Agostini back on track for 80th TT at Assen

The legendary Assen circuit will host the 80th edition of the famous TT in round six of the 2010 World Championship on June 26th, and to celebrate the occasion the Yamaha Classic Racing Team have enlisted the help of Giacomo Agostini, the 15 times World Champion, who will ride his celebrated 1975 YZR500 OW23 machine at the Dutch track.

Agostini will complete some laps on the original bike he rode when taking his last ever World title victory in 1975, the same machine he won the Assen race on that year. The bike is being specially flown in from Japan by Yamaha in what will surely be an emotional reunion between rider and bike 35 years later.

Agostini, who won 14 times at Assen across both the 350cc and 500cc classes, said: “I remember Monza, where I won my first title, and Daytona where I won for the first time with Yamaha. There is the Isle of Man which is a very difficult circuit, and of course Assen which is a fantastic track and safer than the Isle of Man!”

Agostini added: “I think the desire to race came from God! My father never had any motorcycles and didn’t work in that area. When I was five or six years old I said I wanted to race motorbikes, so I think it was there when I was born.”

At Assen the Yamaha Classic Racing Team will also be displaying a number of historical bikes which tasted success between 1964 and 1985.