Giovanni Ziggiotto

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Giovanni Ziggiotto (wrongly also Zigiotto ; born July 22, 1954 in Salussola , Italy , † June 29, 1977 in Rijeka , Yugoslavia ) was an Italian motorcycle racer .

Career

Giovanni Ziggiotto came from Salussola in Piedmont and lived in Ivrea where he ran a motorcycle workshop. In 1972 he started motorcycling , in 1975 and 1976 he won the Italian 50 cc junior championship and in 1976 also the national 50 cc mountain championship .

In 1977 Ziggiotto competed in the motorcycle world championship for the first time . He started on a Morbidelli used by the Mainini brothers in the 125 cc class and finished fourth in the first two races in Germany and Spain . He finished sixth in France . Since his team did not take part in the following Grand Prix of Yugoslavia in Opatija and Ziggiotto wanted to switch to the larger classes in the next season , the Italian decided to accept an offer from the Swiss elite team and in the 250 cm³ class on a Harley -Davidson to compete

Deadly accident

Even before the Grand Prix was held, the FIM had asked the organizer to increase the safety standards of the track in order to be able to host more World Cups in the future.

On Saturday, June 18, 1977, during training in the quarter liter class, a piston jammed on Giovanni Ziggiotto's Harley-Davidson , which led to a fall. The following Swede Per-Edvard Carlsson could no longer evade and rolled over him. The Italian was seriously injured in a hospital in Rijeka , where he died eleven days later, on June 29, at the age of 22.

On this race weekend, Ziggiotto and Ulrich Graf from Switzerland also had a fatal accident, and there were a total of 19 injured. Because of these events, the Yugoslavian Grand Prix was held in the Grobnik Automotodrom in nearby Rijeka from the following season .

The Mainini brothers, for whom the Italian actually competed, heard about Ziggiotto's accident from the newspaper and believed, since they had not known about the offer from the Elit team, that it had to be a mistake.

Statistics in the motorcycle world championship

season class motorcycle run Podiums Points Result
1977 125 cc Morbidelli 3 - 21st 12.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ziggiotto, Giovanni
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian motorcycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Salussola
DATE OF DEATH June 29, 1977
Place of death Rijeka