Johnny
Cecotto

Johnny Cecotto was born in Caracas in 1956 to Italian immigrant parents. His father had also been a motorcycle racer. Cecotto won the Venezuelan road racing national title in 1973 and 1974, and in 1975, aged 19, he became 350cc world champion. He was the youngest motorcycle world champion up to that point, until Loris Capirossi won the 125cc title at 17 in 1990. He also won the Daytona 200 in 1976 and the Imola 200 several times, and in 1978 he took the Formula 750 world championship. He ended his motorcycle career after the 1980 season, at the age of 24.

His path in car racing began in 1980 in Formula Two with Minardi. In 1982, driving for March-BMW, he won three races and finished the season level on points with team-mate Corrado Fabi, but lost out on the tie-break and took second place.

In Formula One, Cecotto drove for Theodore in 1983. He was entered in 13 races, started nine and finished 19th in the world championship. In only his second race, at Long Beach, he finished sixth. It remained the best result by a Venezuelan driver until Pastor Maldonado won the Spanish Grand Prix in 2012. In 1984 he moved to Toleman, where Ayrton Senna was his team-mate. That year he again started nine of his ten entries. He suffered a serious crash in qualifying for the British Grand Prix, which effectively ended his Formula One career. In total he made 18 starts.

After recovering, he returned to competition and raced touring cars. In 1985 he finished second in the Spa 24 Hours for the Schnitzer BMW team. In 1986 he drove for Volvo and won the Guia Race in Macau. He took the Italian Touring Car Championship in 1989. From 1988 to 1992 he competed in the DTM, finishing runner-up in 1990. He won the Spa 24 Hours in 1990 and the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 1992. For BMW he won the Super Tourenwagen Cup in 1994 and 1998, and in 2001 and 2002 he won the V8Star series in an Opel Omega. His sons Johnny Cecotto Jr. and Jonathan Cecotto have also become racing drivers.

Source: Wikipedia, “Johnny Cecotto”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.