There will be 5 italian riders at this year's TT races. They are: Giorgio Cantalupo, Umberto Rumiano, Giuseppe Baracchetti, and the newcomers Stefano Manici and Stefano Bonetti.

I think that the only year that more than 5 italian riders had raced the TT races was in the 1926 (Achille Varzi, Erminio Visioli, Pietro Ghersi, Luigi Arcangeli, Mario Ghersi, Miro Maffeis)!!

Good luck to them all especially the newcomers. I hope they enjoy the experiance.

Yes, it will be a great experience for them. And it will be first time since 1972 that an italian rider will race a Mv Agusta machine in the TT race - Rumiano in the Prod.1000cc.races.

I take the advantage for rectifying what I have written - last year with more than 5 italian riders at the TT races was 1960 (and not 1926). While last year with 5 italian riders at the TT races was 1967: 37 years ago, as the number of the miles of the TT course; I hope it is a good sign.

Marco this is the type of wonderful, positive news we all need. There is a contingent of French riders also, the TT is becoming more colourful and attractive by the minute.

Yes, Don! And it will become still more attractive when a not british (neither commonwealth) rider will be again able to win a solo TT race:-)!! I dream of a new Omobono Tenni! New challenge for the legendary TT races.

Roberto Rolfo decided not to come after all then

Don, there are some contradictions between my stats and yours. Well:

Are you sure that Ugo - Ugo, not Udo - Prini was on the island? Did he practice the course? This interests me much, so let me know, Don!. I have only Pietro Ghersi as Guzzi's rider in 1926.

Luigi Arcangeli was only a Bianchi's rider and not a Guzzi, according my stats.

Tazio Nuvolari - the greatest ever rider - was on the Island together with the Bianchi's team but he did NOT practice the course in any way on a racing machine because of his left hand's poor conditions. I think that this was said also on the italian magazine "Motociclismo", that sent a journalist on the island to follow the TT races since 1924. Larry, am I right??

About Pietro Ghersi's race, yes, he was formally second at the end of the race, beaten by the great irish rider Paddy Johnston on a Cotton machine. Ghersi had been first for the first six laps (the race was a 7 laps one) but during the last lap he had a plug change (I think the plug chnage happened on the roads and not at the pits, can you confirm?) and then a pit stop for refuelling the bike.

The Ghersi's affaire was really a stroke for the italian motorycling. But just the year after the TT organizers were received as guests for the 1927 "Circuito del Lario", the so called "Italian TT".

Yes Graham, Roberto Rolfo will not race the TT, this year. Do you want to know my opinion? He will not ever race the TT course, in my humble opinion. But he is a true TT fan.

Thanks for the reply, Don! Well, that italian web site you mentioned has simply quoted from the Ezio Pirazzini's book "Storia dei motomodiali - I giorni del coraggio", pag. 26 where it is written that "Nel 1926 le Case italiane organizzarono la prima spedizione in grande stile: ....la Guzzi con le 250 e 350 guidate da Prini e da Pietro Ghersi...". Can you confirm that the Guzzi had a 350cc. machine already in 1926?

Ugo Prini was in the Guzzi team since 1925. Incidentally, the Guzzi team in 1925 included the legendary Guido Mentasti, who won the first European Championship at Monza in september 1924 on a Guzzi 500cc. If he were not be killed 28 years old in 1925 during a race at Brescia, I'm sure his name would have been in the isle of Man TT history!