Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the premier championship of motorcycle road racing, which has been divided into three classes since the 1990 season: 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP. Classes that have been discontinued include 350cc and 50cc/80cc. The Grand Prix Road-Racing World Championship was established in 1949 by the sport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), and is the oldest motorsport World Championship.
There were four classes when the championship started in 1949; 500cc, 350cc, 250cc and 125cc. The 50cc class was introduced in the 1962 season. Due to escalating costs that resulted in a number of manufacturers leaving the championship, the FIM limited the 50cc bikes to a single cylinder, the 125cc and 250cc bikes were limited to two cylinders and the 350cc and 500cc bikes were limited to four cylinders. The 350cc class was discontinued in 1982; two years later the 50cc class was replaced with an 80cc class, which was discontinued in 1989. In 2002, 990cc bikes replaced the 500c bikes and the class was renamed as MotoGP. 660cc bikes replaced the 250cc bikes in the 2010 season, with the class re-branded as Moto2.
Giacomo Agostini, with 15 victories, has won the most world championships. Ángel Nieto is second with 13 world championships and Valentino Rossi, Mike Hailwood and Carlo Ubbiali are third with 9 world championships. Agostini holds the record for the most victories in the 500cc/MotoGP and 350cc classes with eight and seven world championships respectively. Phil Read and Max Biaggi have won the most 250cc/Moto2 championships, with four victories each. Nieto won the most championships in the 125cc and 50cc/80cc classes with eight and six victories respectively.
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, grand, motorcycle, racing, world and/or champions:
“Shea—they call him Scholar Jack—
Went down the list of the dead.
Officers, seamen, gunners, marines,
The crews of the gig and yawl,
The bearded man and the lad in his teens,
Carpenters, coal-passers—all.”
—Joseph I. C. Clarke (1846–1925)
“Modern tourist guides have helped raised tourist expectations. And they have provided the natives—from Kaiser Wilhelm down to the villagers of Chichacestenango—with a detailed and itemized list of what is expected of them and when. These are the up-to- date scripts for actors on the tourists’ stage.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“Everything in Italy that is particularly elegant and grand ... borders upon insanity and absurdity—or at least is reminiscent of childhood.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“Today, only a fool would offer herself as the singular role model for the Good Mother. Most of us know not to tempt the fates. The moment I felt sure I had everything under control would invariably be the moment right before the principal called to report that one of my sons had just driven somebody’s motorcycle through the high school gymnasium.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“Upscale people are fixated with food simply because they are now able to eat so much of it without getting fat, and the reason they don’t get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goat’s cheese ... get up at dawn to run, break for a mid-morning aerobics class, and watch the evening news while racing on a stationary bicycle.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“The world can doubtless never be well known by theory: practice is absolutely necessary; but surely it is of great use to a young man, before he sets out for that country, full of mazes, windings, and turnings, to have at least a general map of it, made by some experienced traveller.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Did all the lets and bars appear
To every just or larger end,
Whence should come the trust and cheer?
Youth must its ignorant impulse lend—
Age finds place in the rear.
All wars are boyish, and are fought by boys,
The champions and enthusiasts of the state:”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)