out of gratitude for having survived the dangerous active period without a major accident, he set off on the Way of St. James at the age of 77 and cycled 936 km in two weeks.
We offer our condolences to the Taveri family.
