Almost 60 years after it last competed on the World Championship stage, Lambretta will this year make a return to racing in the 125cc category as Lambretta Reparto Corse.

The racing department will be run from the workshops of Engines Engineering in Bologna, Italy, with Nicola Casadei as Sporting Director, whilst Giancarlo Cecchini will develop the rotary valve engine. Marco Ravaioli has been confirmed as the first of two riders, with the second name due to be announced shortly.

“It’s is a wonderful day for Lambretta and one we’ve been working towards for nearly two years. We’re delighted to be back on the racetrack and to compete in such an exciting and expanding sport. It’ll be fun to compete with the big boys and see what happens,” said the brand’s Marketing Director John Scully.

“We’ve been talking to Engines Engineering for quite a long time about this and it’s pretty much a joint project at the moment, which we own. We see it as potentially a way for our technical director and all our technical people to develop innovations for our on-road products.”

“Lambretta has an Italian heritage and we’re very keen to maintain that at the centre of everything that we do. We want authenticity and that’s the reason we started talking to Engines Engineering in terms of MotoGP. They have a great reputation and are a great engineering company, and very importantly for us they are Italian.”

This move comes in the year when the first all new range of Lambretta Scooters since 1970 are set to go into production.

Lambretta has a proud racing heritage and performance has always been at the heart of the brand. The original Lambretta B 125cc Sport scooter was a common sight at early Italian national motorcycle competitions, and between 1950 and 1953 the innovative v-twin Lambretta 250 GP Racer competed in the early Moto GP World Championship

So they won't be using these then?

Oh no it didn't

Quote: between 1950 and 1953 the innovative v-twin Lambretta 250 GP Racer competed in the early Moto GP World Championship